Center Party of Hesse

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The Center Party of Hesse was the regional association of the Center Party in the Grand Duchy of Hesse and in the People's State of Hesse . In the People's State of Hesse, the center was the ruling party from the November Revolution in 1918 until the National Socialists came to power in 1933.

The center in the Grand Duchy of Hesse

background

Adam Joseph Schmitt

The Grand Duchy of Hesse was made up of three provinces, the predominantly Protestant provinces of Upper Hesse and Starkenburg and the predominantly Catholic Rheinhessen . Accordingly, the focus of the Center Party was in Rheinhessen (i.e. in today's Rhineland-Palatinate ). The proportion of Catholics in the electorate in the Grand Duchy in the Reichstag elections in 1871 was up to 28%. It rose to 32% by the 1912 Reichstag elections and then fell slightly to 30.9% in the 1924 Reichstag elections .

As a result, Catholic MPs were also represented in the state estates. In particular, Clemens Lauteren , Johann Maria Kertell and Johannes Neeb emerged as representatives of the Catholic cause in the estates. However, there was no joint parliamentary group or even party organization.

Confessional conflicts were also not very pronounced in the Grand Duchy. In particular, according to the Hessian school edict of June 6, 1832, the denominational schools continued to exist, which eliminated a conflict over the simultaneous school . Justin von Linde played an important role. As a State Councilor and Member of the First Chamber, he played an important mediating role between state and church.

With the March Revolution , the Landtag was freely elected for the first time. Clerical MPs were not elected. This was also the case in the post- reaction election elections .

Even if the electoral law of September 26, 1856 put Catholics at a disadvantage, in particular through the indirect election it provided, three Catholics were represented in the second chamber after the state election in 1856. The spokesman was Dr. Eduard Seitz . But there was no parliamentary group of its own.

Greater German Conservative Party

The center of Hessian Catholicism was Mainz and the driver was the Mainz bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler . According to the constitution of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, von Ketteler was a member of the first Hessian Chamber. The effect of the magazine " Der Katholik " published in Mainz and the Mainz daily newspaper " Mainzer Journal ", which appeared from June 1, 1846, also played an important role in founding the party .

In order to create the organizational basis for the election of ultra-Montan MPs, Cathedral Vicar Christoph Moufang founded the "Greater German Conservative Party" in Mainz in 1862.

The part of the name Großdeutsch was a point against the National Liberal Party , which was portrayed as Kleindeutsch and hostile to Austria. The election call of August 1862 was circulated in all Catholic areas. In terms of expectations, the 1862 election turned out to be a disaster. The Greater German Conservative Party was able to push through just two MPs. Not even the Mainz constituency could be won. After this failure, the Greater German Conservative Party ceased to speak.

Catholic People's Party of Hesse

Christoph Moufang's relative Nicola Racke played a leading role in founding the Catholic People's Party of Hesse in 1869. The name Catholic People's Party had already been used in the election campaign for the state elections in 1866. The model for the re-establishment was the Catholic People's Party in Baden , with which there was a close relationship. Von Ketteler was elected to the Reichstag in a Baden constituency. In Hesse, Christoph Moufang was elected to the Reichstag and was a co-founder of the first central parliamentary group in the Reichstag in 1871. In 1866, four members were elected to the second chamber, including Philipp Wamboldt von Umstadt as spokesman .

The first common parliamentary group in 1872

Following the example of the Reichstag parliamentary group, Ferdinand Allmann , Hermann Josef Wolz and Eugen Frank formed a joint parliamentary group. This faction, which met for the first time on December 20, 1872, subsequently formed the organizational center of political Catholicism . A party organization was formed around the faction. The leading forces were the publisher Johann Falk , Nicola Racke and the writer Philipp Wasserburg .

The Kulturkampf in Hessen

Under the Dalwigk government, sectarian conflicts were not very pronounced. With the arrival of the Hofmann government , the Kulturkampf also broke out in the Grand Duchy (even if it was fought with far less severity than in Prussia ). The Catholic Finance Minister Maximilian von Biegeleben had to quit in 1873. Analogous to the May Laws 1875 five laws have been enacted in the Grand Duchy on April 23, the newly regulated the relationship between church and state. Even before that, with the School Act of June 16, 1874, simultaneous schools had been introduced, which led to the fact that Catholic schools largely disappeared by the end of the German Empire.

