Economic Development Association (party)

The economic construction association (short name: WAV ) was a German party founded by Alfred Loritz . It existed from 1945 to 1953 and entered both the Bavarian state parliament and the Bundestag . The populist middle class party , which was elected to the Bundestag thanks to the support of refugee associations , went down in personal disputes. In part, she tried to collaborate with right-wing extremists.

history

Until the first federal election in 1949

Under the leadership of the lawyer Alfred Loritz, the WAV was founded in Munich in 1945 and on December 8, 1945 authorized by the US military government to carry out political activities in the city and district of Munich. On March 25, 1946, the WAV was licensed as the fourth state party alongside the CSU , SPD and KPD and was thus allowed to run for state elections. For personal reasons, Loritz had been involved in the resistance against the Nazi regime and fled to Switzerland in 1939 before being drafted. The party benefited from the fact that the US military government only gave permission (license) to a few party foundations. Before the WAV there was only the CSU , SPD and KPD ; the FDP was founded two months after the WAV. It was therefore an interesting partner at the state level for only locally organized groups.

Although the party was elected to the Bavarian State Constitutional Assembly (July 15 to November 30, 1946) with eight seats on June 30, 1946, after the election success of 5.1 percent , several MPs and members soon left the party for the CSU or FDP. The dictatorial style of the party and parliamentary group chairman led to this split, according to party researcher Hans Woller . In Bavaria's first parliamentary government after the war ( Ehard I cabinet ), the WAV formed a coalition with the CSU and SPD, although the CSU had an absolute majority. Loritz became special minister for political liberation, responsible for denazification . He was released on June 24, 1947 after being charged with perjury and linked to black market business. With this, the WAV also left the coalition. In the same month, a nationalist group led by Karl Meißner deposed Loritz, who, however, resisted being voted out. Loritz's supporters managed to regain the upper hand. On October 26th, Julius Höllerer , Alfred Noske and Loritz were elected to the joint state chairmanship, the latter in a narrow runoff against Meißner. When he was preparing a new party, he was expelled from the WAV. In November he founded the German Block .

In July 1949, Loritz emerged victorious from the ensuing turmoil, in which one also fought with exclusionary procedures. Time was running out because the first federal election took place on August 14th . Loritz had been wanted by the police in the meantime, claimed that he had to flee from custody because of his impending murder, and accused the Bavarian state government of deliberately putting the start of the main hearing into the hot phase of the election campaign. The military government ordered a postponement, which led to a conflict between the occupying power and the state government.

Woller suspects that the CSU had seen a competitor in the WAV since the spring of 1948, when it lost many votes in the local elections, even though the WAV itself only received 1.7 percent. Above all, however, the CSU (rightly) feared that the WAV would allied itself with the refugee groups. The military government had forbidden them to form a party. In contrast to the SPD and FDP, the WAV, lying on the ground, was ready to comply with the demands of the “new citizens' union”. He achieved a country list with equal representation, and his supporters did not have to become members of the WAV.

Wing fighting and dissolution

The election law for the first Bundestag contained a five percent hurdle , but it applied separately to each federal state. This should strengthen parties with a regional focus and thus the federal concept of the Basic Law. With 14.4 percent of the votes in Bavaria, the WAV list received twelve mandates. With this the WAV already reached the peak of its success. On March 17, 1950, the licensing requirement was lifted so that the displaced could found their own party. The corresponding members of the WAV also switched to the new grouping of the All-German Block / BHE . In Bavaria, 2.8 percent in the state elections on November 26, 1950 were not enough for re-entry into the state parliament.

The seven remaining WAV MPs in the Bundestag then tried to join other bourgeois parties, the SPD and KPD were not considered. In doing so, they tried to secure a constituency or secure place on the list for the upcoming election. In June 1951 Loritz was expelled from the WAV parliamentary group because he had announced a merger with the right-wing extremist Socialist Reich Party (SRP). Nevertheless, Loritz had himself confirmed as state chairman at a state assembly in September and, in turn, obtained the expulsion of four members of the Bundestag. As a result, Swabian WAV groups split off in December 1951 and founded a Bavarian regional association of the German Party (DP). The four members of the Bundestag joined the DP parliamentary group, the WAV parliamentary group dissolved on December 6, 1951. On March 25, 1953, the MPs Günter Goetzendorff , Wolfgang Hedler , Erich Langer , Alfred Loritz and Otto Reindl again founded a WAV group for the rest of the legislative period.

As early as 1950, two members of the SRP had joined the WAV group in the Bundestag. After the SRP ban in October 1952, the SRP thought about using the WAV as a reservoir, among other things. Although Loritz was not a nationalist, he shared anti-parliamentarianism with the SRP and the rejection of Konrad Adenauer's foreign policy (abandonment of the Soviet Zone and Eastern Territories ). The cooperation between WAV and SRP in Lower Saxony resulted in the German Construction Association (DAV). On August 11, 1953, this designation was still adopted by the entire party, but the collection failed. The DAV no longer took part in the 1953 federal election.

