Free Conservative Party

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Free Conservative Party
Freikonservative Partei
Historic leader Victor I, Duke of Ratibor
Founded28 July 1866 (28 July 1866)
Dissolved13 December 1918 (13 December 1918)
Split from Prussian Conservative Party
Succeeded by DNVP (right-wing factions)
DVP (moderate factions)
Headquarters Berlin, Prussia
NewspaperDie Post
Ideology Liberal conservatism
Progressive conservatism
Political Protestantism
East Elbia regionalism
German nationalism
Agrarianism
Political position Centre to centre-right
Colors  Sky blue
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The Free Conservative Party (German : Freikonservative Partei, FKP) was a liberal-conservative [1] [2] political party in Prussia and the German Empire which emerged from the Prussian Conservative Party in the Prussian Landtag in 1866. In the federal elections to the Reichstag parliament from 1871, it ran as the German Reich Party (German : Deutsche Reichspartei, DRP). DRP was classified as centrist or centre-right by political standards at the time, and it also put forward the slogan "conservative progress". [3]

Contents

The Free Conservative Association achieved party status in 1867, comprising German nobles and East Elbian Junkers (land owners) like Duke Victor of Ratibor, Wilhelm von Kardorff, Karl Rudolf Friedenthal, Hermann, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, and Hugo zu Hohenlohe-Öhringen industrialists and government officials like Johann Viktor Bredt, Prince Hermann von Hatzfeldt, Hermann von Dechend, Friedrich Alfred Krupp, Eduard Puricelli, Prince Karl Max von Lichnowsky, and Theodor Heinrich Engelbrecht, diplomat Herbert von Bismarck, generals Hans Hartwig von Beseler and Eduard von Liebert, jurists Karl Heinrich von Boetticher and Heinrich Triepel and scholars like Hans Delbrück, Adolf Grabowsky and Otto Hoetzsch.

It was distinguished from the German Conservative Party established in 1876 by its unqualified support of German unification and was seen as the political party which beside the National Liberals was closest in views to those of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, including his Anti-Socialist Laws and Kulturkampf policies. The party was generally dominated by conservative industrialists and while it opposed political liberalism it also tended to support free trade and the development of industry. Upon the accession of Emperor Wilhelm II in 1888, the party backed his naval policies and the formation of the German colonial empire, approaching towards the German nationalist Pan-German League pressure group while centrists like Adolf Grabowsky did not prevail.

The party disbanded in December 1918 following the end of the Hohenzollern monarchy and the German Revolution. Several members had supported the formation of the German Fatherland Party in 1917, now most of its constituency turned to the newly established German National People's Party while some also joined the national liberal German People's Party.

Election results

Reichstag
DateVotesSeatsPositionSize
No. %± ppNo.±
February 1867 348,5379.33New
39 / 297
NewOpposition4th
August 1867 205,7928.95Decrease2.svg 0.38
36 / 297
Decrease2.svg 3OppositionIncrease2.svg 4th
1871 343,0988.83Decrease2.svg 0.12
37 / 382
Increase2.svg 1Extra-parliamentaryDecrease2.svg 5th
1874 388,8407.49Decrease2.svg 1.34
32 / 397
Decrease2.svg 5Extra-parliamentaryIncrease2.svg 4th
1877 424,2287.85Increase2.svg 0.36
38 / 397
Increase2.svg 6Extra-parliamentaryDecrease2.svg 5th
1878 785,63113.64Increase2.svg 5.79
57 / 397
Increase2.svg 19Extra-parliamentaryIncrease2.svg 3th
1881 382,1497.50Decrease2.svg 6.14
27 / 397
Decrease2.svg 30Extra-parliamentaryDecrease2.svg 6th
1884 387,6376.85Decrease2.svg 0.65
28 / 397
Increase2.svg 1Extra-parliamentarySteady2.svg 6th
1887 736,3899.77Increase2.svg 2.92
41 / 397
Increase2.svg 13Extra-parliamentarySteady2.svg 6th
1890 461,3076.38Decrease2.svg 3.39
19 / 397
Decrease2.svg 22Extra-parliamentarySteady2.svg 6th
1893 437,9725.71Decrease2.svg 0.67
28 / 397
Increase2.svg 9Extra-parliamentarySteady2.svg 6th
1898 337,6014.35Decrease2.svg 1.36
22 / 397
Decrease2.svg 6Extra-parliamentarySteady2.svg 6th
1903 336,6173.54Decrease2.svg 0.81
21 / 397
Decrease2.svg 1Extra-parliamentarySteady2.svg 6th
1907 471,8634.19Increase2.svg 0.65
24 / 397
Increase2.svg 3Extra-parliamentarySteady2.svg 6th
1912 396,9483.25Decrease2.svg 0.94
14 / 397
Decrease2.svg 10Extra-parliamentarySteady2.svg 6th

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Philip G. Dwyer, ed. (2014). Modern Prussian History: 1830-1947. Routledge. p. 93. ISBN   9781317887003. The liberal conservatism of the parliamentary group around Bethmann—Hollweg would later appear in the FreiKonservative Partei.
  2. ↑ Marco E.L. Guidi, Massimo M. Augello, ed. (2014). Economists in Parliament in the Liberal Age: (1848–1920). Routledge. p. 93. ISBN   9781351941778. ... FK: Freikonservative Partei (Liberal Conservative Party); FrVp: Freisinnige Volkspartei (Liberal People's Party); K: Konservative Partei (Conservative Party); Linke (Left); Linkes Zentrum (Left Centre); ...
  3. ↑ Ido de Haan, Matthijs Lok, ed. (2019). The Politics of Moderation in Modern European History. Springer Nature. p. 121. Conservative centrists even adopted positivist ideas of progress. For example, the Prussian Free Conservative Party (Freikonservative Partei) launched the slogan of 'conservative progress' in 1867 and, in the same year, ...
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