German Center Party
| German Center Party | |
|---|---|
|
|
| party leader | Klaus Brall |
| general secretary | Christian Otte |
| Deputy Chairman | Andreas Erkes Dirk Horhauser |
| Federal Managing Director | Thomas Heben |
| Federal Treasurer | Hans Joachim Woitzik |
| Honorary Chairman | Gerhard Woitzik |
| founding | December 13, 1870 |
| place of incorporation | Berlin |
| Headquarters | Am Alten Bach 18 41470 Neuss |
| youth organization | Windthorstbund (former); youth in the centre |
| newspaper | Germania (former) |
| alignment |
Christian Democracy Conservatism Centrism Political Catholicism |
| Colours) | blue |
| Bundestag seats |
1/736 |
| number of members | 300 (as of January 2022) |
| minimum age | 16 years |
| MEPs | none |
| site | www.zentrumspartei.de |
The German Center Party (abbreviated to Zentrum , formerly Z and DZP ) is a German political party . It attained its greatest importance between 1871 and 1933 - in the German Empire and in the Weimar Republic - when it was the party of Catholics and political Catholicism in the German Empire . Between 1917 and 1932 the Center provided the Reich Chancellor on several occasions .
With the founding of the CDU as a non-denominational party, the center lost most of its voter and membership base after the Second World War . Since the mid-1950s it has only been a small party . The Center describes itself as the oldest party in Germany because it has been active under the same name since it was founded in 1870, while other parties (from 1861 the German Progressive Party as the FDP -precursor or the SPD from 1863 in the form of the General German Workers' Association ) led to changing party names. After decades of absence from parliament, the Center has been represented again in the German Bundestag since 2022, when former AfD MP Uwe Witt joined the party .
programming and structure
orientation of the party
To this day, the center is a Christian, social and conservative-oriented small party in Germany. According to the unanimous statement of all wings and executives of the party, the goals are to “maintain and expand the free-democratic basic order”, to promote a worldwide peace policy and to create a Europe that is socially balanced and structured as a confederation of independent states, all of this under the guiding principle "conscious of his responsibility before God and man", which is taken from the preamble of the Basic Law (GG).
The Center Party sees itself as a party that rejects any radical tendencies, both from the right and from the left. The program should be balanced in terms of content, value-oriented and differentiated. The program is now based on the new basic program adopted on October 4, 2008. Unlike in the past, the party's members are no longer exclusively Catholic . The center was a member of the European party European Christian Political Movement (ECPM).
The Center Party is against any form of abortion . Outside of her actual political work and election campaign work, she is involved as part of the right to life movement , sometimes using provocative methods.
municipal mandates
Today, the center is represented with one mandate each in the district councils of the Rhein-Kreis Neuss and the district of Cloppenburg . It has three seats on the city council in Dormagen and one seat each in Kaarst and Cloppenburg . The party also has four seats on the Molbergen Municipality Council and, since 2021, one seat on the Saterland Municipality Council . Seats in Mönchengladbach and Neuss city councils were lost in 2014 , seats in Meerbusch city council with the 2020 election .
Federal Board
| chairman | Klaus Brall |
|---|---|
| vice-chairman |
|
| treasurer | Hans Joachim Woitzik |
| general secretary | Christian Otte |
| managing Director | Thomas Heben |
| assessor |
|
According to the statutes, the Federal Executive Committee of the Center Party also includes the chairmen of the individual regional associations.
National associations and their chairmen
There are currently four national associations. The state association of North Rhine-Westphalia was formed on May 10, 2008 through the merger of the two state associations of Rhineland and Westphalia-Lippe. In addition, with Rastatt , Reutlingen , Stendal , Calw , Düsseldorf and Cloppenburg - Vechta as a joint district association, there are a total of six district or city associations.
| national association | Chairman (as of January 18, 2022) |
|---|---|
| Lower Saxony | Udo begin |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | Christian Otte |
| Hesse | Hans Mohrman |
| Baden-Wuerttemberg | Bjorn Schneider |
story
At the end of 1870 and beginning of 1871, Catholic deputies in the Reichstag and in the Prussian Chamber of Deputies came together to form factions called Zentrum. The party developed into the strongest or second strongest (first after the Liberals, then after the Social Democrats) in the Empire. In the Weimar Republic it was one of the republic-supporting parties of the Weimar coalition . It was forced to disband in 1933. It was re-established in 1945, but was unable to assert itself against the new, cross-denominational CDU . It is a small party that was not represented in the Bundestag from 1957 to 2022. Since January 2022, a former AfD member has been the party's only MP.
web links
itemizations
- ↑ a b CENTRE. Retrieved April 19, 2021 (German).
- ↑ Frank Jansen : "I find it difficult to constantly wage war". In: Daily Mirror Online. Verlag Der Tagesspiegel, January 18, 2022, retrieved January 19, 2022 .
- ^ Statutes of the Center Party, Section 1, § 4 (PDF; 507 KB)
- ↑ Johannes Leicht, Arnulf Scriba: German Progress Party 1861-1884. In: German Historical Museum , Berlin. Retrieved November 13, 2016 .
- ↑ Accession by Uwe Witt: German Center Party represented again in the Bundestag. German Center Party, January 18, 2022, retrieved January 18, 2022 .
- ↑ Center Party returns to Bundestag. In: Mirror Online. January 18, 2022, retrieved January 18, 2022 .
- ↑ Our policy. Retrieved November 14, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Abortion opponents distribute disgusting pizza leaflet in Munich. TZ, November 27, 2017.
- ↑ We reserve the right to take legal action. Archdiocese of Cologne distances itself from anti-abortion campaign. In: domradio.de. domradio.de, June 27, 2018, retrieved on June 29, 2018 : "Above a photo of an abortion clinic the writing "Abtrieb macht frei" can be read - based on the inscription "Arbeit macht frei" above the gate of the Auschwitz death camp- Birkenau."
- ↑ Council election - municipal elections 2020 in the city of Dormagen - overall result. Retrieved September 14, 2020 .
- ↑ Council election - municipal elections 2020 in Kaarst - overall result. Retrieved September 14, 2020 .
- ↑ CDU-FDP Center Group – City of Cloppenburg. Retrieved September 14, 2020 .
- ↑ Mayor / Municipal Council - Municipality of Molbergen. Retrieved September 14, 2020 .
- ↑ Petra Schiffer: Dormagen: Center wants to compete in state elections. In: ngz-online.de. 12 May 2008, retrieved 28 February 2015 .
- ↑ German Center Party District Association Cloppenburg-Vechta. Retrieved November 14, 2018 .
- ↑ The national associations. Retrieved November 14, 2018 (German).