In the fourteen years the Weimar Republic was in existence, some forty parties were represented in the Reichstag. This fragmentation of political power was in part due to the use of a peculiar proportional representation electoral system that encouraged regional or small special interest parties[1] and in part due to the many challenges facing the nascent German democracy in this period.
After the Nazi seizure of power, they used the provisions of the Reichstag Fire Decree to effectively eliminate their chief adversaries, first the Communists (March 1933) and then the Social Democrats (22 June 1933) through arrests, confiscation of assets and removal from office. Other parties were pressured into disbanding on their own or were swept away by the "Law Against the Formation of Parties" (14 July 1933) which declared the Nazi Party to be Germany's only legal political party.[2]
(between 1917 and 1922 also called Mehrheitssozialdemokratische Partei (MSPD) – Majority Social Democrats). Founded in 1875, it was one of the earliest Marxist-influenced parties in the world. A member of the Weimar Coalition, the SPD supported the parliamentary system of democracy and extensive social programs in the economy. For most of the Weimar Republic's existence until 1932, the SPD was the largest single party in the Reichstag and it participated in several coalition governments. Its party newspaper was the Vorwärts.
National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party). This was a far-right political party in Germany that was active between 1920 and 1945, and that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers' Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; DAP), existed from 1919 to 1920. The Nazi Party emerged from the German nationalist, racist and populistFreikorps paramilitary culture, which fought against the communist uprisings in post-World War I Germany. It supported the ideas of Führerprinzip, Volksgemeinschaft, Pan-Germanism, Lebensraum and the "Aryan Master Race". The party incorporated fervent antisemitism, anti-communism, anti-capitalism, scientific racism, and the use of eugenics into its creed. Headed by Adolf Hitler from 1921, the party became the largest in the Reichstag by July 1932. Its main newspaper was the Völkischer Beobachter.
Communist Party of Germany. Formed at the very end of 1918 out of a number of left-wing groups, including the left-wing of the USPD and the Spartacus League. It was a Marxist-Leninist party that advocated revolution by the proletariat and the creation of a communist regime according to the example of the Soviet Union. It was the main far-left party for the majority of the Weimar period. The party's major paper was the Die Rote Fahne (The Red Flag). Between 1920 and 1922 known as the United Communist Party of Germany (Vereinigte Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, VKPD)
It was the continuation of the pre-Weimar Catholic party of the same name. A member of the Weimar Coalition, the Centre Party was the third-largest party in the Reichstag for most of the Weimar Republic and participated in all governments until 1932. Their party newspaper was Germania.
It presented itself as a volksgemeinschaft or non-class party. It included remnants from the German Conservative Party, the Free Conservative Party, the Völkische movement, the Christian Social movement, and the Pan-German Association. It established two labor unions; one for the blue-collar worker (the DNAB) and one for the white-collar worker (DNAgB), which had been politically unimportant. The DNVP was the main authoritarian right party of Weimar Germany but moved to the radical right after coming under the control of press baron Alfred Hugenberg in 1928. It organized the National Opposition in 1929, together with leaders of Der Stahlhelm, Hjalmar Schacht, the president of the Reichsbank, and the Nazi Party, to oppose Chancellor Hermann Müller's Grand Coalition. It joined in coalition with Hitler's government in January 1933.
Formed in 1918 from the pre-Weimar National Liberals, it was a center-right party supporting right-liberalism. Its platform stressed Christian family values, secular education, lower tariffs, opposition to welfare spending and agrarian subsidies, and hostility to socialism. Gustav Stresemann was its chairman and it participated in all governments until 1931. After Stresseann's death, the party turned further to the right.
Formed in 1918 as the successor to the Progressive People's Party, the DDP was a center-left party that supported social liberalism. A member of the Weimar Coalition, it was one of the main liberal parties and participated in several coalition governments.
Old Social Democratic Party of Germany. A regional party based in Saxony that split from the SPD in 1926. It never gained a mass following and disbanded in 1932.
Communist Workers' Party of Germany. An ultra-leftist party that split from the KPD in April 1920. They rejected participation in the Reichstag and called for immediate revolutionary action. Immediately after its formation the party endured a series of splinters and lost much of the little influence it had.
Split from the KPD in 1928, representing the "Right Opposition" of the Bukharinists against the Stalinist "Center" and the Trotskyist "Left Opposition". It never intended to be a real political party, but to influence the KPD.
A left-wing faction that split from the SPD in 1931. Parts of the USPD and dissenters from the KPD and the KPO joined it, but it remained small. Its political positions were near to those of the USPD, wavering between the SPD and the KPD.
