German Free-minded Party
German Free-minded Party Deutsche Freisinnige Partei | |
|---|---|
| Chairman of the Central Committee | Parliamentarism Laicism |
| Political position | Centre-left |
| Colours | Yellow |
The German Free-minded Party (German: Deutsche Freisinnige Partei, DFP) or German Radical Party[1][2][3] 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.
Policies
The economists Ludwig Bamberger and Georg von Siemens as well as the liberal politician Eugen Richter were among the prime movers of the merger in the view of the forthcoming accession of the considered liberal Crown Prince Frederick William to the throne (which took place only in 1888). Richter aspired to build up a strong united liberal force in the Reichstag parliament, similar to the British Liberal Party under William Ewart Gladstone. The Free-minded Party supported the expansion of parliamentarism in the German constitutional monarchy, separation of church and state and Jewish emancipation.
Under party chairman Franz August Schenk von Stauffenberg along with his deputies
During the decay, the differences between progressives and centre-right liberals became inconsolable. Upon Bismarck's demission in 1890, the party members lost their common adversary. In 1893, the Free-minded Party split in conflict over Chancellor Leo von Caprivi's policies into the Free-minded People's Party and the Free-minded Union. A re-union took place in 1910, when both further weakened liberal parties merged with the German People's Party to form the Progressive People's Party.
Notable members
- Ludwig Bamberger
- Theodor Barth
- Max von Forckenbeck
- Albert Hänel
- Max Hirsch
- Albert Kalthoff
- Ludwig Loewe
- Theodor Mommsen
- Eugen Richter
- Heinrich Edwin Rickert
- Georg von Siemens
- Rudolf Virchow
See also
- Contributions to liberal theory
- Liberal democracy
- Liberalism
- Liberalism in Germany
- Liberalism worldwide
- List of liberal parties
References
Tillich, Paul; Translated by Franklin Sherman (1957). The Socialist Decision. Harper & Row. p. 57.
- ^ Bonham, Gary (1991). Ideology and Interests in the German State. Routledge. p. 72.
- ^ Retallack, James (1992). Antisocialism and Electoral Politics in Regional Perspective: The Kingdom of Saxony. Cambridge University Press. p. 62.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - ^ Lerman, Katharine Anne (2004). Bismarck. Pearson. p. 199.
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