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56-564: Most of its members belonged to the middle classes. It was antisemitic and elitist and in favour of reconciliation with France. It achieved its historical prominence through its brief merger with the left-liberal German Democratic Party to form the German State Party in 1930. It was banned when the Nazi Party came to power in 1933. The organisation of the Jungdo was hierarchical and based on

112-551: 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

168-639: A result of the merger, almost the entire left wing of the DDP split off and founded its own party. The DStP committed itself to equal rights for all citizens. The electoral alliance confronted the Order with the issue of the Aryan Paragraph and the antisemitic stance of the organisation. While the Nazi Party denounced the antisemitism of the Order and the Volksnationale Reichsvereinigung as unreliable,

224-657: The Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund (German Nationalist Protection and Defiance Federation). Jews were not permitted to join the organisation beginning in 1922. The Schutz- und Trutzbund district leader for northern Bavaria from 1920 to 1923, Hans Dietrich, was the second commander of the Young German Ballei of Franconia . The German nationalists among the Young Germans in Franconia worked closely with

280-630: 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 ,

336-620: 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

392-543: The German Empire . 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

448-596: 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

504-424: The Jungdo . The Order's leadership also took a clearly antisemitic stance with regard to the "Jewish question". Mahraun stated in a letter on 9 July 1922: "In Germany there is a Jewish question which has an extraordinarily fragmenting effect, especially in patriotic associations. With the admission of Jews, the ideal of the Order, unity in a fraternal sense, would never be possible. Quarrels and disputes would thwart

560-415: The Jungdo's membership vary widely, from 70,000 in the summer of 1921, 200,000 in 1925, to over a million at peak. Mahraun, however, stated in an interview with the magazine Der Spiegel in 1949 that membership had never exceeded 37,000. Initially the Jungdo was a nationalist defense association with ties to the political Right through such groups as the paramilitary Organisation Escherich . It kept

616-721: 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. Aryan paragraph An Aryan paragraph ( German : Arierparagraph ) was a clause in the statutes of an organisation, corporation, or real estate deed that reserved membership or right of residence solely for members of

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672-697: The National Socialists at an early stage, which was an isolated case in the history of the Order. After Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, there was a break between the Franconian Ballei and the leadership of the Young German Order, which had declared that it would not actively participate in the Hitler Putsch. Since the Ballei in Franconia nevertheless supported the putsch, Mahraun expelled it from

728-580: 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

784-547: 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

840-663: The Nuremberg Laws "for the final separation of Jewry from the German Volk ". Prior to this, there were exceptions, such as combat veterans, service in the National Rising [ Erhebung ], honorary Aryans , and so on, but now Jews and "Jewish mixed-breeds" ( Mischlinge ) were banned from practically all professions. The Aryan Paragraph was accepted largely without protest, except within the Evangelical Church, where it provoked

896-460: The legislation of Nazi Germany . They served to exclude Jews from organisations, federations, political parties, and, ultimately, all public life. Besides Jews, people not considered Aryans included Poles , Serbs , Russians , and other Slavs . Based on the bylaws and programs of antisemitic organisations and parties of the late 19th century (such as the German Social Party in 1889),

952-662: The " Aryan race " and excluded from such rights any non-Aryans, particularly those of Jewish and Slavic descent. They were an omnipresent aspect of public life in Germany and Austria from 1885 to 1945. One of the first documented examples of such a paragraph was written by the Austrian nationalist leader and anti-Semite Georg von Schönerer in his nationalistic Linz Program of 1882 , and countless German national sports-clubs, song societies, school clubs, harvest circles and fraternities followed suit. The best-known Aryan paragraphs are in

1008-444: The "compact spaces of neighbourhoods or residential quarters". Mahraun criticised the influence of investors who only supported certain political parties – above all Alfred Hugenberg of the right-wing German National People's Party – which he saw as a constant attempt to distort the true will of the people. In northern Bavaria in particular, the Young German Order was notably antisemitic, partly due to its strong personal ties with

1064-436: The "middle-class peasant self-protection organisation" was very soon shed; the more general character of the defense association then faded to the extent that the Young German Order, without joining the ranks of the parties, became a political factor comparable to them, although the terms "right" and "left" were soon no longer applicable to its position. The Jungdo declared its goal to be a "true democratic state structure" from

1120-786: The Aryan Paragraph first appeared in the Third Reich in the formulation of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service , which was passed on 7 April 1933. It stipulated that only those of Aryan descent, i.e. without Jewish parents or grandparents, could be employed in the civil service. The Aryan Paragraph was extended to education on 25 April 1933, in the Law against the Overcrowding of German Schools and Universities . On June 30 of

1176-487: 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

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1232-813: 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

1288-501: The Left, liberals and Jewish organisations accused them of a coverup. Prominent DDP politicians such as Gertrud Bäumer took a stand against them. In July 1930 Mahraun claimed that his organisations were far removed from antisemitism in any form. The Young German Order nevertheless did not allow the Aryan paragraph to be shaken as the ethnic and racial basis of its membership, and Mahraun said that it