This was formed by an anti-war faction that split from the SPD in 1917. It was a Marxist party that sought change through parliament and social progressive programs. The left-wing majority of the party joined the Communist Party in December 1920, while the remainder reunited with the MSPD in September 1922. A splinter element (Sozialistischer Bund) continued as an independent party, never attaining any real electoral success and finally merging with the SAPD in 1931.
German State Party. Formed in 1930 by a merger of the DDP and the Volksnationale Reichsvereinigung (VNRV) (People's National Reich Association), the political wing of the Young German Order. The VNRV Reichstag delegates soon seceded from the party, leaving it essentially the DDP under a new name.
A regional agrarian party active in Schleswig-Holstein between 1919 and 1924. It was a moderate party that leaned towards liberalism, and co-operated with the DVP.
This was a small regional party active in the Free State of Brunswick. It was conservative, monarchist and anti-republican. It formed an electoral alliance with the DVP and the DNVP.
Christian National Peasants' and Farmers' Party. This was a conservative agrarian party that broke off from the German National People's Party (DNVP) in 1928. It contested the 1930 and 1932 Reichstag elections under the name Deutsches Landvolk (German Rural Folk).
A conservative Protestant party formed at the end of 1929, it was mainly supported by the middle class and Christian trade unionists. It supported state welfare, trade unions and workers participation in management; it opposed atheism, liberalism and Marxism. Also known as Christlich-sozialer Volksdienst (Evangelische Bewegung).
Also known as the Guelph Party. A regional party in Prussia's Province of Hanover that unsuccessfully advocated for a Free State of Hanover. Formerly conservative and centre-right, the party moved to the left in the 1920s.
A far-right, nationalist party heavily influenced by the antisemitic Thule Society. It was headed by Julius Streicher, and it was also highly organized, despite having a rather small size. In a controversial move, it dissolved itself in 1922 and many of its members entered the (then very new) Nazi Party.
The party of General Ludendorff. It campaigned for an authoritarian regime that would be very nationalistic and promoted socioeconomic questions. It also sought to close the stock exchanges and nationalize the banks. In May 1924, it obtained 6.4% of the vote in alliance with NSDAP, but fell to 3% in the next election, in December 1924.
A Nazi front organization established in January 1924 when the Nazi Party was outlawed. Centered in Bavaria, it was led by Alfred Rosenberg until July when he was ousted by Julius Streicher. Opposed to electoral politics, it was not represented in the Reichstag. It dissolved in March 1925 and was reabsorbed by the Nazi Party.
A Nazi front organization established in April 1924 when the Nazi Party was outlawed and Hitler was jailed. The remaining Nazis formed it as a legal means of carrying on the party and its ideology. As the National Socialist Freedom movement (NSFB), it ran as a combined list with the DVFP in the 1924 Reichstag elections and disbanded shortly after the Nazi Party was re-established in February 1925.
A conservative pro-business party, founded in 1920 as the Economic Party of the German Middle Class. It commonly was referred to as the Wirtschaftspartei (WP). It supported a reduction in government economic involvement, a freer hand for business, and lower taxes. It was particularly opposed to revaluation, which it considered an attack on the rights of property owners.
Officially called the Reich Party for Civil Rights and Deflation. Formed in 1926, the party was conservative in outlook and represented itself as the defender of savers, calling for the creation of as broad a middle class as possible. It sought to represent those worst hit by the hyperinflation of the early 1920s.
Other political organizations
Besides the larger parties, there were also a multitude of smaller groups and parties that were either affiliated with the electoral coalitions of larger parties or were organizationally independent and participated with their own lists either throughout the entire Republic or only in individual constituencies.[4]
The Agrarian League was an agricultural advocacy group that opposed free trade, industrialization, and liberalism. It merged with the Deutscher Landbund in 1921 to form the Reichslandbund.
Operated throughout Germany but especially in its stronghold of Bavaria. It had democratic, anticlerical leanings and subscribed to a narrow Bavarian particularism. It supported the BVP and the DNVP, and in 1928 helped found the DBP. Also BBB.
Founded in December 1918 by Franz Seldte, this was the First World War veteran's organisation. Officially above party politics, it was conservative, nationalistic and monarchist. After 1929, it took on an anti-republican and anti-democratic character. Its goals were the overthrow of the Republic in favor of a dictatorship and a revanchist program. In 1931, it joined the DNVP and the NSDAP to form the Harzburg Front.
This was the largest and the most active anti-Semitic federation in Germany. Founded in 1919, it was anti-democratic and advocated violence. After the murder of Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau in 1922, it was banned in most states of the Reich and disbanded by 1924.
Commonly known as the Black Front. An opposition group formed by Otto Strasser in 1930 after he resigned from the Nazi Party to continue what he saw as the Party's original anti-capitalist stance.
