FDP federal party conference 1952

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Coordinates: 50 ° 19 ′ 50 ″  N , 7 ° 43 ′ 43 ″  E

Free Democratic Party (logo, 1952-1968) .png
title 4th ordinary federal party congress
Serial number 4th
place Bad Ems
state Rhineland-Palatinate
Hall Kurhaus
Beginning November 18, 1952
Duration (in days) 5
Kurhaus in Bad Ems on the Lahn

The Free Democratic Party held the federal party convention of the FDP in 1952 from November 18 to 22, 1952 in the Bad Ems Kurhaus . It was the 4th ordinary federal party conference of the FDP in the Federal Republic of Germany .

The wing dispute

The party congress was shaped by the conflict between the left-wing liberal and the national-liberal wing of the party. The party was on the brink of split, as the clear majority of the delegates came from the state associations that represented national liberal positions. These were mainly North Rhine-Westphalia , Hesse and Lower Saxony . The left-liberal state associations that were in the minority were mainly Baden-Württemberg , Bavaria , Hamburg , Rhineland-Palatinate and Schleswig-Holstein .

The National Liberals were also supported by high profits in the local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia in 1952. Nationwide, the explicitly right-wing liberal FDP received 12.6% of the vote and thus almost doubled its election result. In Bielefeld , she now even provided the mayor. The national liberal FDP Hesse had already received 31.81% of the votes in the 1950 state elections and clearly relegated the CDU to third place.

The federal executive met on the eve of the party congress . Already here the positions met irreconcilably. The left-wing liberals questioned the number of delegates and the constitutional election of the right-wing liberal state associations and demanded that the board elections be removed from the agenda and that the federal board be elected at a special party conference. No agreement was reached.

The federal chairman, Franz Blücher , deliberately held back in his opening speech at the party congress and avoided statements about the future course of the party. The Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg , Reinhold Maier (who ruled with a social-liberal coalition ) then spoke for the left-wing liberals . With regard to the National Liberals, he warned of a "danger from the right" and declared that there should be no compromise with these positions. The counter-speech was given by August-Martin Euler from Hessen. He claimed “a duty to the right” for the FDP and called Maier's statements “dangerous” and “hair-dusting” and referred to Reinhold Maier's approval of the 1933 Enabling Act .

On the evening of the first congress, negotiations between the two wings of the party continued until late at night. A compromise was finally found: the substantive proposals of both sides should not be decided, but transferred to a program committee. The board should be largely confirmed. Friedrich Middelhauve , the author of the German program , was to be elected as the second deputy chairman. A split in the party had been avoided. The internal party conflict, however, remained unsolved.

Personnel

The federal chairman Franz Blücher was confirmed in office as was his deputy Hermann Schäfer . Middelhauve was elected as vice chairman. The members of the narrow party executive committee Carl-Hubert Schwennicke , Erich Mende , Hans Wolfgang Rubin , Artur Stegner , August-Martin Euler , Reinhold Maier and Herta Ilk were also elected by broad majorities in accordance with the compromise found.

There was a scandal in the assessors' elections. Eduard Leuze competed against Walter Erbe here . Erbe then withdrew his candidacy. Thomas Dehler was accused of having kept secret the fact that this candidacy was part of the package agreed that night.

Federal Executive

After this party congress, the federal executive board included:

Chairman Franz Blücher
vice-chairman Hermann Schäfer , Friedrich Middelhauve
Assessor August-Martin Euler , Herta Ilk , Ernst Mayer , Erich Mende , Hans Wolfgang Rubin , Artur Stegner , Carl-Hubert Schwennicke
Assessor of the entire board Konrad Frühwald , Karl Hepp , Arnold Hoffmeister , Eduard Leuze , Paul Luchtenberg , Marie-Elisabeth Lüders , Hans Wellhausen
Representatives of the regional associations Wolfgang Haußmann ( Baden-Württemberg ), Otto Bezold ( Bavaria ), Alfred Günzel ( Berlin ), Georg Borttscheller ( Bremen ), Willy Max Rademacher ( Hamburg ), Oswald Kohut ( Hesse ), Alfred Onnen ( Lower Saxony ), Hans Albrecht Freiherr von Rechenberg ( North Rhine-Westphalia ), Anton Eberhard ( Rhineland-Palatinate ), Bernhard Leverenz ( Schleswig-Holstein )
Members by office Thomas Dehler (Federal Minister), Fritz Neumayer (Federal Minister)

