Conservative People's Party

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Cabinet Brüning I , 1930, with Reich Minister Gottfried Treviranus from the KVP (second row, far left)

The Conservative People's Party (KVP) (emerged from the People's Conservative Association ) was a split off from the German National People's Party (DNVP) that emerged in July 1930 . It remained a numerically insignificant small party , but was represented in the imperial government of Heinrich Brüning (1930-1932). She represented that section of the conservatives who were loyal to the republican system of government , instead of following the new DNVP chairman Alfred Hugenberg in a pure opposition role.

designation

The term conservative was apparently first used by Hermann Ullmann in 1926 . He thought of conservative innovators of both Catholic and Protestant faith. Even then, people were referring to a Christian, social and anti-nationalist attitude. In the two years that followed, the term became a collective name for those in the DNVP who opposed the 1928 shift to the right in the party and wanted to continue the previous collaboration with the center . The term can also be found in an essay by Walther Lambach , “Monarchism”, from 1927. It said that the DNVP should not be one-sidedly monarchist, but rather a “people's conservative party of self-help”.

The name was controversial among older DNVP members such as Kuno Graf von Westarp or in the Kreuzzeitung ; the latter said in 1930 that the name Volkskonservative Vereinigung weakened the clear term conservative . Ullmann defended the new term, however, because, in his opinion, conservative should never again be understood as reactionary . Erasmus Jonas summarized in his study from 1965 that the movement differed from the post-war CDU only in that it saw a contrast between conservative and liberal . Otherwise it was already an anti-Marxist rallying party on a broad ideological basis.

history

Party formation

The cause for the emergence of a new party was the criticism in parts of the DNVP of the policies of Alfred Hugenberg , who had ousted Count Westarp from the position of party chairman in 1928. In particular, the popular initiative against the Young Plan and the collaboration with the NSDAP met with displeasure. When the draft law "Law against the enslavement of the German people" was put to the vote in the Reichstag , about twenty DNVP MPs refused to follow Hugenberg. This responded with party exclusion. Gottfried Treviranus and other MPs left the party. Count Westarp resigned from the parliamentary group. Some of the dissidents joined the Christian Social People's Service , others the Christian National Peasant and Rural People's Party .

A group around Treviranus and Lambach formed a new group called the People's Conservative Association on January 28, 1930 at a meeting in the Prussian manor house . The official establishment had already taken place the day before. Initially, the association was not supposed to be a party, but only to gather like-minded people alongside the DNVP and bring this party itself back on the previous course. The provisional "People's Conservative Association" then became a kind of supra-regional political club. In the manor house and later when the People's Conservative Association was founded, Treviranus said that the DNVP would have to choose between a conservative and a National Socialist course; the People's Conservative Association is ready to merge into a large right-wing party. There was therefore no party program.

In the same year, a few months later, because of the attitude towards Heinrich Brüning's government, the DNVP parliamentary group split again. This time a group around Westarp left the party. Then this group and the People's Conservative Association merged to form the "Conservative People's Party".

1930-1932

The party supported Brüning's center-right policy. Treviranus himself was represented in the government from March 1930 to May 1932 and thus gave the party a weight beyond its quantitative representation. With Brüning's dismissal, Treviranus' activity as minister ended and with it the CIP's participation in political power. The KVP did not run for the Reichstag election in July 1932.

Extra-parliamentary

In the time of the presidential cabinet following Brüning, the CIP was no longer represented in parliament. The people's conservatives met Franz von Papen's government ( Papen's cabinet ) with wait-and-see skepticism. They expected a longer-term era of reaction and were critical of the curtailment of unemployment insurance and Papen's undiplomatic foreign policy. At first, however, the CIP welcomed the Prussian strike , i.e. the disempowerment of the democratic government of Prussia.

Initially at a distance, then inevitably positively, the party opposed Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher (from December 1932). Even if close ties did not develop with him, the party brought it closer to him when he returned to Briining's policy. The reconciliation of Brüning and Groener with Schleicher also contributed to this. On December 17, 1932, Dähnhardt said that Schleicher was the only alternative to Hitler . In doing so, he joined the opinion of the influential German National Sales Aid Association , which had previously advocated a coalition of National Socialists and the Center.

The people's conservatives viewed Adolf Hitler and his program with uncertainty. It is not clear what a term like Third Reich should mean. On February 18, 1933, when Hitler was already Chancellor, it was said in the people 's conservatives that a fascist experiment could not last long. The only possible form of government for Germany in the future is the authoritarian state. The crisis of the CIP was clearly shown in the fact that contradicting recommendations were issued for the Reichstag elections on March 5th: partly for the black-white-red battle front , i.e. the former German nationalists, partly for the Christian-Social and indirectly also for the National Socialists.

From March 31, 1933, the people 's conservative votes no longer appeared due to lack of money. On May 1, 1933, Heinz Dähnhardt destroyed the conservative archives that had been relocated to the house of the trade unions. Like all other remaining parties, the KVP was banned by law on July 14, 1933 . Treviranus fled abroad in mid-1934 .

program

The Conservative People's Party demanded an end to the "system of irregular mass rule through a state structure that corresponds to the historical development and natural structure of our people". What was meant was a professional constitution.

In the election call of 1930, the KVP spoke out in favor of a national but rather moderate foreign policy by demanding the revision of the “tribute burdens” (the reparations of the First World War), “freedom of voting for Eupen-Malmedy ”, the return of the Saar region to Germany and a new demarcation in the east. In terms of domestic politics, the party wanted an unspecified reform of the tasks of the Reich and the states, a strengthening of local self-government and the secure position of the "civil servants". Instead of “party and program choice”, “person choice” should be introduced.