Also known as National Rural League. It was formed in 1921 through the merger of the two large Protestant right-wing agricultural associations, the Bund der Landwirte (BdL) and the Deutscher Landbund, in order to more effectively assert agricultural interests against the forces of labor and big business. It strove to maintain as much influence as possible for large Junker landowners from east of the Elbe, who were heavily represented among its leadership. Opposed to the Republic, it first was allied with the DNVP and later the Nazi Party.
This was a right-wing electoral alliance of völkisch, anti-Semitic and anti-republican groups formed in 1924 during the period that the Nazi Party was outlawed, and was closely aligned with its ideology. It was particularly strong in Bavaria and Thuringia. It disbanded in March 1925, following the reestablishment of the Nazi Party.
Freiheitliche National-Soziale Deutsche Mittelstandsbewegung
FNSM
Associated with the National-Social Party of the Centre (Nationalsoziale Partei der Mitte) and Greater German People's Party (Großdeutsche Volkspartei (Liste Schmalix))
Associated with the National-Social Party of the Centre (Nationalsoziale Partei der Mitte) and Greater German People's Party (Großdeutsche Volkspartei (Liste Schmalix))
An umbrella group which consisted of the Reichslandbund (RLB), the Deutsche Bauernshaft (formerly Bauernbund), the Association of Christian-German Peasant Unions, and the German Agricultural Council. It too heavily promoted the Junkers interest and drove out many farmers.
Deutschnationaler Handlungsgehilfenverband (DHV) (National Association of Clerical Employees) — the conservative white-collar worker union. The DHV leadership did not fully support the NSDAP because it didn't recognize the independence of unions. (Against the government)
Gesamtverband Deutscher Beamtengewerkschaften (GDB) was a conservative civil service union.
Gewerkschaftsbund der Angestellten (GdA) was a Hirsch-Duncker union.
Gewerkschaftsbund deutscher Angestelltenverbände (Gedag) was a conservative white-collar union.
Reichsbund Deutscher Angestellten-Berufsverbände was a conservative white-collar union.
Vereinigung der chrislichen-deutschen Bauernvereine (Association of Christian-German Peasant Unions)
Zentralverband der Angestellten (ZdA), an association of white-collar unions started by the SPD. (Pro-Weimar Republic)
Other Organizations
Alldeutscher Verband — Pan-German League. A nationalist and colonialist organization whose goal was to nurture, protect and expand German nationality as a unifying force. (Against the government)
Deutsches Handwerk. German crafts organization headed by Zeleny. Zeleny advocated positions that would improve conditions for the old middle class. It would later back the NSDAP.
Katholische Burschenvereine. Catholic youth associations that the Catholic Church started in southern Germany to provide Catholic youth with numerous activities.
Bund Wiking — Viking League. A paramilitary organization founded in Munich in 1923 by members of the banned Organisation Consul as a successor group. Its stated aim was the establishment of a military dictatorship and modification of the Treaty of Versailles by armed means, including provocations intended to incite workers into violence and provide the pretext for a coup.
Organisation Consul (OC) — An ultra-nationalist and anti-Semitic terrorist organization that operated from 1920 to 1922. It was formed by Hermann Ehrhardt and several members of his Freikorpsbrigade. It was responsible for political assassinations, including former Minister of Finance Matthias Erzberger and Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau, that had the goal of destroying the Republic and replacing it with a right-wing dictatorship. The group was banned by the German government in 1922.
Schwarze Reichswehr — Black Reichswehr. Extra-legal paramilitary formations promoted by the German Reichswehr to circumvent manpower restrictions imposed by the Versailles Treaty. Black Reichswehr members were responsible for several Feme murders. Active 1921 to 1923.
Reichstag election results
All vote numbers in thousands.
Regional= Total for regional parties not listed individually
Rightist= Total for right-wing parties not listed individually
Splinter= Total for splinter parties not listed individually or among regional or rightist
6 June 1920
includes by-elections in Schleswig-Holstein and East Prussia (20 February 1921)
and Upper Silesia (19 November 1922)
Eligible 35,920
Turnout 28,196
% voting 78.4
(Party, Votes, Seats)
KPD 590 4
USPD 5,047 83
SPD 6,104 103
Centre 3,910 64
BVP 1,173 21
DDP 2,334 39
WP 219 4
DVP 3,919 65
DNVP 4,249 71
Regional 709 5
Splinter 161 0
Total 28,415 459
Brustein, William (1996). The Logic of Evil: The Social Origins of the Nazi Party, 1925–1933. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN978-0-300-06533-6.
Mitcham, Samuel W. (1996). Why Hitler, The Genesis of the Nazi Reich. Westport, CT: Praeger. p. 72. ISBN978-0-274-65916-6.