German Social Reform Party

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The German Social Reform Party (DSRP) was an anti-Semitic party in the German Empire , which existed between 1894 and 1900 as a merger of the German Social Party and the German Reform Party .

Merger

After the success of the anti-Semites in the Reichstag election of 1893, in which they won 16 seats, their leaders tried to form a common party and faction . At the party convention in Eisenach on October 7, 1894 , the German Social Party and the German Reform Party merged to form the German Social Reform Party (DSRP) .

Association as a community of convenience

At a party convention in Erfurt on October 20 and 21, 1895, a party program was adopted according to which the DSRP wanted to stand on German-national, monarchical and Christian soil and fight the growing influence of Judaism in economic and political terms.

The merger did not lead to an organizational and programmatic standardization, but rather served to secure the faction status of the anti-Semites in the Reichstag. The anti-Semitic agitators Otto Böckel and Hermann Ahlwardt were expelled from the party and parliamentary group in 1895, after which they tried unsuccessfully to re-establish the Anti-Semitic People's Party . Within the DSRP, the German social wing of the party around Max Liebermann von Sonnenberg and the “reformers” under Oswald Zimmermann fought each other . While the German Socialists advocated close adherence to the German Conservative Party , the Federation of Farmers , the German National Handler Association and the Pan-German Association as part of a conservative-nationalist collection policy (“German Cartel”), the “Reformers” pleaded for a more independent course. While the German socials were more agrarian oriented, the “reformers” represented rather medium-sized interests. Accordingly, the voting behavior of the anti-Semitic parliamentary group turned out to be inconsistent.

Racial anti-Semitism

The common denominator of the various directions was the " Jewish question ". In contrast to Adolf Stoecker's Christian Social Party , the DSRP openly admitted to racial anti-Semitism and demanded the withdrawal or at least drastic restriction of the emancipation of Jews . The declared aim was to place the Jews under alien law; However, according to the program of the party congress in Hamburg in 1899, expulsion or, for the first time in history, even annihilation were considered ( see also Final Solution to the Jewish Question ).

Strongholds of the DSRP

The DSRP had its strongholds in the Grand Duchy of Hesse , in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau and in the Kingdom of Saxony , where it won the majority of its seats in the Reichstag and made it into state parliaments and city councils. Otherwise, the DSRP only had a noteworthy supporter and electorate in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein , Brandenburg and Pomerania . In southern Germany, the party was hardly active, in Catholic regions and in large cities (with the exception of Hamburg , Dresden , Chemnitz and Leipzig ) it could not gain a foothold. The membership of the DSRP is likely to have been less than 10,000. It had several daily newspapers including "Deutsche Wacht" (Dresden), "Citizens' newspaper" (Berlin), "Deutsches Blatt" (Hamburg). The monthly "Deutschsoziale Blätter" (Leipzig) formed a kind of party newspaper.

Reichstag election 1898

In the Reichstag election in 1898 , DSRP candidates won ten constituencies:

Split in the party

After the Reichstag election of 1898, which was perceived as a defeat, the fighting increased. Liebermann von Sonnenberg tried to gain control over the entire party by merging the faction and party leadership. At the Magdeburg party congress in September 1900, the delegates expressed their distrust of him. Thereupon Liebermann von Sonnenberg resigned with some supporters and re-founded the German Social Party . The German Social Reform Party, led by Zimmermann , decided at its party congress in October 1903 to call itself the German Reform Party again .

Reichstag election results

Election results of the anti-Semitic parties and party alliances 1887–1912

RT election St. share% Mandates
1887 0.2 1
1890 0.7 5
1893 3.4 16
1898 3.6 13
1903 2.5 11
1907 3 20th
1912 2.4 10


1887-93 DSP, AVP (or DRP), CSP; 1898 DSRP, CSP; 1903 DSP, DRP, CSP; from 1907 WV (= DSP, CSP, BdL, BBB), DRP

Information from Scheil, The Development of Political Anti-Semitism, pp. 130ff.

literature

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