Attempted comeback in 1955

Loritz tried to make a political comeback, for which he strove to participate in the state election in Bremen on October 9, 1955 . There were irregularities in collecting signatures for WAV. The subsequent legal disputes lasted until Loritz's death in 1979.

program

Loritz was expelled from the economic party in 1932 because, according to Woller, he had behaved like a troublemaker . He always presented himself as a victim and directed his anti-attitude against powerful opponents. After the end of the war, he wanted to found a party to defend the existing property and power relations.

The WAV founding program of December 1945 was aimed at medium-sized companies. Woller judges it as lacking in concept and populist. Despite the protection of private property, former National Socialists and owners of large fortunes were to be expropriated. The middle class should be protected against big industry , the workers benefit from minimum wages . Loritz wanted to make parliamentary democracy superfluous through direct referendums on every law. The “popular will” should be expressed directly. Ministers should only be provided by experts. In foreign policy, the WAV welcomed Germany's orientation towards the West, but opted for a course of neutrality in order not to prematurely abandon German unity .

"The primacy of propaganda and the contradicting politics," said Woller, "did not hide the fact that in the WAV [...] there was an ideological consensus, albeit a narrow one, made up of social existential fears and class romanticism." wanted a pre-industrial social order back.

Election results in Bavaria

Election results Bavaria

15%

10%

5%

0%

VLV
'46

LT
'46

BT
'49

LT
'50

The WAV achieved 5.1 percent (8 seats) in the election for the state assembly in Bavaria in 1946, and 7.4 percent (13 seats) in the subsequent state election in Bavaria in 1946 . Through her presence in the Bavarian state parliament she was able to send a representative to the Economic Council of the Bizone (June 1947 to February 1948), after a reorganization two representatives (1948-49). In the state elections in Bavaria in 1950 , 2.8 percent failed to move back in. In the 1949 federal election , WAV received 2.9 percent of the vote nationwide; In Bavaria, she was able to overcome the five percent hurdle that applied separately for each federal state with 14.4 percent: Here she was awarded 12 seats in the Bundestag.

In 1946 the party was still largely elected by long-time residents, but in 1949 it was particularly successful in areas with many refugees.

Chairperson

Alfred Loritz was the first and last member of the WAV, "enfant terrible, Munich talk in the first post-war decade, the subject of sensational press". Having become rich through the black market and equipped with a great speaker talent, the authoritarian Loritz was nevertheless unsuitable for building a stable and lasting organization.

• Alfred Loritz, 1946–1947
• Five-person "Directory" (not recognized by the US military government): Karl Meißner, Josef Klessinger, Friedrich Lugmair, Alfred Noske, Paul Röschinger, June 1947 to October 1947
• Julius Höllerer, Erich Kühne, Alfred Loritz (represented by Gottfried Zimmermann), 1947–1948
• Alfred Loritz, 1948–1953

literature

• Hans Woller: The Loritz party: history, structure and politics of the economic construction association (WAV) 1945–1955 . Stuttgart, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt 1982, ISBN 3-421-06084-3 .
• Hans Woller: The economic development association . In: Richard Stöss (Ed.): Party Handbook. The parties in the Federal Republic of Germany 1945–1990 . Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen, 1984, ISBN 3-531-11592-8 , Vol. 2, pp. 2458-2481 (cf. the special edition Richard Stöss (Ed.): Political parties handbook. The parties in the Federal Republic of Germany 1945-1990 Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1986, ISBN 3-531-11838-2 , Vol. 4: NDP – WAV ).
• Sören Winge: The Economic Development Association (WAV) 1945–53. Development and politics of an “undoctrinaire” political party in the Federal Republic in the first post-war period . Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm 1976, ISBN 91-554-0368-9 (also dissertation, Uppsala University).

Web links

• Daniel Schönwald: Economic Development Association (WAV) . In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria

Individual evidence

1. ^ Historical Lexicon of Bavaria - online version - accessed on February 22, 2016 | Available online at 9 p.m.
2. ^ ^{A b} Hans Woller: The economic development association . In: Richard Stöss (Ed.): Party Handbook. The parties in the Federal Republic of Germany 1945–1990 . Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen, 1984, Vol. 2, p. 2458.
3. ^ ^{A b} Hans Woller: The economic construction association , p. 2463.
4. ↑ Hans Woller: Die Wirtschaftliche Aufbau-Vereinigung , pp. 2463-2465.
5. ↑ Hans Woller: Die Wirtschaftliche Aufbau-Vereinigung , pp. 2466-2467.
6. ^ ^{A b} Hans Woller: The economic construction association , p. 2468.
7. ^ ^{A b} Hans Woller: The economic construction association , p. 2469.
8. ↑ ^{a b} Hans Woller: Die Wirtschaftliche Aufbau-Vereinigung , p. 2470.
9. ↑ The poor Nazis. In: spiegel.de. January 4, 1947. Retrieved April 28, 2019 . 
10. ↑ See Hans Woller: Die Wirtschaftliche Aufbau-Vereinigung , pp. 2460–2462.
11. ↑ Hans Woller: The economic construction association , pp. 2471-2473.
12. ^ Michael Schlieben: Failed political leadership: The failed post-war parties . In: Daniela Forkmann, Michael Schlieben (ed.): The party leaders in the Federal Republic of Germany 1949-2005 . VS, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-531-14516-9 , pp. 303-348 here p. 321 (quotation) and p. 324f.