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46-583: After the formation of the first German state to be constituted along pluralist-democratic lines, the DDP took part as a member of varying coalitions in almost all Weimar Republic cabinets from 1919 to 1932. Before the Reichstag elections of 1930 , it united with the Volksnationale Reichsvereinigung , which was part of the national liberal Young German Order ( Jungdeutscher Orden ). From that point on

92-550: A centralized system and breaking up Prussia into multiple states. Otto Fischbeck , Conrad Haußmann , and Payer supported the continued existence of the Prussian state. The party was divided over changing the flag . Democrats in the north supported maintaining the imperial flag while those in the south supported changing it. The party's deputies voted 43 to 14 against the new flag. Bernhard Dernburg , Fischbeck, Georg Gothein , Koch-Weser, Naumann, Petersen, and Schiffer opposed changing

138-686: A minority government. The new government was confronted with the economic crisis caused by the Great Depression . Brüning disclosed to his associates in the German Labour Federation that his chief aim as chancellor would be to liberate the German economy from the burden of continuing to pay war reparations and foreign debt. This would require an unpopular policy of tight credit and a rollback of all wage and salary increases (an internal devaluation ). The Reichstag rejected Brüning's measures within

184-879: A month, who then used emergency powers to pass it anyway. The Reichstag rejected the emergency decree with 256 votes from the Social Democrats, the Communists, the German National People's Party and the Nazis. Brüning asked Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag, who promptly did so on 18 July 1930. New elections were held on 14 September 1930. In 1930, Germany was formally a multi-party parliamentary democracy , led by President Paul von Hindenburg (1925–1934). However, beginning in March 1930, Hindenburg only appointed governments without

230-403: A parliamentary majority which systematically governed by emergency decrees , circumventing the democratically elected Reichstag. The electoral law awarded one seat in the Reichstag per 60,000 votes. All citizens over 21 could vote through a system of proportional representation . A new parliament was elected every four years to deal with issues related to taxes, trade, defense, etc. The President

276-629: The 1912 election , the last one before the outbreak of World War I . A proposal to merge the NLP and FVP was made in the waning days of World War I, but faced opposition from the NLP's right-wing and FVP's left-wing. The formation of the German Democratic Party was announced on 16 November. Among the founding members were Theodor Vogelstein  [ de ] , Richard Witting , Richard Frankfurter  [ de ] , Hjalmar Schacht , and Kurt von Kleefeld . The group contacted Theodor Wolff ,

322-563: The Berlin Sportpalast on 12 September. The election had a voter turnout of 82%, the highest since the 1919 election . The Nazis increased their number of seats from 12 to 107. The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) remained the strongest party and won 143 seats, a loss of 10 seats from the previous election. The only other major party to significantly increase its seats was the Communist Party of Germany , which won 13.13% of

368-620: The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), or the Social Democratic Party, including Erich Lüth . Otto Nuschke became leader of the East German CDU . The youth organization Young Democrats ( Jungdemokraten ), which had been close to the DDP, continued to exist until 2018. The program of the DDP was a synthesis of liberal and social ideas. Naumann attempted this fusion in the pre-war period. Supporters and members of

414-596: The German Free-minded Party . Friedrich Naumann 's National-Social Association merged into the Free-minded Union in 1903. Theodor Barth and his supporters broke away into the Democratic Union in 1908, and maintained their independence until joining the DDP in 1918. The other liberal parties united into the left-liberal Progressive People's Party (FVP) in 1910. The FVP received 1.5 million votes in

460-454: The German National People's Party (DNVP) and the German People's Party (DVP); after a few months of ineffectual leadership, a snap election was called by Hinderburg. Friedrich von Payer Friedrich Ludwig von Payer (12 June 1847 – 14 July 1931) was a German lawyer , liberal politician and the vice-chancellor of German Empire during the last year of World War I . He

506-794: The League of Nations , but this waned due to rulings that did not benefit Germany. Party chairmen of the DDP and DStP 40% of the attendees to the party conference in December 1919 had a doctorate. Three recipients of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry were members of the party. 1930 German federal election First Brüning cabinet Z – DDP – DVP – WP – BVP – KVP First Brüning cabinet Z – DDP – DVP – WP – BVP – KVP Federal elections were held in Germany on 14 September 1930. Despite losing ten seats,

