Author: John L. Tobias

Publisher:

Published: 1966

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

Abstract. The German Democratic Party was founded on November 20, 1918. It was to be a party around which all moderates could rally, for the founders of the party had stated that the Democratic Party was to be a people's party, and not a representative of a specific social or economic interest group as were the older liberal parties. The party was very successful in the elections to the Constituent Assembly in January 1919, and had been instrumental in giving Germany a republican constitution. However, because of its close cooperation with the Social Democratic Party in 1919, and because it wanted to fulfill the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, it suffered heavy losses in the 1920 elections. The leaders of the party realized that their policies were un popular, and several of them attempted to make the party abandon its ideal of being a people's party in favor of making the Democratic Party a middle-class interest party. A number of other leaders of the party objected to such a course, and an intra-party power struggle resulted, which had the effect of making the Democratic Party leadership behave ambiguously in announcing and practicing their policies. The end result was a split in the party with a number of liberals leaving the party in favor of the German People's Party. The hyper-inflation of the years 1919 to 1923 also worked to the disadvantage of the Democratic Party, for it promoted dissatisfaction with the republican form of government, and led to an increase in the strength of the right-wing parties. Opposition to the Treaty of Versailles heightened German nationalism, especially in regard to foreign affairs. These political conditions affected the German Democratic Party adversely, for the result of its policies of support for the republic and of honoring the Treaty of Versailles, was attacked from the national ist groups who charged it with being un-German and traitorous. Thus when elections to the Reichstag were held in May 1924, the Democratic Party emerged almost completely defeated and thereafter remained only a splinte party.