FDP founding party congress 1948

49.6423 8.6449Coordinates: 49 ° 38 ′ 32.3 " N , 8 ° 38 ′ 41.6" E

title	Founding party conference
place	Heppenheim
state	Hesse
Hall	Kurmainzer Amtshof

Beginning	December 11, 1948
Duration (in days)	2

Kurmainzer Amtshof, 2006

Program booklet for the FDP founding party conference in Heppenheim in 1948

The founding party convention of the FDP took place on December 11th and 12th, 1948 in Heppenheim an der Bergstrasse. The official name was "General Representative Day of the Liberal, Democratic Parties from the non-Soviet occupied parts of Germany and its capital Berlin". The party congress took place in the former Kurmainzer Amtshof (Amtsgasse 5). A bronze plaque commemorates the party congress there. This was preceded by the failed attempt to create an all-German liberal party with the Democratic Party of Germany .

The place where the party was founded was historic, because on October 10, 1847, the moderate liberals met at the Heppenheim conference in the run-up to the March Revolution. The “Heppenheimer Assembly”, which took place in the “Halber Mond” hotel, as a meeting of leading liberals, belongs to the immediate prehistory of the German revolution of 1848/49 .

course

The motto of the meeting was "Unity in Freedom".

The main speaker on the first day was Hermann Höpker-Aschoff , who reported from the Parliamentary Council under the title “Work and Activities in Bonn” . The main speaker on the second day was Theodor Heuss , who spoke about “Our German Mission”.

Federal Executive

Theodor Heuss, 1953

Theodor Heuss was elected as the first chairman of the newly founded party with 72 votes in favor and 15 abstentions. The delegates named Franz Blücher (81 votes) as his deputy . The following were elected to the inner board: Thomas Dehler (85), August-Martin Euler (69), Fritz Oellers (62), Hermann Schäfer (76), Carl-Hubert Schwennicke (89) and Eberhard Wildermuth (89). Theodor Heuss's confidante, Ernst Mayer , fell through with only 31 votes, but was later named Secretary General.

In addition, two representatives of the young democrats ( Alfred Rauschenbach and Wolfgang Mischnick ) and two representatives of the women's organization ( Ella Barowsky and Lotte Friese-Korn ) were elected as members of the entire board. In addition there were the chairmen of the regional associations and the following four people: Hermann Höpker-Aschoff , Hermann Dietrich , Wolfgang Glaeser and Hans Reif . August Weber was not elected.

position	Surname
Chairman	Theodor Heuss
Deputy Chairman	Franz Blücher
inner board	Thomas Dehler , August-Martin Euler , Fritz Oellers , Hermann Schäfer , Carl-Hubert Schwennicke , Eberhard Wildermuth
extended board	Ella Barowsky , Hermann Dietrich , Lotte Friese-Korn , Wolfgang Glaesser , Hermann Höpker-Aschoff , Wolfgang Mischnick , Alfred Rauschenbach , Hans Reif

decisions

The main decision was to merge all 13 liberal regional associations of the three western occupation zones to form the Free Democratic Party. The name Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) could not prevail, the designation Free Democratic Party (FDP) was approved by the delegates of the regional associations with 64 against 25 votes.

The party congress passed the “Heppenheim resolutions”. The demands of the FDP were summarized in seven theses and a preamble. This included limiting occupation costs, exempting German exports from existing restrictions, and a tax reform that was supposed to encourage savings. In addition, a was balancing required.

At the founding party congress, it was difficult to hold the left-liberal and national-liberal camps together. The common programmatic overlap at the FDP founding party congress was the economic policy principle of a free market economy and the rejection of any socialization efforts.

Documents

Invitation card from Liselotte Funcke

literature

Birgit Bublies-Godau: The Legacy of the Assemblies - Heppenheim as a place of remembrance of free democracy and political liberalism in Germany . In: Jahrbuch zur Liberalismus-Forschung 22 (2010), pp. 79-106.
Jürgen Dittberner : The FDP. History, people, organization, perspectives. An introduction , VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften , 2nd edition, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-17494-5 .
Dieter Hein : Between liberal milieu party and national collection movement. Founding, development and structure of the Free Democratic Party 1945-1949 , Droste Verlag , Düsseldorf 1985, ISBN 3-7700-5127-0 .
Dieter Hein: The way to Heppenheim 1945-1948 . In: Wolfgang Mischnick (Hrsg.): Responsibility for freedom. 40 years of the FDP Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt , Stuttgart 1989, pp. 48–65.
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 .
Karsten Schröder: The FDP in the British zone of occupation , Droste, Düsseldorf 1985, ISBN 978-3-7700-5128-1 , pp. 305-309.

Web links

Commons : FDP founding party convention 1948 - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Heppenheim Proclamation - Sources and full texts

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

Jürgen Frölich : United new beginning. To found the FDP as a federal party 70 years ago. In: freiheit.org. Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom , December 11, 2018 .; accessed on December 20, 2018

Individual evidence

^ History of the founding and development of the FDP. FDP Heppenheim, accessed on August 4, 2017 .
^ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.): Former Kurmainzer Amtshof In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse .
^ Jürgen Dittberner : The FDP: history, people, organization, perspectives . 2nd Edition. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-17494-5 , p. 33 f.
↑ Both speeches are printed in: Bundesvorstand der FDP (Ed.): Testimonies of liberal politics: 25 years of the FDP , Bonn 1973, pp. 14–31.
↑ Text: Heppenheim Proclamation of December 12, 1948 ( Memento of the original of September 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 362 kB). @1@ 2

^ Karl G. Tempel: The parties in the Federal Republic of Germany and the role of the parties in the GDR , Wiesbaden 2013, ISBN 978-3-663-09748-8 , p. 153 online .

^ Christine Bach: Founding party conference of the FDP in Heppenheim on the KAS website.

[1] History of the founding and development of the FDP. FDP Heppenheim, accessed on August 4, 2017 .

[2] State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.): Former Kurmainzer Amtshof In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse .

[3] Jürgen Dittberner : The FDP: history, people, organization, perspectives . 2nd Edition. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-17494-5 , p. 33 f.

[4] Both speeches are printed in: Bundesvorstand der FDP (Ed.): Testimonies of liberal politics: 25 years of the FDP , Bonn 1973, pp. 14–31.

[5] Text: Heppenheim Proclamation of December 12, 1948 ( Memento of the original of September 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 362 kB). @1@ 2

[6] Karl G. Tempel: The parties in the Federal Republic of Germany and the role of the parties in the GDR , Wiesbaden 2013, ISBN 978-3-663-09748-8 , p. 153 online .

[7] Christine Bach: Founding party conference of the FDP in Heppenheim on the KAS website.