United Liberals

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The " fraction of the united liberals " was a left-liberal fraction within the Hamburg citizenship between 1906 and 1918.

Origin and general

In 1906, 22 bourgeois and liberal members of Hamburg's citizenship opposed the changes to the electoral law (often also called electoral theft) that were passed by the Hamburg parliament. The reason for the change in the electoral law was to prevent the social democracy from gaining strength and to keep the majority of the citizens in the hands of the bourgeois elite. Of the 22 parliamentarians, 13 founded the “Group of United Liberals”, which, however, represented a left-wing liberal party rather than just a parliamentary group. The nine other MPs who did not change to the new parliamentary group, like the former chairman of the right wing group Albert Wolffson, left their parliamentary groups and remained non-attached. Officially, the President of the Citizenship Julius Engel was informed by Carl Wilhelm Petersen on September 12, 1906 that 13 members of the parliament had come together to form the United Liberals' faction.

The right to vote changed in that half of the 160 seats that were elected in so-called " general elections " were split into two parts. Citizens with a tax revenue of over 2,500 marks elected 48 MPs, and citizens with a tax revenue of over 1,200 marks elected 24 MPs. The remaining eight mandates were held by representatives from the rural areas. A class suffrage was introduced, which placed a large part of the previous voters significantly worse.

From 1910 onwards, the United Liberals can be regarded as the national association of the Progressive People's Party (FVP). On October 22, 1918, the faction of the United Liberals of the Hamburg Citizenship officially changed its name to "Fraction of the Progressive People's Party". At the end of 1918, many previous members of the United Liberals helped found the German Democratic Party .

Profile of the United Liberals

The United Liberals were the first bourgeois parliamentary group to have its own political profile. The three previous parliamentary groups, “Right”, “Left” and “Left Center”, could be distinguished more by the origin of their members than by their own program . The later mayor of Hamburg, Carl Wilhelm Petersen, who joined the United Liberals from the right-wing parliamentary group, was of the opinion that the “old” parliamentary groups were more likely to be differentiated by their boots than by political convictions. The faction of the right is the "faction of the patent leather boots", that of the left center the "faction of the wich boots" and the left the "faction of the lubricating boots". In addition to the new parliamentary group, the Social Democrats' parliamentary group was formed from 1904 onwards , and like the liberals had their own political profile.

In addition, the parliamentary group rejected the one-sided interests of the landowners, who, with forty mandates, had a large weight in the citizenry. In their program, they made it clear: “True to liberal principles, we reject any unilateral interest policy.” And “Rather, we consider it our duty to keep the interests of all classes and professions in the same eye when regulating the state.” The constitution on the other hand, until 1917, the division within the citizenry between the seats of the notables, the landowners and the generally elected representatives. Free creed was also important to the United Liberals, which should not result in any disadvantage for politics.

The United Liberals and the SPD

Even if the so-called electoral theft was the reason for the founding of the new parliamentary group, the United Liberals were clearly opposed to social democracy. The parliamentary group writes on the first page of its program for the 1907 election campaign: “We therefore vigorously oppose the social democratic class policy, which is aimed at realizing communist ideals in place of the existing economic system and the interests of the manual workers while neglecting all other interests to unilaterally assert itself in state life ”. Carl Wilhelm Petersen expressed not only once in the citizenship that it was an "honorary duty" for him to fight social democracy.

Rather, the Liberals were of the opinion that one had to give in to the demands of the wage workers and introduce a sensible social policy and thus “dig the water out” of social democracy. Due to the partly similar daily political demands of the United Liberals and the Social Democrats, a close cooperation quickly developed. An extra-parliamentary example of this is the support for the strike in the Port of Hamburg in 1913.

Opponent of the United Liberals

The three "old" parliamentary groups were opposed to the new parliamentary group. They believed that they were making a pact with the Social Democrats. For example, the parliamentary group of the Left Center wrote about the United Liberals about the 1907 election campaign: “The 'Left Center' parliamentary group considers it hopeless and dangerous to try to convert social democracy through continued concession and fundamentally rejects making pacts with social democracy. The parliamentary group fights a political direction which theoretically professes itself to be the enemy of social democracy, but in practice only too often goes hand in hand with it. ”The United Liberals were also often called“ pink social democrats ”by their political opponents. Sections of the bourgeois press even described them as "the originator of a dangerous revolutionary movement and pimps of social democracy".

End and new beginning of the United Liberals

At the end of the First World War , the Senate tried to calm the minds with half-hearted concessions due to the pressure of the street (for example the shipyard and metal workers' strike of January 1918). The measure to elect two members of the United Liberals to the Hamburg Senate did nothing to change the tense situation. In 1917 the businessman Johann Hinrich Garrels and in 1918 the later mayor Carl Wilhelm Petersen was elected senator by the city council.

In the course of the November Revolution and the emerging democratic Weimar Republic , the " German Democratic Party " was founded around the United Liberals . The cooperation between social democrats and liberals within a stable government until 1933 is remarkable. This close trust can be explained above all by the joint struggles against the “old parliamentary groups” in the citizenship until 1919.

Members of the United Liberals Group (incomplete)

Friedrich Ablass - Andreas Blunck - Carl Braband - Johannes Büll - Carl Bunzel - Carl Cohn - Johann Hinrich Garrels - Christian Koch - Walter Matthaei - Carl Wilhelm Petersen - Curt Platen - Adolphus Lehnert Wex

Literature and Sources

  • Ursula Büttner : United Liberals and German Democrats in Hamburg 1906–1930 , in: ZHG , Volume 63 (1977), pp. 1–34.
  • Heinrich Erdmann: The “electoral robbery” of 1906 as a breach of tradition. On the relationship between the Senate and the citizenship according to the constitution of 1860 and 1879, 1906, 1919 , in: Hamburg in the first quarter of the 20th century , State Center for Political Education Hamburg, Hamburg 2000.
  • Sigrid Schambach: Carl Petersen (= Hamburg heads ), Hamburg 2000.
  • The United Liberals in the Hamburg “Citizenship”. Report on the activities of the parliamentary group of the United Liberals in the Hamburg citizenship 1907–1910 . Commissioned by Robert Jansen's parliamentary group, publishing house of the Hamburg Association of United Liberals, Hamburg 1910.
  • The United Liberals in the Hamburg Parliament. Report on the activities of the Group of United Liberals in the Hamburg Parliament from 1910 to 1912. Published by the parliamentary group, publishing house of the Hamburg Association of United Liberals, Hamburg 1912.

Individual evidence

  1. Schambach: Carl Petersen , p. 31.
  2. Hamburg State Archives, there under “Citizenship” and in particular a message in the citizenship parliamentary group folder: German People's Party.
  3. ^ Büttner: Vereinigte , p. 6.
  4. Erdmann: Wahlrechtsraub , p. 31.
  5. a b Program of the United Liberals, printed in: Die Vereinigte Liberalen , 1910, p. 101.
  6. Schambach: Carl Petersen , p. 29.
  7. ^ Büttner, Vereinigte , pp. 8 and 12.
  8. ^ Program of the Left Center faction, partly printed in: Die Vereinigte Liberalen , 1910, p. 101.
  9. ^ According to the Weser newspaper of June 10, 1907.