View source for Liberalism in Germany

{{Short description|none}}
{{Liberalism in Germany|all}}
{{Politics of Germany}}
This article aims to give a historical outline of '''liberalism in Germany''' ({{langx|de|Liberalismus}}). The [[liberalism|liberal]] [[political party|parties]] dealt with in the timeline below are, largely, those which received sufficient support at one time or another to have been represented in parliament. Not all parties so included, however, necessarily labeled themselves "liberal". The sign ⇒ denotes another party in that scheme.

==Background==
The early high points of liberalism in Germany were the [[Hambach Festival]] (1832) and the [[Revolutions of 1848]] in the German states.

In the Frankfurt Parliament National Assembly in the Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt Paulskirche (1848/1849), the bourgeois liberal factions [[Casino faction|Casino]] and [[Factions in the Frankfurt Assembly#W%C3%BCrttemberger Hof|Württemberger Hof]] (the latter led by [[Heinrich von Gagern]]) were the majority. They favored a constitutional monarchy, [[popular sovereignty]], and [[parliament]]ary rule.
Organized liberalism developed in the 1860s, combining the previous liberal and democratic currents. Between 1867 and 1933 liberalism was divided into progressive liberal and national liberal factions. Since 1945 only one liberal party has been significant in politics at the national level: The [[Free Democratic Party (Germany)|Free Democratic Party]] (Freie Demokratische Partei, FDP).

==History==

=== Pre-1860s ===
{{Main|Old Liberals}}

===From German Progress Party to German State Party===
* 1861: Liberals united in the '''[[German Progress Party]]''' (''Deutsche Fortschrittspartei'')
* 1867: The moderate faction seceded as the ⇒ National Liberal Party
* 1868: A radical South German faction seceded as the ⇒ Democratic People's Party
* 1884: The party merged with the ⇒ Liberal Union into the '''[[German Freeminded Party]]''' (''Deutsche Freisinnige Partei'')
* 1893: The party split in the '''[[Freeminded People's Party (Germany)|Freeminded People's Party]]''' (''Freisinnige Volkspartei'') and the ⇒ Freeminded Union (''Freisinnige Vereinigung'')
* 1910: The FVP merged with the ⇒ Freeminded Union and the ⇒ German People's Party into the '''[[Progressive People's Party (Germany)|Progressive People's Party]]''' (''Fortschrittliche Volkspartei'')
* 1918: The party is reorganised into the '''[[German Democratic Party]]''' (''Deutsche Demokratische Partei''), incorporating parts of the ⇒ National Liberal Party
* 1930: The DDP in an attempt to survive reorganised itself into the '''[[German State Party]]''' (''Deutsche Staatspartei'')
* 1933: The party is forced to dissolve itself

===German People's Party (1868)===
* 1868: A radical faction of the ⇒ German Progress Party formed the '''[[German People's Party (1868)|German People's Party]]''' (''Deutsche Volkspartei'')
* 1910: The DVP merged into the ⇒ Progressive People's Party

===National Liberal Party / German People's Party (1918)===
'''National Liberals'''
* 1867: A right-wing faction of the ⇒ German Progress Party formed the '''[[National Liberal Party (Germany)|National Liberal Party]]''' (''Nationalliberale Partei'')
* 1871: A conservative faction of NLP formed the [[Imperial Liberal Party]] (''Liberale Reichspartei'')
* 1880: A left-wing faction seceded as the ⇒ Liberal Union
* 1918: The NLP is reorganised into the '''[[German People's Party]]''' (''Deutsche Volkspartei''), part of the party joined the German Democratic Party
* 1933: The party is dissolved

===Liberal Union===
* 1880: A left-wing faction of the ⇒ National Liberal Party formed the '''[[Liberal Union (Germany)|Liberal Union]]''' (''Liberale Vereinigung'')
* 1884: The party merged with the ⇒ German Progress Party into the ⇒ German Freeminded Party

===Freeminded Union===
* 1893: The ⇒ German Freeminded Party split into the '''[[Freeminded Union]]''' (''Freisinnige Vereinigung'') and the ⇒ Freeminded People's Party
* 1903: The ⇒ National Social Union joined the Freeminded Union
* 1908: A left-wing faction seceded as the ⇒ Democratic Union
* 1910: The party merged into the ⇒ Progressive People's Party

