FDP Saxony

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FDP Saxony
Frank Müller-Rosentritt
Frank Müller-Rosentritt 		FDP LV Sachsen.svg
Chairman Frank Müller-Rosentritt
Deputy Philipp Hartewig
Judith Münch
Carsten Biesok
Secretary General vacant
Treasurer Torsten Herbst
executive Director Michael Gehrhardt
Establishment date August 18, 1990
Place of foundation Dresden
Headquarters Radeberger Strasse 51
01099 Dresden
Number of members 2,045 (as of Aug. 1, 2020)
Website www.fdp-sachsen.de

The FDP Saxony is the regional association of the Free Democratic Party in the Free State of Saxony . Frank Müller-Rosentritt has been the chairman since 2019 , and the office of Secretary General has been vacant since Robert Malorny resigned.

history

Since the 1860s

Leader of the Liberal Members of the Saxon State Parliament, 1873:
Upper row (from left to right) Hermann Rentzsch , Ernst Jordan, Christian Gottlieb Riedel ;
Middle Wilhelm Schaffrath ;
Lower row (from left to right) Karl Biedermann , Karl Gottlob Panitz, Richard Ludwig .

After the German Progressive Party was founded in Prussia in 1861 , the founding meeting of the Saxon Liberals for the Saxon Progress Society took place on April 25, 1863 in the Schützenhaus in Leipzig . While the National Liberal Party split off from the Progressive Party in Prussia as early as 1866/67 , in Saxony both liberal wings remained together until the mid-1870s. Since 1874 the Reichsverein für Sachsen formed a first, relatively loose bond around the local national liberal groupings, before a national liberal regional association in the narrower sense was established in 1882 with the National Liberal Association for the Kingdom of Saxony . In contrast to the Reich level, on which the left-liberal Progressive Party split, renamed and reorganized itself several times, the Saxon progressives - apart from the zaghafen attempts to establish an independent regional association of the German-Free- Thinking Party or Free-Thinking People's Party - kept theirs until the 1890s organizational unit. In the meantime, the state association of the Free People's Party for the Kingdom of Saxony, founded in 1894, was only able to gain a foothold after the turn of the century. Thus, until 1918, two, and at times even three, liberal party groups existed side by side in Saxony.

From 1871 to 1875, the Liberals had an absolute majority in the Saxon state parliament with over 40 members . As a result of the divergence of the left and national liberal party wings, the number of their representatives fell continuously and the conservatives rose to become the dominant force in the state parliament. Since the second half of the 1870s, together with the National Liberals and the increasingly smaller faction of the Progressive Society, they established an electoral cartel against the increasingly strong social democracy, which remained in existence until the turn of the century. As the de facto junior partner of the conservatives, the liberals took on more and more conservative positions and gradually gave up their own liberal profile.

Only with Gustav Stresemann's entry into Saxon politics from 1902, who slowly dissolved the electoral cartel, did this constellation change permanently. He led the National Liberals back to their old strength, in 1909 they were again the strongest party in the Saxon state parliament. Stresemann stood for innovative politics in the Saxon kingdom. Among other things, he spoke out on new electoral legislation and worked towards modern legal bases for trade unions. In doing so, he set important impulses for the democratization of Saxony. At the end of the empire , Rudolf Heinze, a national liberal prime minister, was installed by the Saxon king. He held the office for a few weeks before the monarchical system was replaced and democracy was introduced in the course of the 1918 November Revolution .

In the Weimar Republic

Even during the Weimar Republic , the liberals remained split into two parties. On the one hand there was the left-liberal German Democratic Party (DDP) and on the other hand the German People's Party (DVP). The Saxon Friedrich Naumann was a founding member of the DDP and its first Reich-wide chairman. Wilhelm Külz formed one of the first local associations of the DDP in 1918 in Zittau, where he was mayor at the time. From 1920 to 1933 he held the state chairmanship of the DDP and from 1919 to 1932 he was a member of the Weimar National Assembly and the Berlin Reichstag .

