Liberal Reich Party
The Liberal Reich Party was a short-lived liberal-conservative party at the beginning of the German Empire . It existed from 1871 to 1874.
history
The parliamentary group of the Liberal Reich Party was formed in 1871 from thirty members of the Reichstag. This was a remnant of the old liberals and politically stood between the national liberals and the free conservatives .
The originally planned party name Deutsche Reichspartei had to be given up because the free conservatives claimed this name for themselves. Both parties were on the side of Otto von Bismarck . However, the liberal Reich Party demanded freedom of the press and freedom of association. It also demanded clarification of the relationship between state and church and supported the beginning of the Kulturkampf . In 1873 she supported the application for Lex Miquel-Lasker , which ultimately led to the drafting of the BGB . On the other hand, they were opposed to demands from the left-wing liberals and the Social Democrats for a parliamentarization of the Reich.
A proper party organization did not exist. The Liberal Reich Party remained a party of dignitaries . Members of the nobility played a major role in the parliamentary group in the Reichstag. Almost half of the group came from this class of society. Half of the parliamentary group consisted of federalist Protestants and the other half of liberal Catholics. The later Chancellor and former Bavarian Prime Minister Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst was parliamentary group leader. When he became ambassador in Paris in 1874, it meant a serious crisis for the party. In the Reichstag election of 1874 , the party could only have three members. Two of them joined the Free Conservative Reich Party and one with the National Liberals. This meant the end of the Liberal Reich Party.
Individual evidence
- ^ Heinrich August Winkler: The long way to the west. Volume 1: German history from the end of the Old Reich to the fall of the Weimar Republic. Munich, 2001. p. 224
literature
- Helmut Steinsdorfer: The Liberal Reich Party (LRP) from 1871. Steiner, Stuttgart, 2000, ISBN 3-515-07566-6 , partially digitized .
- Walter Tormin : History of the German parties since 1848. 2nd revised edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 1967, p. 59f. ( Past and present ).