The Catholic People's Party was of course in clear opposition to these laws. The vast majority of the National Liberals in the second chamber, however, enforced these laws. In the state elections in 1875, the People's Party's share of the vote increased and additional seats were won. Johann Falk , who had been the publisher of the Mainz Journal since 1863, was newly elected to the Landtag .

In 1878 the number of MPs could even be increased to eight. From 1887 the party also appeared as a center in Hesse.

The conflict over how to deal with the SPD

At the beginning of the 1890s, the state party was marked by a violent dispute over the direction. The conflict was about how the center should react to the rise of the SPD Hessen . Nicola Racke strove for cooperation between the bourgeois forces, i.e. with the liberals (who had been bitter enemies in the Kulturkampf). Philipp Wasserburg rejected any cooperation with the liberals and called for the voters who had been lost to the SPD to be won back through social and democratic reforms.

Adam Joseph Schmitt played an important role in settling this internal party crisis in the Hessian center in the early 1890s. With the help of the liberal votes of his constituency, he was able to prevail in the Reichstag elections of 1896 and 1898, with the consequence that he also rose to become the leader of the Hessian Center Party - a position that he would hold until the post-war period.

The 1911 state elections

The state elections in 1911 were carried out for the first time by direct vote , in line with a longstanding demand from the center . However, the center could not benefit from this change and even had one member less than before in the state parliament.

Election results state elections

For the period before 1862, election results according to parties are not meaningful. It was only later that the center was organized at state level. The party development was based on local associations at constituency level . It was only after the Reichstag election in 1874 that the Center Party could speak of a nationwide presence. However, the following table also lists the members of parliament from 1862 to 1874 who can be assigned to the predecessor structures of the Center Party. The right to vote in the Grand Duchy was a majority vote . The indication of nationwide percentages is therefore not required for the election result.

MPs total MPs total MPs total
1862 2 50 1865 2 50 1866 4th 48
1868 4th 48 1872 3 50 1875 5 50
1878 8th 50 1881 8th 50 1884 6th 50
1887 5 50 1890 4th 49 1890/1 4th 50
1890/2 5 50 1897 6th 47 1899 7th 50
1902 7th 47 1905 8th 45 1908 9 58
1911 8th 56

MPs

Member of the Reichstag

Due to the majority voting right, members of the center were only able to assert themselves in the clearly Catholic constituencies of Rheinhessen.

Constituency MP Term of office
Hesse 8 (Bingen-Alzey) Philipp Uebel 1909-1912
Hesse 9 (Mainz-Oppenheim) Christoph Moufang 1874–1877 and 1878–1881
Hesse 9 (Mainz-Oppenheim) Nicola Racké 1884-1890
Hesse 9 (Mainz-Oppenheim) Adam Joseph Schmitt 1896-1903

A candidacy was not only possible at the place of residence, but in every constituency in the German Reich. The Mainz Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler was therefore elected to the Reichstag in a Baden constituency.

Member of the state parliament

(List is incomplete)

The center in the people's state of Hesse

Otto by Brentano di Tremezzo

Since the November Revolution, the center had been one of the parties in both the Reich and Hesse that supported the Weimar Constitution and, as part of the Weimar coalition, was a ruling party.

Otto von Brentano di Tremezzo was Hessian Minister of Justice from November 11, 1918 to 1927, and from 1921 - as successor to Heinrich Fulda (SPD) - at the same time Minister of the Interior in the Ulrich I and Ulrich II cabinets . The center was represented by Minister Ferdinand Kirnberger in the Ulrich III cabinet and the Adelung cabinet (1927 to 1933) .

Fritz Bockius

Fritz Bockius was chairman of the regional association from 1920 until its dissolution in 1933. Wilhelm Knoll acted as his deputy.

