Political party in Germany
The
German Social Party
(
German
:
Deutschsoziale Partei
or
DSP
) was a
far-right
political party active in the
German Empire
.
Establishment
[
edit
]
The group was established in 1889 by
Max Liebermann von Sonnenberg
, already widely known in anti-Semitic circles thanks to his Antisemites' Petition of 1880, his establishment of a short-lived string of discussion clubs called the
Deutscher Volksverein
and his prominence in the
Berlin movement
.
[2]
The party contested the
1890 Reichstag election
with Liebermann von Sonnenberg gaining their only seat. He remained a member of
parliament
representing the constituency of
Fritzlar
?
Homberg
?
Ziegenhain
in
Northern Hesse
until his death in 1911.
[2]
Ideology
[
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]
The group was strongly influenced by the thoughts of
Adolf Stoecker
but sought to take his ideas further.
[3]
Their programme of 1890 called for the "nullification of civil rights laws" as applied to Jews and for the passing of a new Jew law which would treat Jewish Germans as a new category of aliens.
[4]
Its initial areas of activity were in
Bochum
and
Erfurt
.
[5]
Vaguely
anti-democratic
, they sought the gradual elimination of parliament in favour of more of a trades-based system of representation, although these ideas were largely underdeveloped.
[3]
The DSP also actively supported German colonial expansion, a common feature of contemporary German antisemitic rhetoric that emphasised economic
autarky
and
lebensraum
as bulwarks against the Jews.
[6]
Wilhelm Lattmann
, who represented the DSP in the Reichstag, became especially noted for pushing the party's imperialist agenda
[7]
as well as his attacks on "race-mixing" in the colonies.
[8]
They also supported
protectionism
for German artisans, merchants and farmers and were opposed to the
free market
.
[3]
Connections to other groups
[
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]
Although he personally disapproved of party politics,
Theodor Fritsch
was nonetheless attracted to the group's positions on the Jews and reprinted DSP propaganda in his journals.
[9]
Through Fritsch the group also became close to
Paul de Lagarde
and asked him to run as a candidate for the Reichstag in 1889, an invitation he declined.
[10]
Fritsch would eventually split with the DSP, his occultist views being at odds with the DSP, which was firmly Christian in outlook.
[11]
The DSP was very close to the
German National Association of Commercial Employees
, a white-collar workers union that was equally notorious for its anti-Jewish rhetoric.
[12]
Willibald Hentschel
, an influential writer who sought to promote the supremacy of the
Aryan race
, and who as such was subsequently seen as a progenitor of
Nazism
, served on the party's board of directors.
[13]
Heinrich Pudor
, the Volkish commentator and pioneer of
nudism
, was also loosely associated with the DSP, speaking at some of their functions.
[14]
One of a number of anti-Semitic parties active at the time, it merged with the
German Reform Party
(previously the
Antisemitic People's Party
) in 1894 to form the
German Social Reform Party
.
[15]
This group was riven by splits and personality conflicts throughout its existence however and came to an end in 1900, when the DSP was re-established.
[16]
Liebermann von Sonnenberg clashed in particular with
Oswald Zimmermann
, another leading figure in the merged group.
[17]
Differences had also been partially political, with the DSP considered the least radical of the antisemitic parties, with
Friedrich Lange
considering it alone as one of the "parties of order" during a failed attempt to forge a united party of the right.
[18]
Later activity
[
edit
]
One of the DSP's centres of activity became
Marburg
, with the Reichstag seat won for the party in
1907
by
Karl Bohme
and by
Johann Heinrich Rupp
in
1912
. The seat had previously been held by
Otto Bockel
and
Hellmut von Gerlach
, both of whom were also associated with antisemitism.
[19]
In the Reichstag the DSP representatives collaborated closely with the
Christian Social Party
and the
German Agrarian League
.
[19]
In his early years
Ernst Graf zu Reventlow
, who became prominent under the Nazis, was also a DSP member
[20]
and ran unsuccessfully in the elections of 1907 and 1912.
In March 1914, the DSP merged with the equally antisemitic
German Reform Party
to form the
German Volkisch Party
(DvP).
[1]
At the end of the
First World War
, in November 1918, its remnants were absorbed by the newly established
German National People's Party
(DNVP), joining the remains of the Christian Socials, the
German Conservative Party
and the
Free Conservative Party
.
[21]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Johannes Leicht; Arnulf Scriba (1 September 2016).
"Deutschsoziale Partei (DSP) 1900-1914"
.
LeMO ? Lebendiges Museum Online
. Deutsches Historisches Museum.
- ^
a
b
Richard S. Levy,
Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution
, ABC-CLIO, 2005, p. 422
- ^
a
b
c
Gotz Aly,
Why the Germans? Why the Jews?: Envy, Race Hatred, and the Prehistory of the Holocaust
, Metropolitan Books, 2014, p. 81
- ^
Christian Davis,
Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent in Imperial Germany
, University of Michigan Press, 2012, p. 12
- ^
Davis,
Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent in Imperial Germany
, p. 26
- ^
Davis,
Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent in Imperial Germany
, p. 33
- ^
Davis,
Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent in Imperial Germany
, p. 34
- ^
Davis,
Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent in Imperial Germany
, pp. 121-122
- ^
Levy,
Antisemitism
, p. 290
- ^
Matthew Lange,
Antisemitic Elements in the Critique of Capitalism in German Culture, 1850-1933
, Peter Lang, 2007, p. 118
- ^
Davis,
Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent in Imperial Germany
, p. 47
- ^
Levy,
Antisemitism
, p. 262
- ^
Levy,
Antisemitism
, p. 297
- ^
Davis,
Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent in Imperial Germany
, p. 123
- ^
Levy,
Antisemitism
, p. 22
- ^
Levy,
Antisemitism
, pp. 22-23
- ^
Robert Melson
,
Revolution and Genocide: On the Origins of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust
, University of Chicago Press, 1996, p. 118
- ^
Geoff Eley,
Reshaping the German Right: Radical Nationalism and Political Change After Bismarck
, University of Michigan Press, 1991, p. 246
- ^
a
b
Rudy J. Koshar,
Social Life, Local Politics, and Nazism: Marburg, 1880-1935
, UNC Press Books, 2014, p. 71
- ^
Detlef Muhlberger,
Hitler's Voice: Organisation & Development of the Nazi Party
, Peter Lang, 2004, pp. 239-240
- ^
Larry Eugene Jones,
The German Right in the Weimar Republic: Studies in the History of German Conservatism, Nationalism, and Antisemitism
, Berghahn Books, 2014, p. 80