Introduction (back to top)

• The guiding question underlying this lecture is:
  How can one organize a republic so as to mediate between many conflicting interests?
  The answer is: by using political parties to organize people with similar interests, and having the leaders and representatives of those parties compromise with other parties in governing the polity.
• We started with "midterm" question 1:
  Ordered correctly from "left" (progressive, populist) to "right" (conservative, elitist) list any four German parties, giving their acronym, full name, and one fact about them.
  • Example:
    LLP: Lefty Liberal Party--tiny Weimar party formed coalition with MLP
    MLP: Moderate Liberal Party--largest Weimar party
    SCP: Somewhat Conservative Party--most important party in West Germany during the 1950s
    MCP: More Conservative Party--first made a coalition with the Nazi era Ultra-Conservative Party, then opposed it
• After collecting the questions and discussing student answers, I talked briefly about the historical origins of modern political parties, and reviewed the histories and profiles of the major political parties in post-1945 Germany.
• For the rest of the quarter it will be important to know what the acronyms mean, as well as the general orientation of each party
• At the end of lecture I distributed and explained the Book Essay Handout

1. Origins of Political Parties (back to top)

• In the modern era, as broader sectors of the populace began to take an interest in organizaing their own society, groupings emerged. Examples:
  • groups in the US revolutionary war: patriots, neutralists, loyalists
  • groups in the French revolution, for example Jacobins (met at the Jacobin monastery)
  • socialist "utopians" were quasi-political groupings in the early 1800s
  • 1848: Karl Marx condemned them, called his socialism "communist," based on "science"8 revolutions
  • groups in the 1848 Frankfurt National Convention
  • in the 1860s in Germany, modern political associations with programs began to emerge in Prussia
• Since 1871 in Germany (the German empire), the Reichstag was elected by parties
  • Overview of Reichstag election results 1919-1933, by percent and by seats, with links to results for each German state (at gonschior.de, run by amateur historian Andreas Gonschior in Hildesheim)
  • Weimar election results with coalitions and cabinets -- alternate link to tables by Hugo Jensch, historian of the town of Pirna. Gives more information but the formatting is a bit less clear. Local town results at bottom.

2. Post-1945 German Parties across the Political Spectrum (back to top)

• The party spectrum might be organized something like this (from left to right):
  

  West Germany	KPD, DKP Greens , PDS	SPD	FDP	CDU, CSU	BHE	NPD, DVU, Reps
  East Germany	SED		LDPD	CDU		NDPD

• Acronyms (bold for current parties) [note: this is oversimplified]:
  • KPD: Kommunist Party Deutschland (west, prohibited 1956, originally founded 1918)
    DKP: Deutsche Kommunist Party (west, after legalized in 1968)
    SED: Socialist Einheit=unity Party (east, combination of KPD and SPD after April 1946)
    PDS: Party of Democratic Socialism (east, successor to SED after 1989)
  • Greens: Environmental party, founded 1979/80, 1983 into Bundestag
  • SPD: Socialdemocratic Party of Deutschland (oldest party, founded 1875 as union of 2 workers' parties, 1863 ADAV and 1869 SDAP; in led gov't 1969-82 and 1998-2005)
  • FDP: Free Democratic Party (west since 1948: economic liberals)
    LDPD: Liberal Democratic Party of Deutschland (east)
  • CDU: Christian Democratic Union (west: combined old Catholic Center party with Protestants)
    CSU: Christian Socialist Union (west: Bavarian "wing" of CDU)
  • BHE: Bund=Association of Homeland-expelled and Rights-deprived (west: refugees)
  • SRP: Sozialistische Reichspartei (west, prohibited in 1952)
    NPD: Nationdemocratic Party Deutschlands (west: neo-Nazi, 1964-1970s-present)
    DVU: Deutsche Volks-Union (west: neo-Nazi, 1971 assoc; 1987 party-present)
    Republikaner (west: 1983-present; CDU/CSU, now ruling, not patriotic enough)
• For more information on West German political parties, see GermanCulture.com's Parties page (see esp. links to individual partz pages at bottom)
• For profiles of the main Weimar-era parties, see Paul Bookbinder's Weimar Parties Page for facinghistory.org. The other "readings" links in the menu bar at left are interesting as well.

3. SPD (back to top)

• 1869: August Bebel & Wilhelm Liebknecht: Social-Democratic Workers Party
• 1878: anti-socialist law after assassination attempt on Wilhelm I
• 1890: Wilhelm II let law lapse, led to large electoral gains (announced in the newspaper headlines at right)
• 1917 split: USPD and MSPD (independent & majority)
• 1918-20: USPD divided up, with some members co-founding the KPD, and a right-leaning group that went back to the majority SPD
• Weimar coalitions; largest state Prussia led by SPD: "rock of democracy"!
• March 1933: voted againstNazi take-over ("Enabling Act")

4. FDP (back to top)

• origins 1861 DFP=German Progress Party, then National Liberals in Kaiserreich, and FVP
• Weimar DDP=German Democratic Party (Gustav Streseman most prominent; 1926 Nobel Peace Prize biography page); renamed Deutsche StaatsPartei; see also DVolksPartei
• closer to CDU/CSU on economic policy, and to SPD on social policy
• averaged about 10% of vote from late 1940s until early 1990s--largest 3rd party until the Greens
• best-known members: founder and federal president (1949-59) Theodor Heuss, Hans-Dietrich Genscher ( foreign minister 1974-1992, during unification)
• 1953 scandal because of infiltration by former Nazis, known as Werner Naumann Affair

5. CDU/CSU (back to top)

• constituency was drawn from the Catholic Center Party (Zentrum), but also from Protestants; CSU from BVP=Bavarian Peoples' Party
  also Catholic- and Protestant-identifying members of DDP, DVP & DNVP
• Core of many Weimar coalitions
• 1946 Jakob Kaiser: Christian Socialism was seriously socialist
• Christian Democratic Union
• BVP: Bavarian Volks Partyof Weimar years became
  CSU: Christian Socialist Union (Franz Josef Strauss most prominent politician)