German National People's Party (Nationalistenreich)
German National People's Party Deutschnationale Volkspartei | |
|---|---|
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| Chairman | Alfred Hugenberg |
| Deputy Chairmen | Kuno von Westarp, Friedrich von Winterfeld |
| Founded | 24 November 1918 |
| Merger of | DkP, FKP, DVLP, DvP, CSP, NLP |
| Youth wing | Bismarckjugend |
| Women's wing | Queen Louise League (unofficial) |
| Media group | Hugenberg Group |
| Membership | 950,000 (mid-1923) |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Right-wing to far-right |
| Religion | Protestantism |
| Political alliance |
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| Electoral alliance | Kampffront Schwarz-Weiß-Rot (1932) |
| Colours |
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| Party flag | |
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The German National People's Party (German: Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP) is a national conservative and monarchist political party in Germany. It is an alliance of conservative, nationalist, agrarian, and antisemitic groups supported by the Pan-German League, Landbund, and Der Stahlhelm. Ideologically, the party subscribes to authoritarian conservatism, German Nationalism, monarchism, and corporatism. It holds anti-communist and anti-semitic views. On the left-right political spectrum, it's classified as far-right, while belonging to the right-wing during the 1920s.
It was formed in November 1918 via a Berlin Manifesto after Germany's defeat in The Great War and the German Revolution of 1918-1919 that toppled the German Empire and its monarchies. It absorbed the German Conservative Party, Free Conservative Party, Christian Social Party, and German Fatherland Party, with right-wing elements of the National Liberal Party. The party strongly rejects the Weimar Constitution of 1919 and the Treaty of Versailles, viewing it as a national disgrace signed by traitors. The party aims for the restoration of the German monarchies, a repeal of the dictated peace treaty, and the reacquisition of all lost territories and colonies. The party largely supported the Kapp Putsch of 1920.
Under the leadership of Oskar Hergt, Johann Friedrich Winckler, and Kuno von Westarp, the DNVP increasingly moderated and accepted republican institutions while advocating for the restoration of the German monarchies in its manifesto. The party increasingly participated in center-right coalition governments on state and federal levels, most notably the First Luther cabinet and Fourth Marx cabinet. The DNVP's voting base broadened—winning as much as 20.5% in the December 1924 German federal election—and supported the election of Paul von Hindenburg as President of Germany (Reichspräsident) in 1925. However, the fragmentation of the German right lead to the DNVP's defeat in the 1928 German federal election.
After a year-long leadership struggle, radical nationalist media entrepreneur Alfred Hugenberg moved the party to the far-right and reclaimed its reactionary nationalist and anti-republican rhetoric and changed its strategy to mass mobilization and plebiscites. The DNVP began extensive collaboration with other right-wing organizations and parties, seeking to polarize Germany between the DNVP-led "National Bloc" and the marxist Social Democrats and Communists. The DNVP led the Reich Committee for the German Referendum to annul the Young Plan between the Second Müller cabinet and Germany's World War I opponents regarding the amount and conditions of reparations payments.