The DVP, on the other hand, was founded by Gustav Stresemann and was supposed to provide two Saxon Prime Ministers between 1918 and 1933. From 1929 to 1930 Wilhelm Bünger was the first liberal Prime Minister in Saxony. He was followed by Walther Schieck , who after six weeks only held the office in an executive position. Since there were no new elections, he ran the business until the National Socialists " seized power " in March 1933. On May 23, 1933, the liberal members of the Saxon state parliament voted in favor of the Saxon Enabling Act . Both the DVP and the DDP, which had been renamed the German State Party since 1930 , had to disband themselves in June / July 1933.

After 1945

After the Second World War , the Liberals were again split into two parties. This time, however, they were territorially divided. The FDP was formed in the western occupation zones by 1948, and the LDP was founded in the Soviet occupation zone (SBZ) in 1945 . Wilhelm Külz and Waldemar Koch announced the founding of the SBZ on July 5, 1945 . Every day between July 1st and 6th in Dresden there were a. Hermann Kastner , Johannes Dieckmann , Emil Menke-Glückert , Walter Thürmer , Reinhard Uhle and Ernst Scheiding worked together to prepare for the establishment of a liberal party in Saxony. Under pressure from the Soviet occupying forces, they declared themselves ready to join the LDP on July 19, and on August 15, 1945 they declared themselves to be the LDP regional association of Saxony.

The party took part in the “united front of anti-fascist-democratic parties” on order No. 2 of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD). The parties thus found themselves in a pre-parliament in Saxony in the summer of 1945 to form a unitary bloc. In 1946, Hermann Kastner supported the Liberals in forming a bloc in the Saxon state parliament. Nevertheless, in the run-up to the first elections in the Soviet occupation zone, hundreds of local CDU and LDP chapters were not recognized by the SMAD. This meant that the LDP was not allowed to put up candidates in many constituencies, including Wolfgang Mischnick and Ruth Ehrlich . This meant that the LDP could not achieve around one million votes in Saxony. Nevertheless, the LDP was the second strongest force in the state elections in Saxony in 1946 with 24.7 percent of the vote.

The LDP was increasingly forced into the unitary bloc, unpleasant people were removed from their offices by the SMAD and even arrested. In 1949, the “ synchronization ” with the bloc party was largely complete. The state elections in Saxony in 1950 took place according to unit lists, without the voter having a choice. In July 1952 the party, renamed the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (LDPD), acknowledged the hegemony of the SED and promised to support all resolutions of the GDR government. The liberal party had thus definitely lost its independence. In the same year, the states in the GDR and thus also the state associations of the parties were dissolved and replaced by district associations. Saxon LDPD politicians were not only in all Saxon county and district councils represented, but until 1989 also prominent in the East German government. So was Hans-Joachim Heusinger 1972-1990 GDR Minister of Justice and Manfred Gerlach 1960-1989 Deputy Chairman of the State Council of the GDR .

Nonetheless, the liberal ideas were preserved, especially in the local LDPD branches, even though they were not allowed to play a role in public.

After the turn

It was not until the fall of the Wall that the LDPD openly acknowledged its liberal positions and its historical roots. This was not least due to Manfred Gerlach , who published tentative approaches to reorientation as early as July 1989. In Saxony and around Plauen, the LDPD openly established itself as an opposition force from October 1989 and committed to the unification of Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. The "Liberal Democratic Youth" was formed in Dresden, one of several GDR-wide initiatives that eventually came together to found the Young Liberal Action (JuliA). On January 20, 1990, the German Forum Party (DFP) was also constituted in Karl-Marx-Stadt . At the reform party conference of the LDPD on 9./10. February 1990 in Dresden Manfred Gerlach was replaced by Rainer Ortleb as party chairman. However, the party, renamed the LDP again, fell short of the expectations of the party base and lost its pioneering role in reforming its party program compared to other parties in the GDR, which was not least reflected in the founding of the GDR's FDP .

In the course of the Volkskammer elections in the GDR on March 18, 1990, the electoral alliance Bund Free Democrats , consisting of the DFP, FDP of the GDR and LDP, was founded. But this received only 5.27%, u. a. also because the LDP was renewed too late. Otto Graf Lambsdorff had suggested the electoral alliance so that the DFP and the FDP of the GDR would not have too great disadvantages due to their organizational deficit.