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552-593: The National Socialists took power, the German State Party was dissolved on 28 June 1933 as part of the process of Gleichschaltung (coordination) by means of which the Nazis established totalitarian control over German society. The German Empire had a series of major liberal parties, including the National Liberal Party (NLP). The German Progress Party and Liberal Union merged into

598-545: The November 1932 election . Hermann von Richthofen , Peter Reinhold  [ de ] , and others left the party after failing to convince its leadership to dissolve it. It gained three seats in the March 1933 election , but its share of the vote declined. The DStP obtained these five seats with the help of a combined list with the SPD. The DStP deputies, as opposed to the SPD, voted for

644-526: The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) remained the largest party in the Reichstag , winning 143 of the 577 seats, while the Nazi Party (NSDAP) dramatically increased its number of seats from 12 to 107. The Communists also increased their parliamentary representation, gaining 23 seats and becoming the third-largest party in the Reichstag. The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) had won

690-486: The DDP nevertheless formally reorganized itself the German State Party (DStP) on 8 November 1930. The party received 1.3 million votes and 20 seats in the 1930 election. Its electoral performance continued to decline in the 1930s. Its seat total declined by sixteen in the July 1932 election , where it received 371,000 votes. Hermann Dietrich called for the party to be dissolved after these results. Its seat total fell to two after

736-813: The DDP played an important political role in the early years of the Republic. For one, its position between the SPD and the Centre Party helped stabilize the Weimar Coalition nationwide and especially in Prussia . Wilhelm Abegg, for example, the state secretary in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior, reorganized and modernized the Prussian police. In addition, members of the DDP formed an important reservoir of personnel for high positions in public administration. No other party

782-654: The KPD, held rallies in Berlin on 1 August 1930 under the motto "Never again war". Some 30,000 participated in the SPD rally in the Lustgarten and 15,000 in the KPD demonstration at the Winterfeldtplatz. On 23 August, KPD members attacked a Nazi event in Bunzlau . Three people were killed and two seriously injured in fighting with the police. The KPD election campaign climaxed with a rally in

828-509: The NLP formed the German People's Party (DVP). The FVP raised 26,000 RM in 1911, and had 1,054 individual contributors in 1912. The DDP raised millions in the leadup to the 1919 election and had over one million members by January 1919. The party won 75 seats in the election and became the third-largest party in the Weimar National Assembly , but their support halved in the 1920 election and their seat total fell to 39. The DDP

874-691: The National Socialists, including Fritz Elsas. After World War II, former members of the DDP were instrumental in founding both the West German Free Democratic Party (FDP) – for example Theodor Heuss , Thomas Dehler and Reinhold Maier  – and the East German Liberal Democratic Party (LDPD) – including Wilhelm Külz , Eugen Schiffer and Waldemar Koch  – while others such as Ernst Lemmer , Ferdinand Friedensburg and August Bach went to

920-675: The Nazi-sponsored Enabling Act , which effectively disempowered the Reichstag. Their "yes" to the Enabling Act was justified by the deputy Reinhold Maier . The final sentence of his speech read: "In the interest of the people and the Fatherland and in the expectation of lawful developments, we will put aside our serious misgivings and agree to the Enabling Act." The DStP deputies in the Landtag of Prussia were removed as they worked with

966-769: The SDP in their election and was banned from engaging in political activity in Prussia in June. Since the mandates of the DStP’s Reichstag deputies had been won by means of nominations from the Social Democratic Party, they expired in July 1933 based on a provision of the Gleichschaltung Law of 31 March 1933. The self-dissolution of the DStP, forced by the Nazis, took place on 28 June 1933. The law against

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1012-608: The SPD's Vorwärts or later the Nazis' Völkischer Beobachter . The prejudice that the DDP was the 'party of big capital' held credence among part of the public, a prejudice that was factually false and charged with anti-Semitism. In later years, the Nazi Party exploited this by defaming the DDP as 'the Jewish party'. Another reason for the decline was their program of 'social capitalism' in which workers and owners mutually recognized "duty, right, performance and profit" and where solidarity

1058-470: The Social Democrats and KPD with almost 40 per cent of the seats in the Reichstag between them. In November 1931, the SPD suggested the two parties work together but Thälmann rejected the offer, with the KPD newspaper The Red Flag calling for an “ intensification of the fight against Social Democracy ”. Addressing the Nazi electoral breakthrough in the 1930 elections, Thälmann insisted that if Hitler came to power he

