German Conservative Party

TheGerman Conservative Party(German:Deutschkonservative Partei,DkP) was aright-wingpolitical partyof theGerman Empirefounded in 1876. It largely represented the wealthy landowningGerman nobilityand thePrussianJunkerclass.

German Conservative Party Deutschkonservative Partei
Founded	7 June 1876
Dissolved	9 November 1918 (de facto), 1933 (de jure)
Preceded by	Prussian Conservative Party
Merged into	German National People's Party
Headquarters	Berlin,Germany
Newspaper	Neue Preußische Zeitung
Ideology	Conservatism(German) Prussian nationalism Monarchism Statism State Socialism Anti-liberalism Anti-socialism Protectionism
Political position	Right-wing
Colors	Blue
Politics of Germany Political parties Elections

The party was a response toGerman unification,universal and equal franchise in national electionsand rapidindustrialization.It changed from a diffuse party of broad ideology into an interest party in Bismarckian Germany. In the early 1870s,Otto von Bismarckformed his majority with the base in theNational Liberal Partywhich emphasizedfree tradeandanti-Catholicism.Bismarck broke with them in the late 1870s, by which time the German Conservative Party and theFree Conservative Partyhad brought together the landed Junkers in the East and the rapidly growing industrial leadership in the major cities. They now became the main base of Bismarck's support and successiveChancellorsdown to 1918.

According to Robert M. Berdahl, this redirection illustrated "the slow and painful process by which the landed aristocracy adjusted to its new position in the capitalist 'class' system that had come to replace the precapitalist 'Estate' structure of Prussian society".

Policies

The German Conservative Party was generally seen as representing the interests of theGerman nobility,theJunkerlandowners living east of theElbeand theEvangelical Church of the Prussian Unionand had its political stronghold in thePrussian Diet,where thethree-class franchisegave rural elites and the wealthy disproportionate representation. PredominantlyPrussiantraditionalists,the party members had been skeptical at first about the 1871unification of Germany—unlike theFree Conservative Party,anational conservativesplit-off dominated by business magnates unrestrictedly supporting the policies ofChancellorOtto von Bismarck.

Members of the German Conservative Party's Reichstag Caucus (left to right):Rudolph Wichmann,Otto von Seydewitz,Helmuth von Moltke,CountKonrad von Kleist-Schmenzin,Otto von Helldorff-BedraandKarl Gustav Ackermann

The policies of Old Conservatives like Field MarshalHelmuth von MoltkeorElard von Oldenburg-Januschaugenerally embraced support for the powers of themonarchyand opposition toeconomic liberalismanddemocratization,the introduction ofelectoral reformin Prussia, or trueparliamentary governmentin Germany as a whole. Due touniversal suffrage,on federal level the DKP had to face strikingly decreased significance. In the1878 federal election,it gained 13.0% of the votes cast and entered theReichstagparliament with 59 deputies. Afterwards, the party, which furthermore lost votes as Germans moved from rural areas to new industrial centers in the west (Ostflucht), forged an electoral alliance with theChristian Social PartyunderAdolf Stoecker,opportunistically embracingantisemitism.

Thomas Childersstated that the Conservatives were the first major party in Germany to incorporate antisemitism into its platform.The 1892 party program denounced a "demoralizing Jewish influence", but when this attitude failed to halt the party's fall in the polls this element was de-emphasized. Stoecker finally revoked the alliance in 1896.

Though predominantlyProtestant,the DKP opposed theKulturkampf,but supported Bismarck when during theLong Depressionhe began to implementprotectionistpolicies by restricting grain imports fromRussiaand theUnited States.Following this, the DKP strongly opposed the New Course of his successorLeo von Caprivi.It also withdrew its confidence in ChancellorBernhard von Bülowin 1909 when he tried to implement an inheritance tax reform;Bülowresigned following the reform's failure.The party supportedKaiser Wilhelm II'snaval policiesand Germany'sarms racewith theUnited Kingdombut initially kept its distance towardscolonialismand the activists of thePan-German League.

The party was dissolved following the fall of the monarchy in November 1918 and theGerman Revolution.Most of its supporters turned to the newly establishedGerman National People's Party.TheDeutschkonservative Parteihad no direct connection to theDeutsche Rechtsparteifounded in 1946, which used the nameDeutsche Konservative Partei(German Conservative Party) in parts ofWest Germany.

Members were for exampleWilhelm von Rauchhaupt,Otto von Manteuffel,Ernst von Heydebrand und der Lasa,Kuno von Westarp,Hans Hugo von Kleist-Retzow,Philipp von Nathusius-Ludom,Elard von Oldenburg-Januschau,Hans von Kanitz,Heinrich von Salisch,Georg Oertel,Gustav von GoßlerorWilhelm Joachim von Hammerstein.

Chairmen

• 1876-1892 Otto von Helldorff
• 1892–1911: Otto Karl Gottlob Freiherr von Manteuffel
• 1912–1918: Ernst von Heydebrand und der Lasa

See also

• Conservatism in Germany

Works cited

• Childers, Thomas(1983).The Nazi Voter: The Social Foundations of Fascism in Germany, 1919-1933.University of North Carolina Press.ISBN0807815705.

Further reading

• Berdahl, Robert M. "Conservative Politics and aristocratic landholders in Bismarckian Germany."Journal of Modern History44#1 (1972): 2–20.in JSTOR.
• Retallack, James N. "Conservatives" contra "Chancellor: Official Responses to the Spectre of Conservative Demagoguery from Bismarck to Bülow."Canadian Journal of History/Annales Canadiennes d'Histoire20#2 (1985) pp 203–236.
• Retallack, James. "'What Is to Be Done?' The Red Specter, Franchise Questions, and the Crisis of Conservative Hegemony in Saxony, 1896–1909."Central European History23#4 (1990): 271–312.online.
• Retallack, James.Notables of the Right: The Conservative Party and Political Mobilization in Germany, 1876-1918(1988).
• Retallack, James.The German Right, 1860-1920: Political Limits of the Authoritarian Imagination(2006).
• Retallack, James.Germany's Second Reich: Portraits and Pathways(2015).

External links

• Konservatives Handbuch(The Conservative Handbook). Published by the party in 1898.
• Webpage from the German Historical Museum(in German).