On March 28, 1990, the LDP merged with the National Democratic Party of Germany (NDPD). These closed again on 11/12. August 1990 at the unification congress in Hanover of the FDP. In Saxony, the FDP was formed on August 18, 1990 and consisted of the former parties LDP, DFP and FDP of the GDR.

The first state chairman was Dietmar Schicke , but in 1990 he was replaced by Joachim Günther . In 1990 the FDP moved into the Saxon state parliament with nine members, but remained in the opposition due to the absolute majority of the CDU . In 1994 the FDP did not make it into the state parliament and in 1999 it achieved the worst election result since the fall of the Wall with 1.1%. In 1995, Klaus Haupt took over the chairmanship of the Saxon FDP for two years, followed by Rainer Ortleb from 1997 to 1999. Since 1999 Holger Zastrow has been chairman of the party. In 2004 the Saxon FDP succeeded in entering the Saxon state parliament with seven members. In the state elections in 2009 , the FDP was able to win 10.0% of the votes, doubling the number of MPs to 14. Until 2014, she formed a government coalition with the Union in the Tillich II cabinet, but in the state elections in 2014, with 3.8%, again missed out on the Saxon state parliament.

In the period that followed, a controversial internal party debate developed about how to deal with Pegida and the alternative for Germany , in the context of which the primarily affected Dresden district association expressly distanced itself from any right-wing populist efforts. Nevertheless, the state chairman Holger Zastrow, who himself lives in Dresden, repeatedly defended the city councilor Jens Genschmar, who was criticized in this context. Parts of the regional association then complained about the inadequate delimitation to the right wing. The fact that Zastrow was not put up as a direct candidate for the 2017 federal election was due, among other things, to his support for the Pegida-related city councilor Genschmar. In January 2019, Genschmar and some like-minded people finally let themselves be placed on the city council list of right-wing populist Free Voters and thus forfeited their FDP membership rights. After the party was again unable to overcome the 5 percent hurdle in the 2019 state election , the state executive resigned. At the state party convention in Neukieritzsch on November 2, 2019, Frank Müller-Rosentritt was elected as the new chairman.

organization

State chairman: Frank Müller-Rosentritt

The FDP Saxony consists of 13 district associations. These are made up of individual local chapters. The highest decision-making body is the state party conference, which is attended by 250 delegates from the district associations and which meets at least once a year. The state board is re-elected every two years at the state party conference.

Twelve state committees and a working group support the substantive work of the FDP Saxony:

  • education
  • Digital agenda, internet and media
  • Europe and international politics
  • Health and care
  • Domestic and legal and sports policy
  • Culture and tourism
  • Agriculture, forestry, nature conservation
  • Social (social, family, women, senior citizens, youth)
  • Environment, energy and climate
  • Transport and regional development
  • Economy, work, taxes and finance
  • Science, University and Innovation
  • Working group: craft policy

Apron organizations

In addition to the party bodies and the state technical committees, there are a number of preliminary organizations :

FDP helps e. V.

A specialty of the Saxon FDP was the association “FDP hilft e. V. ". Each FDP member of the state parliament donated the net amount of the latest diet increases to the non-profit association. This supported over 100 social, charitable and cultural projects with a total of 140,000 euros.

State chairman

Term of office Surname
1946-1947 Hermann Kastner
1947-1949 Arthur Bretschneider
1949-1952 Walter Thürmer
From 1952 to 1990 there was no state of Saxony
1990 Dietmar Schicke
1990-1995 Joachim Günther
1995-1997 Klaus Haupt
1997-1999 Rainer Ortleb
1999-2019 Holger Zastrow
since 2019 Frank Müller-Rosentritt

Election results

State elections

State election results
in percent
15%
10%
5%
0%
State election results
year be right Seats
1990 5.3% 9
1994 1.7% -
1999 1.1% -
2004 5.9% 7th
2009 10.0% 14th
2014 3.8% -
2019 4.5% -