1104-737: The editor-in-chief of the Berliner Tageblatt , about how to organize the party. It was named the Democratic Party at Wolff's insistence. On 16 November 1918, one week after the November Revolution , an appeal for the founding of a new democratic party was written by Wolff and signed by 60 people. An almost identical statement was published at the same time by the Vossische Zeitung (Voss's Newspaper). The FVP, NLP's left-wing, and DDP merged together on 20 November. Right-wing members of

1150-510: The flag while Anton Erkelenz  [ de ] , Haussmann, Nuschke, Payer, and Quidde supported changing it. The Bavarian affiliate of the DDP, which the DVP merged into, supported anti-clericalism . The party never accepted the eastern boundaries of Weimar Germany. It supported returning the Free City of Danzig to Germany and uniting Germany and Austria into one country. It initially supported

1196-508: The formation of new parties enacted on 14 July codified the existence of a single party in the Nazi state and any activity on behalf of other parties was made a punishable offense. Individual members of the DStP participated in the resistance to National Socialism . The only left-liberal resistance group, the Robinsohn-Strassmann group, consisted mainly of former DDP/DStP members. A middle-class resistance circle with about sixty members

1242-404: The fragmentation of the party under Alfred Hugenberg's leadership. Due to Hugenberg's more hardline positions, moderate voters moved to the newly-formed Christian Social People's Service (CSVD), Conservative People's Party (KVP), and Christian-National Peasants' and Farmers' Party (CNBL). The German People's Party (DVP) continued to haemorrhage seats, losing 15 and only attaining 4.51% of

1288-401: The head of the party's Propaganda Division and Goebbels oversaw the party's Reichstag campaign. Nazi membership rose from 108,717 in 1928, to 293,000 by September 1930. Another 100,000 people joined the party between the election and end of the year. The party had forty-nine newspapers, six of which were daily. The SPD designated the "bourgeois block" and the Nazis as their enemies and, with

1334-498: The most votes and was the largest party in every election from 1919 to 1930. They led the coalition government between 1919–1920 and 1928–1930. After the 1928 German federal election , a grand coalition was formed under the Social Democratic chancellor Hermann Müller . The coalition collapsed on 27 March 1930. President Hindenburg appointed Centre Party politician and academic Heinrich Brüning as chancellor , who formed

1380-407: The new norm and paved the way for authoritarian forms of government. Following the 1932 presidential election , the newly re-elected Hindenburg refused to sign any more decrees and Brüning resigned. A new cabinet was formed under the leadership of Franz von Papen (derisively labelled the "cabinet of barons" ), but was unable to form a new majority in the Reichstag, only receiving the support of

1426-636: The party called itself the German State Party ( Deutsche Staatspartei , DStP) and retained the name even after the Reich Association left the party. Because of the connection to the Reich Association, members of the left wing of the DDP broke away from the party and toward the end of the Republic founded the Radical Democratic Party, which was unsuccessful in parliament. Others joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). After

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1472-399: The party for the entirety of its history. Petersen served as chair until 1924, when he resigned after his election as mayor of Hamburg . The Berliner Tageblatt , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , and Vossische Zeitung were among the leading newspapers that supported the party. Rudolf Oeser, an editor at FZ , became a cabinet member. Support for the DDP from these newspapers waned as

1518-714: The party went rightward. The DDP initially voted against joining the First Wirth cabinet , but later joined it. It left the Wirth cabinet after the partition of Upper Silesia . 20,000 people attended the first national convention of the Young Democratic Organization, but active membership declined to a few thousand members as the 1920s continued and 2,000 people attended the 1929 convention. The party's membership fell from around 800,000 one year after its foundation to 117,000 by 1927. In spite its steadily dwindling size,

1564-478: The party were recruited primarily from the Bildungsbürgertum . It was also supported by executives and civil servants, industrialists mainly from the chemical and electrical industries and liberal Jews. More Jews voted for the DDP than for any other party. It was therefore dubbed the "party of Jews and professors". The DDP was divided between supporting a centralized or federal system. Weber and Preuß supported