1344-567: 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

1400-691: 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

1456-729: 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

1512-536: The Order maintained its own publishing house, the Jungdeutscher Verlag , which published several magazines and Der Jungdeutsche as a daily newspaper from 1 June 1924. In particular, it published the writings of Artur Mahraun. His book Der nationale Friede am Rhein (The National Peace on the Rhine), which advocated rapprochement with France, came out on 20 November 1926. After the Nazis came to power in 1933,

1568-466: The Order's ideology and propaganda". There were always disputes between the "more moderate" leadership and regional organisations on the issue. Mahraun sought a general compulsory labour service to replace unproductive military service with productive work. He wrote a paper on the subject in March 1924 and sought a referendum to introduce the measure into law, but it failed. To disseminate its political ideas,

1624-772: 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

1680-609: 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

1736-470: The Young German Order since, in his opinion, the time was not yet ripe for an "order-like" association. He explained his view to his old comrades-in-arms in personal letters and expressly emphasised: The Young German Order will arise again at a later date. It will then be the bearer of the ideas of the Young German doctrine. Anyone who has ever been a Young German with all his heart has seen the level on which

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1792-426: The Young German Order was banned since it could not be brought into line or integrated into a National Socialist organisation. The Order avoided a ban in Prussia and the associated expropriation by dissolving itself on 3 July 1933 and working underground and in resistance. The following people were members of the Young German Order in their youth: After the war, Artur Mahraun opposed the immediate re-establishment of

1848-406: The best intentions." As a result, an Aryan paragraph excluding non-Aryans (meaning primarily Jews) was introduced into the Young German Order's statutes. In 1925 the Young German Order campaigned for reconciliation with France and Great Britain and thus distanced itself from reactionary and nationalist groups. For his efforts, Artur Mahraun was accused of high treason by nationalist circles but won

1904-420: The court case. Politicians such as Gustav Stresemann of the German People's Party saw Artur Mahraun and his Young German Order as a respectable political partner. In 1930 the Young German Order and its subsidiary organisation Volksnationale Reichsvereinigung (People's National Reich Association), founded in 1929, merged with the liberal German Democratic Party to form the German State Party (DStP). As

1960-739: 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

2016-514: 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

2072-556: 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

2128-472: The great saving deed that fate imposes on all German contemporaries must take place. He has seen from afar the political homeland in which the German nomads of the intellectual mass migration are to be settled again. Until his death, Artur Mahraun devoted himself to building neighbourhoods in local communities. German Democratic Party The German Democratic Party ( Deutsche Demokratische Partei , DDP)

2184-643: The jacket of which was replaced by a windbreaker. There were no rank insignia. <== The Young German Order was founded in Kassel on 10 January 1920 by retired captain Artur Mahraun . It grew out of the Freikorps unit Offiziers-Kompanie-Cassel , which Mahraun had founded one year earlier. Mahraun wanted to recreate the camaraderie experienced by soldiers at the front during World War I in order to overcome class and social differences in German society. Estimates of

2240-424: The medieval Teutonic Order . There were local groups called brotherhoods or sisterhoods. Young members between the ages of 10 and 15 were grouped together in junior troops. For 16- to 19-year-olds, the groups were called junior fellowships ( Junggefolgschaften ). Several brotherhoods and sisterhoods made up a formation called a Ballei . The leaders of the individual groups were elected and had to be confirmed by

2296-514: The next higher authority, a process known as a "cure". The chairmen of the local groups were known as Grand Masters ( Hochmeister ) and those of the Balleien as Commanders ( Konture ). The individual Grand Commanders formed the High Chapter, which was presided over by a Grand Master and was the supreme body of the Order. The uniform dress of the Jungdo was the field-grey soldier's uniform,

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2352-641: 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

2408-400: 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

2464-718: 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,

2520-422: 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

2576-406: 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

2632-410: 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

2688-509: The same year, it was broadened to include even marriage to a "non-Aryan" as sufficient cause for exclusion from a civil service career. In keeping with Nazi synchronisation ( Gleichschaltung ), Nazi Party pressure led many federations and organisations to adopt the Aryan Paragraph. Thus, Jews were barred from the public health system, honorary public offices, editorial offices (Editor Law), theatres ( Reichskulturkammer ), and agriculture ( Reichserbhofgesetz ). This discrimination culminated in

2744-456: The underlying structure of a paramilitary for a number of years, although during the Kapp Putsch of 1920, its leadership declared its solidarity with the legitimate government of Chancellor Gustav Bauer of the Social Democrats (SPD). As late as 1923 the Jungdo took part in the resistance to the occupation of the Ruhr . Mahraun broke away from right-wing groups after only a few years. Historian Ernst Maste wrote: The initial character of

2800-403: Was a liberal political party in the Weimar Republic , considered centrist or centre-left . Along with the right-liberal German People's Party ( Deutsche Volkspartei , DVP), it represented political liberalism in Germany between 1918 and 1933. It was formed in 1918 from the Progressive People's Party and the liberal wing of the National Liberal Party , both of which had been active in

2856-408: 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

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2912-452: 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

2968-446: 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

3024-407: Was not antisemitism. The Order and the VNR fought "demagogic antisemitism" for reasons of national unity and pacification and supported the principles of civic equality. The credibility of his statements was frequently attacked. The historians and political scientists Gideon Botsch and Christoph Kopke consider antisemitism to be a characteristic of the Jungdo , although it was "never at the centre of

3080-412: 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

3136-405: 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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