Bundestag elections

Results
Bundestag elections
15%
10%
5%
0%
'90
'94
'98
'02
'05
'09
'13
'17
Bundestag election results
year be right Seats MPs
1990 12.4% 5 Joachim Günther , Wolfgang Mischnick , Arno Schmidt , Jürgen Schmieder , Sigrid Semper
1994 3.8% 1 Joachim Günther
1998 3.6% 2 Joachim Günther, Klaus Haupt
2002 7.3% 2 Joachim Günther, Klaus Haupt
2005 10.2% 4th Joachim Günter, Heinz-Peter Haustein , Jan Mücke , Christoph Waitz
2009 13.3% 4th Joachim Günter, Jan Mücke, Heinz-Peter Haustein, Reiner Deutschmann
2013 3.1% - -
2017 8.2% 3 Torsten Herbst , Jürgen Martens , Frank Müller-Rosentritt

Parliamentary group

In the Saxon state parliament , there has been no FDP parliamentary group since the constitution , which was elected on August 30, 2014 .

Group leaders

Term of office Surname
1946-1949 Arthur Bretschneider died on February 27, 1949
1949-1950 Ralph Liebler
1950– March 1951 Walter Thürmer
1951 Fritz Greuner
From 1952 to 1990 there was no state of Saxony
1990-1993 Günter Kröber
1993-1994 Ludwig Martin Rade
From 1994 to 2004 the FDP was not represented in the state parliament.
2004-2014 Holger Zastrow

literature

  • Falk Illing : On the way to becoming an established party? Election analysis, organization, program and strategy of the Saxon FDP since 1990. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2015, Chemnitz 2011, ISBN 978-3-658-04656-9 . ( online : dissertation, TU Chemnitz, 2011)
  • Olaf Jandura: The FDP in Saxony. In: Christian Demuth, Jakob Lempp (Ed.): Parties in Saxony. Bebra-Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-937233-35-0 , pp. 171-186.
  • Thomas Widra: The History of Saxon Liberalism and the Free Democratic Party. 150 years of liberal parties in Saxony. Wilhelm Külz Foundation, Dresden 2016, ISBN 978-3-00-052423-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Oskar Niedermayer : Party members in Germany. Version 2019. (PDF; 1.1 MB) In: fu-berlin.de. Retrieved July 30, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Frank Müller-Rosentritt is the new FDP leader in Saxony. In: MDR Saxony . November 2, 2019, accessed April 7, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Saxony: FDP General Secretary resigns. In: Saxon newspaper . February 7, 2020, accessed April 27, 2020 .
  4. ^ See on the voting behavior of the bourgeois MPs on the Saxon Enabling Act: Mike Schmeitzner : Dresden: Landtag and State Chancellery . In: Konstantin Hermann (Ed.): Führerschule, Thingplatz, "Judenhaus" - places and buildings of the National Socialist dictatorship in Saxony . Sandstein Verlag, Dresden 2014, ISBN 978-3-95498-052-9 , pp. 58-61, here especially note 7 on p. 61.
  5. ↑ Pegida divides FDP members. In: Saxon newspaper . February 28, 2016, accessed January 29, 2019 .
  6. ↑ FDP leader Holger Zastrow in an interview: "Dresden is not a left-wing city". In: Dresdner Latest News . January 16, 2016, accessed January 29, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Is the FDP rebelling against Holger Zastrow? In: Saxon newspaper . April 29, 2016. Retrieved January 29, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Zastrow only second choice. In: Saxon newspaper . November 12, 2016, accessed January 29, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Lässig and Genschmar fly out of the FDP. In: Saxon newspaper . January 22, 2019, accessed January 29, 2019 .
  10. ^ "FDP helps" promotes education, culture and sport in Saxony. In: liberale.de. August 5, 2013, accessed June 4, 2017 .
  11. ^ Results of the state elections in Saxony. In: Wahlrecht.de . May 3, 2015, accessed December 9, 2016 .
  12. ^ Results of earlier federal elections. (PDF; 484 kB) In: bundeswahlleiter.de . August 3, 2015, accessed December 9, 2016 .