1610-450: The party, as the VNR was the political arm of Artur Mahraun's national liberal Young German Order. After the merger, many members of the left wing, including Ludwig Quidde and Hellmut von Gerlach, left the party and founded the Radical Democratic Party in 1930, which was largely unsuccessful politically. The Young German Order broke away from the DDP immediately after the Reichstag elections, but

1656-498: The popular vote, ceasing to be a notable political force after the July 1932 elections. The 28 other political parties shared the remainder of the votes. The DNVP received 13% in rural areas, twice as much what it received in urban areas. The German National Association of Commercial Employees reported that half of its members voted for the Nazis. 184 of the seats in the Reichstag were held by parties that refused to participate in any coalition government. The 1930 election left

1702-409: The presidency, and Erich Koch-Weser wrote the section covering referendums. Naumann served as the first chair of the party until his death in 1919. His faction and ideological allies included Gertrud Bäumer , Anton Erkelenz  [ de ] , Wilhelm Heile  [ de ] , Theodor Heuss , Carl Wilhelm Petersen , and Gustav Stolper . This group held positions of high leadership within

1748-449: The vote, securing 77 seats, 23 more than in the last election. The Centre slightly increased their seat count by 7, equalling 68, but dropped to fourth from third place in their seat count and popular vote in comparison to the 1928 election. The German National People's Party's (DNVP) support plummeted but managed to secure 41 seats overall. They lost 32 seats from their previously held 73, and dropped to fifth from second, chiefly due to

1794-618: Was a member of the Scheidemann cabinet , but left in June 1919 in response to the Treaty of Versailles before returning to the coalition in October. Friedrich von Payer resigned as chair of the DDP's legislative caucus after voting in favor of the treaty. It was heavily involved with the creation of the Weimar Constitution . The document was drafted by Preuß, Weber influenced the section covering

1840-615: Was able to provide to a similar extent civil servants who both possessed the professional training and were loyal to the democratic system of the Weimar Republic, something that was not the case with the mostly monarchist and anti-democratic civil servants inherited from the Empire. In 1920, the DDP had already lost votes, in large measure to the German People's Party, German National People's Party, and to parties focused on single issues. This

1886-561: Was born in Tübingen and was educated at the seminary at Blaubeuren , returning to his home town to study law in 1865. Having completed his university education, he worked as a lawyer in Stuttgart and was first elected to the Reichstag in 1877. He reached the height of his political career during the First World War during which he advocated a negotiated peace with the allied powers and

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1932-468: Was directly elected every seven years and was primarily in control of the armed forces; however, he also had significant powers to dissolve the Reichstag, nominate a Chancellor , veto laws, and invoke article 48. The Centre Party shifted right-ward after Ludwig Kaas became its leader. The Nazis had increased their share of the vote in state elections since their 1928 federal election result. In spring 1930, Adolf Hitler appointed Joseph Goebbels as

1978-631: Was due to disagreements within the DDP over how to deal with the Versailles Peace Treaty, of which some deputies approved. The loss of votes was accompanied by a simultaneous loss of members, finances and journalistic support. Important newspapers such as the Vossische Zeitung and the Frankfurter Zeitung held views that were close to those of the DDP, but the party was never able to establish an important party paper of its own such as

2024-476: Was sure to fail and drive Nazi voters into the arms of the KPD. As late as February 1932, Thälmann was arguing that “Hitler must come to power first, then the requirements for a revolutionary crisis [will] arrive more quickly”. As a result of the election, Brüning lost his majority in the Reichstag and continued to rule by decree , implementing harsh austerity measures that brought little economic improvement and were extremely unpopular. Governance by decree became

2070-517: Was the Sperr Circle in Bavaria. It consisted of the diplomat Franz Sperr as well as the former Weimar Reich ministers and DDP members Otto Geßler and Eduard Hamm. Many former members of the DDP and Radical Democratic Party also found themselves forced into exile either because of their stance against the regime or their pacifist attitudes, among them Ludwig Quidde and Wilhelm Abegg. Others were murdered by

2116-503: Was to prevail between employees, workers and owners. This visionary idea was out of touch with the reality of rising unemployment and economic difficulties under the pressure of the Treaty of Versailles. In July 1930, the DDP united with the People's National Reich Association (VNR) to form the German State Party , initially for the upcoming Reichstag elections. This brought fierce conflicts within

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