The German Nationalist People's Party

The German Nationalist People's Party (Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP) was founded after the German Revolution of November 1918 when members from several right-wing political groups the German Conservative party, the Free Conservatives, the National Liberals, the Christian Social and volkisch groups joined forces.1 Whereas hitherto a splintered right could be assured that imperial power would oppose radical policies, such electorally weak groups faced political impotence in the new democratic republic. The foundation of the DNVP sought to give them influence in the new political system through a united conservative party with a wide political and social appeal. Throughout the 1920s however, the DNVP was never agreed on the extent to which, as a party dedicated to the restoration of the monarchy, it should cooperate in an apparently illegitimate political framework. Hans von Lindeiner-Wildau, the party's general secretary after 1919, expressed the dilemma in the following terms: 'The fundamental rejection of an illegitimate state dictated a clear stance of opposition, but the feeling of personal involvement with the fate of the state, which is the essence of conservative thought, encouraged constructive cooperation.'2 Although the DNVP professed to be a conservative party, in the 1920s there was no agreement on the meaning of conservatism. Attempts to define a German National philosophy merely reflected the views of strands within the party and were not valid for the movement as a whole

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• German Conservatism at the Crossroads

  Open Access•Larry Eugene Jones•Contemporary European History•2009

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