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The Conservative Party (German: Konservative Partei) was a political party in Prussia which was founded in 1848 by the relatively loose cooperation of conservative associations, groups and members of parliament.[3]
In 1866 the Free Conservative Party (known as the German Reich Party in the Reichstag from 1871) split from the Conservatives, who were then called Old Conservatives.[4] In 1876 the Conservative Party merged with the newly founded German Conservative Party.[5]
History
Origins in the Revolution of 1848
Demonstrations on Alexanderplatz during the March Revolution of 1848 in Berlin.
Within the National Assembly, deputies who favored maintaining the traditional structures of the Prussian state began coordinating their positions in response to constitutional proposals advanced by liberal and democratic representatives. Many of these conservative deputies were drawn from the landowning nobility of the eastern provinces and from senior officials within the Prussian civil service. They objected to draft provisions that would substantially limit the authority of the Crown or introduce broader forms of parliamentary control than had existed before 1848.[7]
By mid-1848 conservative deputies met regularly outside the assembly to coordinate their interventions and to formulate shared positions on constitutional questions. Their cooperation intensified as political unrest continued and as debates in the Assembly moved toward issues such as ministerial responsibility and the structure of the executive. Conservatives argued that several proposed reforms were incompatible with the constitutional and administrative practices of the Prussian state as it had developed since the early nineteenth century.[8]
After the king dissolved the National Assembly in December 1848 and introduced the Prussian Constitution of 1848 by royal decree, conservative deputies supported the reassertion of monarchical authority and regarded the new constitutional framework as a necessary measure to stabilize the state after months of disruption.[9] These developments accelerated the consolidation of a coherent conservative political grouping.
In the same year, the establishment of the Neue Preußische Zeitung (commonly called the Kreuzzeitung) created a central press organ that articulated conservative viewpoints and helped to link sympathetic deputies, writers, and officials. By the early 1850s these networks had developed into the Conservative Party, which operated within the constitutional structure defined after 1848 and represented supporters of the monarchy and traditional Prussian state institutions.[10]
The Constitutional Conflict, 1860–1866
The party played a central role in the constitutional crisis that began in 1861, when disagreements arose between the Crown and the liberal majority in the Prussian House of Representatives over funding the planned reorganization of the army. Conservatives endorsed the army reform program and the government’s interpretation that military authority was vested in the monarch under the constitution.[11]
In September 1862 King Wilhelm I appointed Otto von Bismarck as Minister President to resolve the deadlock. Bismarck’s decision to implement the army reform without parliamentary approval was generally supported by conservative deputies, who viewed the conflict as a legal dispute over constitutional interpretation rather than a challenge to accepted political order.[12]
By 1866 differences over economic policy, administrative reform, and the government’s broader political strategy contributed to a division within conservative ranks. A faction supportive of Bismarck’s leadership but inclined toward cooperation with moderate liberal elements formed the Free Conservative Party (Freikonservative Partei), while the original organization continued as the Conservative Party.[13]
Participation in the North German Confederation, 1867–1871
Following Prussia’s victory in the Austro-Prussian War and the establishment of the North German Confederation in 1867, conservative representatives held seats both in the Prussian Landtag and in the federal parliament of the new confederation. In both bodies they supported measures that strengthened the executive authority of the federal presidium held by the Prussian king and reinforced Prussia’s leading position within northern Germany.[14]
The party’s electoral strength remained concentrated in Prussia’s eastern provinces, where large estates and administrative structures had long supported conservative influence. Conservatives generally endorsed Bismarck’s military and diplomatic policies, including those that culminated in the Franco–Prussian War of 1870–1871 and the subsequent proclamation of the German Empire.
Merger and Dissolution, 1871–1876
After the unification of Germany in 1871 political life in the new empire prompted further realignment on the conservative side. Differences between the Conservative Party and the Free Conservatives narrowed as both operated within an imperial parliament whose structure limited Prussian-specific political agendas. Conservative deputies continued to defend monarchical authority and agrarian interests, but the creation of imperial political parties gradually reduced the distinctiveness of the Prussian party.[15]
In 1876 the Conservative Party formally merged with elements of the Free Conservative Party and various conservative associations to form the German Conservative Party (Deutschkonservative Partei). This merger marked the dissolution of the original Prussian Conservative Party, which ceased to exist as an independent organization.[16]
↑Asmuss, Burkhard; Scriba, Arnulf (2 September 2016). "Die Freikonservative Partei 1866–1918"[The Free Conservative Party 1866–1918]. Deutsches Historisches Museum (in German). Retrieved 6 July 2025.
↑Booms, Hans (1954). Die Deutschkonservative Partei[The German Conservative Party](PDF) (in German). Bonn: Kommission für Geschichte des Parlamentarismus und der politischen Parteien. p.5.
↑Christopher Clark, Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006), pp. 458–464.
↑David Blackbourn, History of Germany 1780–1918 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998), pp. 175–177.
↑Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte, Bd. 1 (Munich: C.H. Beck, 1987), pp. 778–783.
↑Wehler, Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte, pp. 782–784.
↑Frank-Lothar Kroll, Preußens Krone (Munich: C.H. Beck, 2001), pp. 184–188.
↑David Blackbourn, History of Germany 1780–1918 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998), pp. 175–177.
↑Christopher Clark, Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006), pp. 475–482.
↑Hans Booms, Die Deutschkonservative Partei (Bonn: KGParl, 1954), p. 5.
↑Blackbourn, History of Germany 1780–1918, pp. 175–177.
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