FDP federal party conference 1954

50.084722 8.2475Coordinates: 50 ° 5 ′ 5 ″ N , 8 ° 14 ′ 51 ″ E



title	5th ordinary federal party conference
Serial number	5
place	Wiesbaden
state	Hesse
Hall	Kurhaus Wiesbaden

Beginning	March 5, 1954
Duration (in days)	3
Delegates	228

Kurhaus Wiesbaden

Invitation from Franz Blücher and blank delegate ID to the party congress

The conference took place on March 6th and 7th, 1954

The Free Democratic Party held the federal party congress of the FDP in 1954 from March 5 to 7, 1954 in Wiesbaden . It was the 5th ordinary federal party conference of the FDP in the Federal Republic of Germany . The party congress took place in the Kurhaus Wiesbaden .

course

Thomas Dehler (1964)

The most important decision in terms of personnel at the federal party conference was the election of the former Federal Minister of Justice Thomas Dehler against the resistance of the previous incumbent Franz Blücher as the new party chairman of the FDP. Dehler was supported in this by Friedrich Middelhauve and Reinhold Maier .

At the turn of the year 1953/54, on the one hand, inner-party wing struggles between "national liberals" and so-called "old liberals" burdened the FDP, on the other hand it looked back with satisfaction on the government policy pursued jointly with the CDU . They had economic and political successes, from which the major government partner benefited in particular in the federal election of September 1953 . Within the party, the chairman and vice-chancellor, Franz Blücher, was primarily responsible for the vote drop from 11.9 to 9.5 percent, who was accused of lacking profile and too close proximity to Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer . On the other hand, the previous Justice Minister Thomas Dehler, a representative of the “old liberal” wing who had been active in the Bavarian DDP in the 1920s, was seen as a bearer of liberal hope . He initially took over the chairmanship of the parliamentary group and was elected as the new chairman with almost 95 percent of the votes. With Dehler, the FDP had decided on a strategy of conflict with the larger coalition partner . A definition of the term “being liberal” can be found in his keynote address “Mission and Responsibility of Free Democracy”, which he gave at the end of the federal party conference.

Delegate key

The delegate key was determined in accordance with § 13 no. 2b of the statutes calculated exclusively on the basis of the results of the last federal election on September 6, 1953 (Berlin: election to the House of Representatives on December 3, 1950 ). The number of members was not taken into account. The regional associations were entitled to one delegate for every 15,000 votes; from 7,501 it was rounded up. The regional associations were also entitled to a basic number of four mandates.

After the votes, the following delegate key resulted:

Delegate rights to the federal party congress
Regional association	Delegates by voter vote		Basic mandates	total
Baden-Württemberg	455,535	30th	4th	34
Bavaria	315.494	21st	4th	25th
Berlin	196845	13	4th	17th
Bremen	26,777	2	4th	6th
Hamburg	108,722	7th	4th	11
Hesse	502,548	34	4th	38
Lower Saxony	260,900	17th	4th	21st
North Rhine-Westphalia	682.902	46	4th	50
Rhineland-Palatinate	214,805	14th	4th	18th
Schleswig-Holstein	61,486	4th	4th	8th
Federal territory with Berlin	2,629,169	188	40	228

Federal Executive

After this party congress, the federal executive board included:

Chairman	Thomas Dehler
vice-chairman	Friedrich Middelhauve , Hermann Schäfer , Carl-Hubert Schwennicke
Treasurer	Hans Wolfgang Rubin
Assessor	Herta Ilk , August-Martin Euler , Wolfgang Haußmann , Erich Mende , Willy Max Rademacher , Joachim Strömer
Assessor of the entire board	Konrad Frühwald , Hermann Kessler , Paul Luchtenberg , Marie-Elisabeth Lüders , Wolfgang Mischnick , Hans Wellhausen , Hans Dieter Wendt
Representatives of the regional associations	Otto Gönnenwein ( Baden-Württemberg ), Otto Bezold ( Bavaria ), Alfred Günzel ( Berlin ), Georg Borttscheller ( Bremen ), Edgar Engelhard ( Hamburg ), Oswald Kohut ( Hesse ), Winfrid Hedergott ( Lower Saxony ), Willi Weyer ( North Rhine-Westphalia ), Wilhelm Nowack ( Rhineland-Palatinate ), Bernhard Leverenz ( Schleswig-Holstein )
Members by office	Franz Blücher (Federal Minister), Fritz Neumayer (Federal Minister), Victor-Emanuel Preusker (Federal Minister)

Web links

Commons : FDP Federal Party Congress 1954 - Collection of images, videos and audio files

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

Dehler speech 1954

swell

Franz Blücher: The political tasks. Speech at the federal party conference on March 6, 1954 in Wiesbaden , Röger, Bonn 1954.
Federal party conference March 5 to 7, 1954. Greetings by Franz Blücher , August-Martin Euler , Viktor Emanuel Preusker , ed. from the FDP federal office, Wiesbaden 1954.
Thomas Dehler: Mission and Responsibility of Free Democracy. Speech given on March 6, before the Federal Party Congress in Wiesbaden 1954 , Röger, Bonn 1954.
At half power against the current. Epilogue to the FDP party congress . In: Social Democratic Press Service , no. 55, March 8, 1954, p. 1.

literature

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. Second half volume: 1953/54, Droste, Düsseldorf 1990, ISBN 3-7700-5159-9 .

Individual evidence

^ Information from: Archiv des Liberalismus ( www.freiheit.org/content/archiv-des-liberalismus ) (ADL), holdings of the FDP Federal Party Rallies, A1–1.
^ Juling, Programmatic Development of the FDP 1946 to 1969 , Meisenheim 1977, p. 25 f .; Kaack, On the history and program of the Free Democratic Party , Meisenheim 1976, p. 18 f.
↑ What does "being liberal" mean? , Excerpts from Thomas Dehler's speech on the website of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom . It was published in print by the Bonn publishing house Rüger: Thomas Dehler: Mission and Responsibility of Free Democracy. Speech given on March 6, before the Federal Party Congress in Wiesbaden 1954 , Bonn 1954.

[1] Information from: Archiv des Liberalismus ( www.freiheit.org/content/archiv-des-liberalismus ) (ADL), holdings of the FDP Federal Party Rallies, A1–1.

[2] Juling, Programmatic Development of the FDP 1946 to 1969 , Meisenheim 1977, p. 25 f .; Kaack, On the history and program of the Free Democratic Party , Meisenheim 1976, p. 18 f.

[3] What does "being liberal" mean? , Excerpts from Thomas Dehler's speech on the website of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom . It was published in print by the Bonn publishing house Rüger: Thomas Dehler: Mission and Responsibility of Free Democracy. Speech given on March 6, before the Federal Party Congress in Wiesbaden 1954 , Bonn 1954.