Deutsche Volkspartei
The Deutsche Volkspartei (DVP) (German People's Party) was a center-right political party that moved further right during the Weimar Republic. It had been formed from parts of the Progressive People's Party and the right of the former National Liberals. When it was created, it tended to be the party of Protestants of the right.[1]
"As the party of heavy industry, it primarily represented the interests of the upper and merchant classes. Its politics were still strongly rooted in authoritarianism, and it advocated the establishment of a strong central government. In the field of foreign policy, it sought a revision of the Treaty of Versailles."[2] Under the chairmanship of Gustav Stresemann, it reluctantly accepted the legitimacy of the Weimar Republic. [3]
After Stresemann's death in October 1929, however, anti-parliamentary forces grew stronger within it, and it became part of the right-wing nationalist opposition. Nevertheless, its presence in the Reichstag steadily dropped. In March 1930, it caused the Social Democratic coalition, under Chancellor Hermann Mueller, to fall in March 1930, when it withdrew from the coalition over the government's refusal to reduce unemployment benefits.[4] It did not join the Harzburg Front coalition, formed in November 1931, with the Nazis and Stahlhelm.
A brief coalition with the DNVP under Alfred Hugenberg drove out the last liberals, and then was dropped. By then, however, the party was down to two Reichstag seats.[5] It dissolved itself on 29 June 1933.[6]
References
- ↑ Tim Peters (March 2010), "CDU German - Example of a strong and united centre-right party", Cura Magazine
- ↑ The political parties in the Weimar Republic, German Bundestag
- ↑ Richard J. Evans (2003), The Coming of the Third Reich, Penguin, ISBN 1-59420-004-1, pp. 95-96
- ↑ Evans, p. 247
- ↑ Evans, p. 368
- ↑ Ian Kershaw (1998), Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris, W.W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-04671-0, p. 477