National Liberal Party (Germany)

| colours = Green

| country = Germany

The National Liberal Party (, NLP) was a liberal party of the North German Confederation and the German Empire which flourished between 1867 and 1918.

During the Prussian-led unification of Germany, the National Liberals became the dominant party in the Reichstag. While supporting the common ideals of liberalism and nationalism, the party contained two wings, which reflected the conflicting claims of its Hegelian and idealistic heritage: one emphasized the power of the state through the Nationalstaat, and the other emphasized the civil liberties of the Rechtsstaat.

David Blackbourn says the liberal attacks on the Catholic Church "left a political legacy that was the opposite of what liberals wanted. It made them beholden to Bismarck; and helped consolidate political Catholicism in Germany".

Allies of big business

In 1905, Ernst Bassermann became chairman of National Liberal Party. He followed chairman Johannes von Miquel. The National Liberals came to be closely associated with the interests of big business, maintaining strong relations with mighty industrialist advocacy groups as well as with imperialist and nationalist associations like the Pan-German League. Increasingly threatened by the growing strength of the Social Democrats, the party gradually became more conservative, although it was generally split between a more liberal wing that sought to strengthen ties with the dissident liberals to their left and a right-wing that came to support more protectionist policies and close relations with the Conservatives and the imperial government.

World War I

During World War I, most of the National Liberals, including such leaders of their left wing as Gustav Stresemann, avidly supported the expansionist goals of the imperial government, although they also called for reform at home. Following the war, the party broke up. Stresemann led the main body of the party, including most of its moderate and conservative elements, into the conservative liberal German People's Party. Its left wing merged with the left-liberal Progressive People's Party to form the German Democratic Party. The far-right wing of the National Liberals joined the German National People's Party.

Election results

{| class=wikitable

|+ Reichstag

! rowspan="2"| Date

! colspan="3"| Votes

! colspan="2"| Seats

! rowspan="2"| Position

! rowspan="2"| Size

! No.

! %

! ± pp

! No.

! ±

! February 1867

| 753,758

| 20.19

| New

! August 1867

| 414,043

| 18.02

| 2.17

| 2

| 1st

! 1868 Zollparlament

| Unknown

| 24

| 1st

! 1871

| 1,125,942

| 28.97

| Unknown

| 13

| 1st

! 1874

| 1,394,250

| 26.86

| 2.11

| 30

| 1st

! 1877

| 1,440,266

| 26.67

| 0.19

| 20

| 1st

!1878

| 1,291,161

| 22.41

| 4.26

| 30

| 1st

! 1881

| 617,752

| 12.12

| 10.29

| 52

| 5th

! 1884

| 987,355

| 17.44

| 5.32

| 5

| 4th

! 1887

| 1,651,288

| 21.90

| 4.46

| 48

| 1st

! 1890

| 1,130,842

| 15.64

| 6.26

| 60

| 4th

! 1893

| 943,410

| 12.29

| 3.35

| 13

| 3rd

! 1898

| 997,147

| 12.86

| 0.57

| 3

| 4th

! 1903

| 1,301,473

| 13.71

| 0.85

| 2

| 4th

! 1907

| 1,666,705

| 14.80

| 1.09

| 6

| 3rd

! 1912

| 1,651,115

| 13.53

| 1.27

| 11

| 3rd

Chairmen

Rudolf von Bennigsen (1867-1883)
Johannes von Miquel (1883-1901)
Ernst Bassermann (1905-1912)

National Liberal Party (Germany)

Allies of big business

World War I

Election results

Chairmen

See also

Notes

References

Further reading