In economic terms, the KVP wanted to see a “viable market” and an independent trade that was to be protected against competition and the state's tendencies towards nationalization. The professional classifications are to be expanded. Culture promoted by the state must “conform to the principles of Christian salvation and ethics”.

structure

The People's Conservative Association and then the Conservative People's Party had a Reich office in Berlin. According to the statutes of December 17, 1930, the KVP had a 25-member Reich Executive Board, which was elected for two years. He elected the eleven-member Reich management, which included the party chairman and the chief editor of the people 's conservative votes . The day-to-day management was held by a person from the executive board. The provisional chairman was initially Treviranus, from December 15th Paul Lejeune-Jung . He resigned in 1932 and Heinz Dähnhardt took over management. The CIP was only slightly anchored in the regions of Germany.

The People's Conservative Association, which was temporarily revived alongside the KVP, issued a statute in 1931 according to which it sought “the political combination of all forces” that “are determined, in the sense of the 'Conservative Manifesto' of February 15, 1931, for a free, powerfully led one German state to fight. ”Every German could become a member. The general assembly, the “Reichstagung der Conservatives”, elected the “Führerring” for two years, which gave itself a “spokesman”. Members of the Reichstag and Landtag were not allowed to be members, but belonged to a "parliamentary ring".

Since 1930 the association has had the Volkskonservative pamphlets series and the Volkskonservative Führerbriefe for employees . In addition, the people's conservatives had contacts with the Daily Rundschau and the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung .

meaning

The Conservative People's Party saw itself as the nucleus of a bourgeois gathering movement. This did not happen, however, and the organization remained a party of dignitaries . She never had mass support or a noteworthy party apparatus. In particular, unlike the DNVP, it lacked the support of the agricultural interest groups in the conservative strongholds of the Prussian eastern territories. In 1930 it had just 10,000 members. It received considerable financial support from industry, as it rejected Hugenberg's anti-governmental course.

Politically, the party remained largely unsuccessful in elections. In the Reichstag election of 1930 she got four seats through a list connection with the Rural People's Party. But even in this election, only about 300,000 voters gave her their vote, which corresponds to 0.8% of the valid votes cast. Significant successes were only achieved in isolated cases: in Upper Bavaria through the candidacy of the popular World War General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck there (KVP 4.0% versus 2.1% for the DNVP, in Munich even 6.2% KVP versus 2.4% DNVP ), in Schaumburg-Lippe (2.5%), in the state of Lippe (2.0%), the home of Treviranus, and in the Free Cities of Hamburg (2.8%) and Lübeck (2.2%). The attempt to amalgamate the bourgeois parties including the people's conservatives in 1932 failed, so the KVP did not run in the 1932 Reichstag elections . This ended their perceptible partisan activity.

She received her only mandate at state level in 1930 in the state elections in Bremen .

literature

  • Walter Tormin : History of the German parties since 1848. 2nd, modified edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 1967.
  • Erasmus Jonas : The People's Conservatives 1928–1933. Development, structure, location and state policy objectives (= contributions to the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Vol. 30). Droste, Düsseldorf 1965.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Erasmus Jonas: The People's Conservatives 1928-1933. Development, structure, location and political objectives. Düsseldorf 1965, p. 20.
  2. ↑ Erasmus Jonas: The People's Conservatives 1928-1933. Development, structure, location and political objectives. Düsseldorf 1965, p. 21.
  3. ↑ Erasmus Jonas: The People's Conservatives 1928-1933. Development, structure, location and political objectives. Düsseldorf 1965, pp. 21-22.
  4. ↑ Erasmus Jonas: The People's Conservatives 1928-1933. Development, structure, location and political objectives. Düsseldorf 1965, pp. 59-62.
  5. ↑ Erasmus Jonas: The People's Conservatives 1928-1933. Development, structure, location and political objectives. Düsseldorf 1965, pp. 125-126.
  6. ↑ Erasmus Jonas: The People's Conservatives 1928-1933. Development, structure, location and political objectives. Düsseldorf 1965, pp. 127–128.
  7. ↑ Erasmus Jonas: The People's Conservatives 1928-1933. Development, structure, location and political objectives. Düsseldorf 1965, pp. 132-133.
  8. ↑ Erasmus Jonas: The People's Conservatives 1928-1933. Development, structure, location and political objectives. Düsseldorf 1965, p. 132.
  9. ^ Walter Tormin: History of the German parties since 1848. Stuttgart et al. 1967, p. 196.
  10. ↑ Erasmus Jonas: The People's Conservatives 1928-1933. Development, structure, location and political objectives. Düsseldorf 1965, p. 189.
  11. ↑ Erasmus Jonas: The People's Conservatives 1928-1933. Development, structure, location and political objectives. Düsseldorf 1965, pp. 189-190.
  12. ↑ Erasmus Jonas: The People's Conservatives 1928-1933. Development, structure, location and political objectives. Düsseldorf 1965, p. 137.
  13. ↑ Quoted from: Erasmus Jonas: Die Volkskonservativen 1928–1933. Development, structure, location and political objectives. Düsseldorf 1965, pp. 190-192.
  14. ↑ Erasmus Jonas: The People's Conservatives 1928-1933. Development, structure, location and political objectives. Düsseldorf 1965, p. 140.
  15. ^ Heinrich August Winkler : Weimar 1918–1933. The history of the first German democracy. Beck, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-406-37646-0 , p. 385.
  16. ↑ Horst Möller : Enlightenment and Democracy. Historical Studies on Political Reason. Edited by Andreas Wirsching . Oldenbourg, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-486-56707-1 , p. 232.
  17. ^ Valentin Schröder: Weimar Republic 1918-1933: State elections for the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. In: Wahlen-in-deutschland.de (July 23, 2015).