See also
- Contributions to liberal theory
- Liberal democracy
- Liberalism
- Liberalism in Germany
- Liberalism worldwide
- List of liberal parties
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German Progress Party Deutsche Fortschrittspartei | |
|---|---|
| Leaders | Hans Victor von Unruh Johann Jacoby Adolph Diesterweg Eugen Richter Rudolf Virchow Albert Hänel Albert Traeger |
| Founded | 6 June 1861 |
| Dissolved | 5 March 1884 |
| Preceded by | Old Liberal group German National Association |
| Merged into | German Free-minded Party |
| Headquarters | Berlin |
| Newspaper | Der Volksfreund (1868–1872) Der Reichsfreund (1882–1884) |
| Ideology | Liberalism Federalism |
| Political position | Centre-left |
| Colours | Yellow |
The German Progress Party (German : Deutsche Fortschrittspartei, DFP) was the first modern political party in Germany, founded by liberal members of the Prussian House of Representatives (Abgeordnetenhaus) in 1861 in opposition to Minister President Otto von Bismarck.
Upon the failed Revolutions of 1848, several deputies in the Landtag diet of Prussia maintained the idea of constitutionalism as it had been developed in the Vormärz era. In the 1850s, these Old Liberals gathered in a parliamentary group around Georg von Vincke, an originally conservative Prussian official and landowner ( Junker ). Vincke, former member of the Frankfurt Parliament, a polished orator and firebrand, had fallen out with Prime Minister Otto Theodor von Manteuffel over his reactionary policies and in 1852 even fought a duel with Bismarck after a heated verbal exchange in parliament (both men missed).
When under the regency of William I of Prussia from 1858 the Prussian policies of the new era turned towards a more centrist stance, a left-wing group under Max von Forckenbeck seceded and allied with members of the German National Association to form the German Progress Party. The founders were Rudolf Virchow, Theodor Mommsen, Werner von Siemens, Benedict Waldeck, Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch, Hans Victor von Unruh, Wilhelm Loewe and Johann Jacoby.
In its program, the party responded to the German Question by proposing the unification of the German states with the central power in Prussia (Kleindeutsche Lösung, unification without Austria). It demanded representative democracy—though not universal suffrage—implementation of the rule of law and larger responsibility for the local government. Before the rise of the Social Democrats, it was the main left-wing party in Germany and it was also the first German party with its candidates and deputies acting on a common party platform.
Supported by the rising bourgeois middle class, the Progressives had the largest group in the Prussian Lower House between 1861 and 1865. In 1862, their refusal to furthermore pass the government budget for a re-organisation of the Prussian Army instigated by War Minister Albrecht von Roon led to the resignation of the centrist Prime Minister Karl Anton, Prince of Hohenzollern. On the verge of his abdication, King William was persuaded by Roon to appoint the young conservative Otto von Bismarck Prussian Minister President. Bismarck ignored the parliament's blockade by proclaiming his Lückentheorie ("gap theory"), whereafter in a deadlock situation between the king and the assembly, for want of provision by the Prussian Constitution, the decision of the monarch had to tip the balance.
Bismarck was able to keep the public indignation covered, accompanied by his famous "Blood and Iron" speech in the Prussian Abgeordnetenhaus. He continued to rule against the parliamentary majority while the parliament members of the Progressive Party found themselves unable to overthrow his government. Upon the Prussian victory at the Battle of Königgrätz ending the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, Bismarck initiated a law confirming the parliament's power of the purse, but also granting an amnesty for the arbitrary conduct of his government. Meant as an attempt for reconciliation, a vast majority of the parliament approved it, but the liberals were at strife among themselves and the Progressive Party finally split apart—the right-wing which supported Bismarck's policy seceded to form the National Liberal Party in 1867 while a democratic-republican wing in Southern Germany seceded to form German People's Party in 1868.
The remaining Progressive parliament members under Benedict Waldeck principally supported Bismarck's formation of the North German Confederation, directed at the establishment of a Prussian-led German nation state, though they rejected the Imperial Constitution of 1871 as undemocratic. In the first federal election of 1871, the party gained 8.8% of the votes cast and 46 seats in the Reichstag parliament, largely outnumbered by its National Liberal rivals. Later on, the Progressives approached towards the policy of the new Chancellor. To characterize Bismarck's politics toward the Catholic Church, the pathologist and parliament member Rudolf Virchow used the term Kulturkampf the first time on 17 January 1873 in the Prussian House of Representatives. [1] In the later years of Bismarck's incumbency, the Progressives again kept their distance to his government. Under the new board of Eugen Richter, Ludwig Loewe, Albert Hänel and Albert Traeger, the party developed to a pan-German liberal democratic party, rejecting Bismarck's Anti-Socialist Laws as well as his free trade restrictions. In the federal election of 1881, the Progress Party reached its best results ever with 12.7% of the votes cast and 56 seats in the Reichstag, becoming the second strongest faction after the Catholic Centre Party.
To unite the left-wing liberal forces, the party finally merged on 5 March 1884 with the Liberal Union (a split-off of the National Liberals) into the German Free-minded Party.
Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg was a Prussian and later German statesman and diplomat. Bismarck's Realpolitik and powerful rule led to him being called the Iron Chancellor.
In the history of Germany, the Kulturkampf was the seven-year political conflict (1871–1878) occurred between the Catholic Church in Germany, led by Pope Pius IX, and the Kingdom of Prussia, led by chancellor Otto von Bismarck. The Prussian church-and-state political conflict was about the Church's direct control of both education and ecclesiastical appointments in the Prussian kingdom as a Roman Catholic nation and country. Moreover, when compared to other church-and-state conflicts about political culture, the German Kulturkampf of Prussia also featured anti-Polish bigotry fueled by "racist anxieties" in Germany "about the Polish portions of the Prussian East."
The National Liberal Party was a liberal party of the North German Confederation and the German Empire which flourished between 1867 and 1918.
The German Conservative Party was a right-wing political party of the German Empire founded in 1876. It largely represented the wealthy landowning German nobility and the Prussian Junker class.
The Free Conservative Party was a liberal-conservative 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. DRP was classified as centrist or centre-right by political standards at the time, and it also put forward the slogan "conservative progress".
Eduard Lasker was a German politician and jurist. Inspired by the French Revolution, he became a spokesman for liberalism and the leader of the left wing of the National Liberal party, which represented middle-class professionals and intellectuals. He promoted the unification of Germany during the 1860s and played a major role in codification of the German legal code. Lasker at first compromised with Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who later strenuously opposed Lasker regarding freedom of the press. In 1881, Lasker left the National Liberal party and helped form the new German Free Thought Party.
The German Free-minded Party or German Radical Party was a short-lived liberal party in the German Empire, founded on 5 March 1884 as a result of the merger of the German Progress Party and the Liberal Union, an 1880 split-off of the National Liberal Party.
The German People's Party was a German liberal party created in 1868 by the wing of the German Progress Party which during the conflict about whether the unification of Germany should be led by the Kingdom of Prussia or Austria-Hungary supported Austria. The party was most popular in Southern Germany.
Conservatism in Germany has encompassed a wide range of theories and ideologies in the last three hundred years, but most historical conservative theories supported the monarchical/hierarchical political structure.
The Falk Laws or May Laws of 1873–1875 were legislative bills enacted in the German Kingdom of Prussia during the Kulturkampf conflict with the Catholic Church. They were named after Adalbert Falk, the Prussian Minister of Culture (1872–1879).
The Landtag of Prussia was the representative assembly of the Kingdom of Prussia implemented in 1849, a bicameral legislature consisting of the upper House of Lords (Herrenhaus) and the lower House of Representatives (Abgeordnetenhaus). After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–19 the Landtag diet continued as the parliament of the Free State of Prussia between 1921 and 1934, when it was abolished by the Nazi regime.
Maximilian (Max) Franz August von Forckenbeck was a German lawyer and liberal politician who served as Mayor of Berlin from 1878 until his death. His is considered one of the most important mayors of the city because of his prudent governing style during Berlin's rise as the capital of a unified Germany.
The Prussian House of Representatives was the lower chamber of the Landtag of Prussia, the parliament of Prussia from 1850 to 1918. Together with the upper house, the House of Lords, it formed the Prussian bicameral legislature. The Prussian House of Representatives was established by the Prussian constitution of 5 December 1848, with members elected according to the three-class franchise. At first it was called simply the "Second Chamber," with the name "House of Representatives" introduced in 1855.
Bismarck is a 1940 German historical film directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner and starring Paul Hartmann, Friedrich Kayßler, and Lil Dagover.
The German National Association, or German National Union was a liberal political organisation, precursor of a party, in the German Confederation that existed from 1859 to 1867. It was formed by liberals and moderate democrats and aimed at forming a liberal, parliamentary Lesser German ("kleindeutsch"), Prussia-led national state.
The Reichstag of the North German Confederation was the federal state's lower house of parliament. The popularly elected Reichstag was responsible for federal legislation together with the Bundesrat, the upper house whose members were appointed by the governments of the individual states to represent their interests. Executive power lay with the Bundesrat and the king of Prussia acting as Bundespräsidium, or head of state. The Reichstag debated and approved or rejected taxes and expenditures and could propose laws in its own right. To become effective, all laws required the approval of both the Bundesrat and the Reichstag. Voting rights in Reichstag elections were advanced for the time, granting universal, equal, and secret suffrage to men above the age of 25.
The Jesuit Law of 4 July 1872 forbade Jesuit institutions on the soil of the new German empire.
Adolf Hermann Wilhelm Hagen was a public official in Prussia. He was also a banker and a liberal politician.
Karl Gisbert Friedrich Freiherr von Vincke was a Prussian officer and politician.
The Bismarck-Roon Cabinet formed the Prussian State Ministry appointed by King William I, and his successors Frederick III, and William II, from September 23, 1862, to March 30, 1890.
It was the distinguished liberal politician and scientist, Professor Rudolph Virchow, who first called it the Kulturkampf, or struggle for civilization.
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