German Democratic Party

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The German Democratic Party was an association of German national parties and the Carinthian farmers' union in the provisional Carinthian regional assembly . It was represented by several members in the Lemisch I state government, which was in office until 1921 . It has no institutional connection with other parties of the same name, which ran for example in the state elections in Styria in 1919 .

background

In the last decades of the 19th century, a small-scale landscape of political associations developed, from which the so-called Third Camp slowly emerged. In addition to general German national views, the relationship to the local population also played a major role. Many actors were simultaneously members of a German national party and of the farmers' union founded in Carinthia in 1886. In the 1911 Reichsrat election, the Bauernbund joined the German People's Party and smaller German national splinter groups under the name Deutscher Nationalverbund (German Agrarian Party) and achieved eight of the ten mandates to be awarded in Carinthia. However, constant cooperation between the individual groups was not achieved. When a first Carinthian state parliament with 58 members was constituted on November 11, 1918 under the name Provisional National Assembly , three German national groups were represented in addition to the farmers' union with 14 members: the German People's Party (also: Deutscher Volksverein für Kärnten , six members), the Association of Pan-Germans (5 MPs) and the Völkisch-Sozialverband "Deutsche Einheit" (a Villach regional party with two MPs)

Development in the state parliament

Distribution of seats in the regional assembly after the merger of the German Democratic Party
    
A total of 58 seats
  • SDAP : 18
  • CS : 11
  • Military delegates : 2
  • DDP / KBB : 27

On November 19, 1918, just eight days after the constitution of the state assembly, the representatives of the farmers' union and the three German national parties decided to merge under the name of the German Democratic Party . Fritz Dörflinger from the German People's Party was elected chairman of this group of parties . The farmers' union remained for the time being as an independent organizational unit, while the German national parties were fully integrated. With 27 of 58 MPs, the group was the strongest force - the Christian Social Party provided 11 MPs, the SDAP 18, and two other MPs were non-party representatives of the military. As chairman, it was Dörflinger's task to develop a joint party program. The ten-member state committee (a body that formed the predecessor of the state councils , but also elected the state governor and his deputies) was made up of Hans Angerer (formerly Pan-German party ) as well as the farmers' groups Alois Hönlinger , Franz Kirschner , Vinzenz Schumy and the state administrator (= Governor ) Arthur Lemisch represented. After Hönlinger's death in May 1920, his position was filled by Fritz Dörflinger. Dörflinger, who had apparently suspended his chairmanship in connection with the events surrounding the Carinthian defensive struggle , was unanimously re-elected at a party conference in April.

The party's most important communication organ was the newspaper Freieimmen , which was directly linked to the party leadership from around 1920.

As in the other federal states, elections were to take place in Carinthia in 1919. Due to the conflict with Yugoslavia, these ultimately only took place in 1921. In the run-up to this state election in 1921 , the German Democratic Party finally broke up - the Bauernbund had opposed its full integration and instead joined an electoral alliance with the German National Socialist Workers' Party, which had since emerged . The remainder of the German Democratic Party then ran with Dörflinger as the top candidate for the Greater German People's Party . In the election, the party won 11.32% or 4 seats in the Carinthian state parliament, which now has 42 seats. The highest approval was obtained with 32.47% in Dörflinger's hometown Klagenfurt , who continued to hold the post of regional councilor in the subsequent state government of Gröger .

Positions

The German Democratic Party represented a consistently German-national position, that is, against the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain and towards the annexation of Austria to Germany. The unification of the two states was seen as the only way out of the economic and social problems of the time. In contrast to Georg von Schönerer's Pan-German Movement and later radical German-national groups such as the Hitler movement , the German Democratic Party remained connected to the democratic principles of the young republic in the short period of its existence. However, anti-Semitism already occupied a large part of the party. In a statement of its program for the election planned for 1919, the DDP made the following first point:

“The German Democratic Party stands on a national basis, it not only wants to actively represent our beloved German nationality to the outside world and bring it to a new bloom in the peaceful competition of work, but also to keep it pure and unadulterated internally and protect it from harmful foreign influences Above all, the all- corrosive Semite spirit , which today seeks to dominate and poison our entire state life in politics, economy and culture more dangerously than ever before. The German Democratic Party is therefore a decidedly anti-Semitic party and the fight against foreign rule by Judaism in our young republic is one of its most important program points "

- German Democratic Party : To the Landtag voters, in: Free votes , May 4, 1919

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dachs, Herbert; Dippelreiter, Michael; Schausberger, Franz: Radical phrase, electoral alliances and continuities. State election campaigns in Austria's federal states 1919 to 1932 (=  publication series of the Research Institute for Political-Historical Studies of the Dr. Wilfried Haslauer Library No. 57 ). Böhlau, Vienna 2017, ISBN 978-3-205-20498-5 , pp. 80 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ↑ a b The members of the provisional state assembly for Carinthia . In: Workers will . Graz / Klagenfurt November 22, 1918, p. 5 f . ( onb.ac.at ).
  3. ↑ Daily news - German Association . In: Free Voices . Klagenfurt November 20, 1918, p. 2 ( onb.ac.at ).
  4. ^ The German People's Association for Carinthia . In: Free Voices . Klagenfurt December 4, 1918, p. 3 ( onb.ac.at ).
  5. ↑ Provisional National Assembly . In: Free Voices . Klagenfurt June 13, 1920, p. 3 f . ( onb.ac.at ).
  6. ^ German Democratic State Party Congress . In: Free Voices . Klagenfurt May 1, 1920, p. 3 ( onb.ac.at ).
  7. ↑ Cerafin, R .: contributions to the history of the Carinthian day literature. History of the newspaper industry in Carinthia. In: Carinthia I . 142nd year. Klagenfurt 1952, p. 557 note 16 ( onb.ac.at ).
  8. ^ Dachs, Herbert; Dippelreiter, Michael; Schausberger, Franz: Radical phrase, electoral alliances and continuities. State election campaigns in Austria's federal states 1919 to 1932 (=  publication series of the Research Institute for Political-Historical Studies of the Dr. Wilfried Haslauer Library No. 57 ). Böhlau, Vienna 2017, ISBN 978-3-205-20498-5 , pp. 87 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  9. ^ Dachs, Herbert; Dippelreiter, Michael; Schausberger, Franz: Radical phrase, electoral alliances and continuities. State election campaigns in Austria's federal states 1919 to 1932 (=  publication series of the Research Institute for Political-Historical Studies of the Dr. Wilfried Haslauer Library No. 57 ). Böhlau, Vienna 2017, ISBN 978-3-205-20498-5 , pp. 97 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  10. ^ To the Landtag voters . In: Free Voices . Klagenfurt May 4, 1919, p. 11 ( onb.ac.at ).