Content decisions

Middelhauve had submitted a draft for a so-called “German program” through the state association of North Rhine-Westphalia, which provided for a decidedly right-wing policy. The regional associations of Hamburg, Bremen and Baden-Württemberg presented the “Liberal Manifesto” as an alternative. Ultimately, neither program was approved. As part of the compromise package, both drafts were referred to a program commission.

The "German Program" aimed to establish the FDP as a party to the right of the Union in the German party system. The aim was to expand the voter base of the FDP. In particular, former soldiers and former NSDAP supporters should be addressed. Accordingly, the program was directed against denazification and emphasized nationalist aspects. The word “liberal” and the name FDP were deliberately not mentioned in the program. The “Liberal Manifesto” called for the FDP to be presented as a strong liberal center in the party spectrum, against which no decisions were possible. This made coalitions possible with either the CDU or the SPD . The German policy , which was to be the main conflict in the 1960s, was not yet an issue in 1952: Both drafts called for unity in freedom and, as a prerequisite, a policy of ties to the West .

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Federal Party Congress  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

swell

  • Franz Blücher: The political location and the goals of the FDP. Speech at the 4th Ordinary Federal Party Congress on November 20, 1952 in Bad Ems , Röger-Druck, Bonn 1952.
  • FDP Federal Party Congress 1952 - A people that does not affirm itself will not exist! Fourth Federal Party Congress, November 20-22, 1952 in Bad Ems. Forewords by Franz Blücher and Anton Eberhard , ed. from the FDP federal office, Röger-Druck, Bonn 1952.

literature

  • Christof Brauers: The FDP in Hamburg 1945–1953. Start as a bourgeois left party , Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-89975-569-5 , pp. 605–615.
  • Jürgen Dittberner : The FDP. History, people, organization, perspectives. An introduction , VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2nd edition, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-17494-5 .
  • Peter Juling : Programmatic development of the FDP 1946 to 1969. Introduction and documents. Anton Hain Verlag, Meisenheim 1977, ISBN 3-445-01529-5 .
  • Heino Kaack : On the history and program of the Free Democratic Party. Floor plan and materials , Anton Hain Verlag, Meisenheim 1976, ISBN 3-445-01380-2 .
  • Holger Löttel ( edit .): Adenauer and the FDP . Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn etc. 2013 (= Adenauer. Rhöndorfer edition ), ISBN 978-3-506-77874-1 .
  • Volker Stalmann (edit.): The FDP parliamentary group in the German Bundestag. Meeting minutes 1949–1969 , 2 half-vols., Droste, Düsseldorf 2017, ISBN 978-3-7700-5338-4 .
  • Udo Wengst (edit.): FDP federal executive. The Liberals chaired by Theodor Heuss and Franz Blücher. Minutes of meetings 1949–1954. First half volume: 1949–1952 , Droste, Düsseldorf 1990, ISBN 3-7700-5159-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Information from: Archiv des Liberalismus ( www.freiheit.org/content/archiv-des-liberalismus ) (ADL), inventory of the FDP Federal Party Rallies, A1-1.
  2. ^ Franz Blücher: The political location and goals of the FDP , Bonn 1952.
  3. ↑ Information report on the FDP party congress in Bad Ems. In: Holger Löttel (edit.): Adenauer and the FDP . Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2013, pp. 289–294.
  4. ^ The "German program" is printed in: Peter Juling: Programmatic development of the FDP 1946 to 1969. Introduction and documents. Meisenheim 1977, p. 120.
  5. ↑ Marco Michel: The federal election campaigns of the FDP. 1949–2002 , Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 9783531141800 , pp. 50 f., Online .
  6. ↑ Michael Schmidt: The FDP and the German question 1949–1990 , Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-8258-2631-7 , p. 27 f.