In the state elections in November 1931, the democratic parties with 32 seats no longer had a majority in parliament, as the NSDAP with 27 and KPD with 10 seats had a majority. With this election, Hesse anticipated developments at the level of the empire. In the Center Party, it was discussed whether a coalition with the NSDAP, in order to get this government out of the radical opposition and to disenchant it with the necessary compromises, would be a sensible strategy. Based on the election result in Hesse, it was decided to start negotiations. This was made easier by the fact that the center and the NSDAP had a majority and Fritz Bockius defended the National Socialist Dr. Werner Best knew personally because he had worked for him as a trainee lawyer in his Mainz notary's office from 1925 to 1928. Talks began on November 19, but were broken off after the Boxheim documents , a coup plan by the NSDAP, became known.

On July 5, 1933, the German Center Party disbanded in the course of the Gleichschaltung .

time of the nationalsocialism

The conformity not only led to the loss of the Land and Reichstag mandates of the Hessian center, but also to the removal of the center supporters from all leading tasks in the state and economy.

As part of the Gewitter campaign , a number of former Hessian center deputies were arrested on July 20, 1944, including Hans Hoffmann and Fritz Bockius. Fritz Bockius died in the concentration camp.

After the Second World War

After the Second World War, the area of ​​today's Hesse was redesigned. The Catholic Rheinhessen was separated and part of Rhineland-Palatinate. The new state of Greater Hesse now consisted of the two remaining provinces of the People's State and the former Prussian parts of Frankfurt and Hesse-Nassau. This meant that there were poor denominational prerequisites for a new establishment of the center. With the founding of the CDU Hessen as a non-denominational Christian-Democratic party, the former members and voters of the center found a new political home. The center did not take part in the state elections in Hesse in 1946 . In April 2006 a regional association of the Center Party was founded again in Hesse. The state chairman of this splinter party is Werner Otto.

Election results

State elections

Results of the elections for the constituent people's chamber and the Landtag of the People's State of Hesse 1919–1933:

choice Absolutely Percentages Seats (of 70)
January 26, 1919 108,539 17.6% 13
November 27, 1921 92,689 17.4% 13
December 7, 1924 100.384 16.1% 11
November 13, 1927 85,460 17.1% 13
November 15, 1931 112,440 14.3% 10
June 19, 1932 108.601 14.5% 10

For the local election results see Local Elections in the People's State of Hesse 1919/1920 .

Reichstag elections

Reichstag election results in constituency 33: Hessen-Darmstadt (1919: constituency 34, 1920: 22):

choice Absolutely Percentages Seats (of 70)
National Assembly January 19, 1919 110,853 17.0% 2401 (SPD: 4; DDP / DStP: 2; DVP: 1)
June 6, 1920 95,536 16.1% 1402 (USPD: 1; SPD: 3; DDP / DStP: 1, DVP: 1; DNVP: 1)
May 4, 1924 95,130 15.5% 1 (KPD: 1; SPD: 3; DVP: 1, HBB403: 1; DDP: 1; DNVP: 1)
December 7, 1924 99.205 15.8% 2404 (SPD: 3; DVP: 1; Hess.BB: 1; DDP: 1)
May 20, 1928 95,280 16.0% 1 (KPD: 1; SPD: 3; DVP: 1; ChrBP405: 1)
September 14, 1930 104,249 13.9% 1 (KPD: 1; SPD: 3; NSDAP: 2; DVP: 1; DL406: 1)
July 31, 1932 125,667 14.8% 2 (KPD: 1; SPD: 4; NSDAP: 6)
November 6, 1932 114,365 14.0% 2 (KPD: 2; SPD: 3; NSDAP: 5)
March 5, 1933 120,461 13.6% 2 (KPD: 1; SPD: 3; NSDAP: 7)

MPs

Member of the Reichstag

  • Otto von Brentano di Tremezzo (1919–1924)
  • Fritz Bockius
  • Wilhelm Knoll

Member of the German Center Party in the People's Constituent Chamber and in the Landtag of the People's State of Hesse 1919–1933