===National Social Union===
* 1896: The '''[[National Social Union]]''' (''Nationalsozialer Verein'') is formed
* 1903: The party is dissolved and members joined the ⇒ Freeminded Union

===Democratic Union===
* 1908: A left-wing faction of the ⇒ Freeminded Union formed the '''[[Democratic Union (Germany)|Democratic Union]]''' (''Demokratische Vereinigung'')
* 1918: The remnants of the Union joined the German Democratic Party

===From Liberal Democratic Party of Germany to Alliance of Free Democrats (GDR)===
* 1945: Liberals in East Germany re-organised themselves into the '''[[Liberal Democratic Party of Germany]]''' (''Liberal-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands''). Since 1949 the party is under control of the communist dictatorship
* 1990: The LDPD regained its liberal profile and shortened its name in February into '''[[Liberal Democratic Party of Germany|Liberal Democratic Party]]''' (''Liberal-Demokratische Partei''). The same month it joined the newly founded [[Free Democratic Party (East Germany)|Free Democratic Party of the GDR]] (''Freie Demokratische Partei der DDR'') and the [[German Forum Party]] (''Deutsche Forumpartei'') into [[Association of Free Democrats]] (''Bund Freier Demokraten''). In March the Association of Free Democrats absorbed the [[National Democratic Party of Germany (East Germany)|National Democratic Party of Germany]] (''Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands''), and finally in August it merged into present-day ⇒ Free Democratic Party

===Free Democratic Party===
* 1945–1946: Liberals in West Germany re-organised themselves in regional parties
* 1948: The regional liberal parties merged into the '''[[Free Democratic Party of Germany|Free Democratic Party]]''' (''Freie Demokratische Partei'')
* 1956: A conservative faction seceded and formed the [[Free People's Party (Germany)]] (''Freie Volkspartei''). FDP is initially a hard right party well to the right of CDU
* 1982: A left-wing faction seceded as the ⇒ Liberal Democrats
* 1990: The FDP incorporated the ⇒ Association of Free Democrats
* 2013: FDP fails to reach 5% threshold, loses all representation in the Bundestag for the first time ever

===Liberal Democrats===
* 1982: A left-wing faction of the ⇒ Free Democratic Party formed the present-day '''[[Liberal Democrats (Germany)|Liberal Democrats]]''' (''Liberale Demokraten''), without success

===New Liberals===
* 2014: A left-wing faction of the ⇒ Free Democratic Party formed the present-day '''[[New Liberals (Germany)|New Liberals]]''' (''Neue Liberale''), contested in Hamburg state election 2015
* 2021: The party was dissolved, formed into an [[Club (organization)|association]] and members were urged to join [[Volt Europa#Germany|Volt Deutschland]]

===Party of Humanists===
* 2014: The [[Secular liberalism|secular liberal]] and [[Social liberalism|socially liberal]], [[Party of Humanists]] (Partei der Humanisten) is formed.

==Liberal leaders==
* Liberals before 1918: [[Eduard Lasker]] (1829–1884); [[Rudolf von Bennigsen]] – [[Hans Victor von Unruh]] – [[Eugen Richter]]
* Freisinn: [[Theodor Barth]] – [[Friedrich Naumann]] – [[Max Weber]]
* Deutsche Demokratische Partei: [[Walther Rathenau]] – [[Theodor Heuss]]
* Deutsche Volkspartei: [[Gustav Stresemann]]
* LDPD (East-Germany): [[Waldemar Koch]], [[Wilhelm Külz]], [[Manfred Gerlach]]
* Freie Demokratische Partei: [[Reinhold Maier]] – [[Thomas Dehler]] – [[Hans-Dietrich Genscher]] – [[Otto Graf Lambsdorff]] – [[Walter Scheel]] – [[Guido Westerwelle]] – [[Christian Lindner]]

