German Free-minded Party

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.

German Free-minded Party Deutsche Freisinnige Partei
Chairman of the Central Committee	Franz von Stauffenberg (1884–1893)
Chairman of the Executive Committee	Rudolf Virchow (1884–1893)
Chairman of the Select Committee	Eugen Richter (1884–1890) Karl Schrader (1890) Eugen Richter (1890–1893)
Founded	5 March 1884 (1884-03-05)
Dissolved	7 May 1893 (1893-05-07)
Merger of	German Progress Party Liberal Union
Succeeded by	Free-minded People's Party Free-minded Union
Newspaper	Parlamentarische Korrespondenz
Ideology	Liberalism Radicalism Social progressivism Parliamentarism Laicism
Political position	Centre to centre-left
Colours	Yellow
Politics of Germany Political parties Elections

Policies

The economists Ludwig Bamberger and Georg von Siemens as well as the liberal politician Eugen Richter were among the prime movers of the fusion in the view of the coming accession of 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 extension 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 Albert Hänel and Rudolf Virchow, the Free-minded Party received disappointing 17.6% of the votes in the 1884 federal election, representing a drop of 3.6% from the combined parties' results in the previous 1881 federal election. The main beneficiaries of this defection were the Conservative forces, supporting the protectionist, colonist and anti-socialist policies of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. In the 1887 federal election, the party again lost half of their seats, dropping down to 32 Reichstag mandates. Though urged by his wife Princess Royal Victoria, Crown Prince Frederick William did not dare to meet trouble with Bismarck by openly taking the party's side. His early death in 1888 and the accession of his son William II terminated all liberal hopes.

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

Members of the Free-minded Party at the Reichstag foyer, 1889

• 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.

1. Bonham, Gary (1991). Ideology and Interests in the German State. Routledge. p. 72.
2. Retallack, James (1992). Antisocialism and Electoral Politics in Regional Perspective: The Kingdom of Saxony. Elections, Mass Politics and Social Change in Modern Germany: New Perspectives. Cambridge University Press. p. 62.
3. Lerman, Katharine Anne (2004). Bismarck. Pearson. p. 199.

Preceded by German Progress Party	liberal German parties 1884–1893	Succeeded by Free-minded People's Party
Preceded by Liberal Union		Succeeded by Free-minded Union