MP Life dates Term of office Terms of office
1 2 3 4th 5 6th
1919-1921 1921-1924 1924-1927 1927-1931 1931-1932 1932-1933
Pankraz Blank 1882-1961 1921-1933 0 X X X X X
Otto by Brentano di Tremezzo 1856-1927 1919-1927 X X X 0 0 0
Karl Friedrich Burgbacher 1900-1988 1929-1931 0 0 0 X 0 0
Karl fields 1879-1962 1921-1924, 1925-1927 0 X X 0 0 0
Karl Michael Gesser 1869-1950 1919-1921 X 0 0 0 0 0
Elisabeth Hattemer 1870-1948 1919-1933 X X X X X X
Anton Heinstadt 1886-1970 1924-1933 0 0 X X X X
Valentin Herbert 1864-1933 1919-1924 X X 0 0 0 0
Hans Hoffmann 1880-1949 1921-1933 0 X X X X X
Johann Philipp Hofmann 1873-1926 1918, 1919-1925 X X X 0 0 0
Heinrich Ille 1878-1932 1927-1931 0 0 0 X 0 0
Jakob Keller 1873-1961 1928-1931 0 0 0 X 0 0
Wilhelm Knoll 1873-1947 1919-1925 X X X 0 0 0
Peter Jakob Lang 1878-1954 1927-1931 0 0 0 X 0 0
Hans Lautenbacher 1883-1966 1925-1929 0 0 X X 0 0
Georg Lenhart 1869-1941 1919-1927 X X X 0 0 0
Karl Noll 1883-1963 1931-1933 0 0 0 0 X X
August nut 1883-1958 1920-1928 X X X X 0 0
Georg Scherer 1865-1920 1919/1920 X 0 0 0 0 0
Adam Joseph Johann Schmitt 1855-1928 1920-1921 X 0 0 0 0 0
Valentin Joseph Schorn 1856-1927 1918, 1919-1921 X 0 0 0 0 0
Theodor Franz Schröder 1872-1942 1919-1921 X 0 0 0 0 0
Joseph Maria Schül 1873-1960 1921-1933 0 X X X X X
Heinrich Wendelin Soherr 1863-1929 1919-1921 X 0 0 0 0 0
Alois Späth 1887-1967 1927-1931 0 0 0 X 0 0
Albert Stohr 1890-1961 1931-1933 0 0 0 0 X X
Philipp Uebel 1864-1929 1919-1929 X X 0 0 0 0
Georg Zilch 1855-1930 1920-1921 X 0 0 0 0 0
Franz Adam Wagner 1869-1956 1921-1924 0 X 0 0 0 0
Heinrich Weckler 1894-1958 1924-1933 0 0 X X X X
Johann Wesp 1886-1954 1927-1933 0 0 0 X X X
Kaspar Winter 1869-1950 1927-1933 0 0 0 X X X

Remainder of today's Hessen

The center did not play an essential role in the Protestant Hesse-Nassau . In Frankfurt am Main , too , the center (chaired by Jakob Husch ) was a relatively weak party despite the fact that Catholics were around 20%.

literature

  • Karl Bachem: Prehistory, history and politics of the German Center Party; 1932 (reprint 1968), page 293 ff., Page 293 ff., Page 328 ff., Page 351 ff., Page 419 ff., Volume VIII, page 211 ff
  • Bernd Haunfelder : Member of the Reichstag of the German Center Party 1871–1933. Biographical handbook and historical photographs (= photo documents on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Volume 4). Droste, Düsseldorf 1999, ISBN 3-7700-5223-4 .
  • Hans Georg Ruppel, Birgit Groß: Hessian MPs 1820–1933. Biographical evidence for the estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse (2nd Chamber) and the Landtag of the People's State of Hesse (= Darmstädter Archivschriften. Vol. 5). Verlag des Historisches Verein für Hessen, Darmstadt 1980, ISBN 3-922316-14-X .
  • Heinz Blankenberg: Political Catholicism in Frankfurt am Main: 1918–1933, 1981, ISBN 3-7867-0917-3
  • Thomas Klein: The Hessians as Reichstag voters, 3rd volume: Großherzogtum / Volksstaat Hessen 1867-1933, 1995, ISBN 3-7708-1052-X

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Bachem: Prehistory, history and politics of the German Center Party, Volume 1, page 293 ff
  2. ↑ [1]
  3. ^ Franz Petri: Rheinische Geschichte , p. 423.
  4. ↑ election results
  5. ↑ Reichstag Handbook 1932
  6. ↑ For details on the center in Frankfurt see: Heinz Blankenberg: Politischer Katholizismus in Frankfurt am Main: 1918–1933, 1981, ISBN 3-7867-0917-3