==Liberal thinkers==
In the [[Contributions to liberal theory]] the following German thinkers are included:
* [[Immanuel Kant]] (1724–1804)
* [[August Ludwig von Schlözer]] (1735–1809)
* [[Wilhelm von Humboldt]] (1767–1835)
* [[Lujo Brentano]] (1844–1931)
* [[Friedrich Naumann]] (1860–1919)
* [[Max Weber]] (1864–1920)
* [[Walther Rathenau]] (1867–1922)
* [[Adolf von Harnack]] (1851–1930)
* [[Wilhelm Röpke]] (1899–1966)
* [[Ralf Dahrendorf]] (1929–2009)
* [[Karl-Hermann Flach]] (1929–1973)

==See also==
* [[History of Germany]]
* [[Politics of Germany]]
* [[List of political parties in Germany]]
* [[Weber and German politics]]

==Further reading==
* Åberg, Martin. ''Swedish and German Liberalism: From Factions to Parties 1860–1920'' (2011){{ISBN?}}
* Anderson, Margaret Lavinia. ''Practicing democracy: Elections and political culture in Imperial Germany'' (2000){{ISBN?}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |author= Doering, Detmar| editor-first=Ronald |editor-last=Hamowy |editor-link=Ronald Hamowy |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |chapter= Liberalism, German |chapter-url=https://sk.sagepub.com/reference/libertarianism/n180.xml|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC |year=2008 |publisher= [[SAGE Publishing|Sage]]; [[Cato Institute]] |location= Thousand Oaks, CA |doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n180 |pages= 298–299 |isbn= 978-1412965804 |url-access=subscription }}
* Eyck, F. Gunther. "English and French Influences on German Liberalism before 1848." ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' (1957): 313–341. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2707796 in JSTOR]
* Gross, Michael B. ''The war against Catholicism: Liberalism and the anti-Catholic imagination in nineteenth-century Germany'' (University of Michigan Press, 2004){{ISBN?}}
* Harris, James F. ''A study in the theory and practice of German liberalism: Eduard Lasker, 1829–1884'' (University Press of America, 1984){{ISBN?}}
* Jarausch, Konrad, et al. eds. ''In search of a liberal Germany: studies in the history of German liberalism from 1789 to the present'' (1990), essays by scholars{{ISBN?}}
* Jones, Larry Eugene. ''German liberalism and the dissolution of the Weimar party system, 1918–1933'' (University of North Carolina Press, 1988){{ISBN?}}
* Krieger, Leonard. ''The German idea of freedom: History of a political tradition'' (University of Chicago Press, 1957){{ISBN?}}
* Kurlander, Eric. ''The price of exclusion: ethnicity, national identity, and the decline of German liberalism, 1898–1933'' (Berghahn Books, 2006){{ISBN?}}
* Langewiesche, Dieter. ''Liberalism in Germany'' (Macmillan Press, 2000){{ISBN?}}
* Kwan, Jonathan. ''Liberalism and the Habsburg Monarchy, 1861–1895'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Concerns the Austro-Hungarian Empire
* Langewiesche, Dieter. ''Liberalism in Germany'' (2000){{ISBN?}}
* Mork, Gordon R. "Bismarck and the 'Capitulation' of German Liberalism," ''Journal of Modern History'' (1971) 43#1 pp.&nbsp;59–75 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1877926 in JSTOR]
* Palmowski, Jan. "Mediating the nation: liberalism and the polity in nineteenth-century Germany." ''German History'' (2001) 19#4 pp.&nbsp;573–598.
* Palmowski, Jan. ''Urban liberalism in imperial Germany: Frankfurt am Main, 1866–1914'' (Oxford University Press, 1999){{ISBN?}}
* Sheehan, James J. "Liberalism and society in Germany, 1815–48." ''Journal of Modern History'' (1973): 583–604. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1879264 in JSTOR]
* Sheehan, James J. ''German liberalism in the nineteenth century'' (1995){{ISBN?}}
* Sheehan, James J. "Liberalism and the city in nineteenth-century Germany." ''Past and Present'' (1971): 116–137. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/650405 in JSTOR]
* Sheehan, James J. ''The career of Lujo Brentano: a study of liberalism and social reform in imperial Germany'' (University of Chicago Press, 1966){{ISBN?}}

{{Liberalism in Europe}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liberalism In Germany}}
[[Category:Liberalism in Germany| ]]
[[Category:Liberalism by country|Germany]]