A Republican Potential

The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Party in Hof-an-der-Saale, 1918–1920

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9643106
AutoresAlex Burkhardt (autor de correspondencia)
Año2017
Volumen50
Número4
Páginas471-492
Fecha de publicación2017-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCentral European History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0008-9389 • E-ISSN: 1569-1616
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0008938917000875
OpenAlexW2776952320
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas25

In January 1919, the Bürgertum of the Bavarian town of Hof voted overwhelmingly for the left-liberal German Democratic Party (Deutsche Demokratische Partei, DDP). But the following summer, in the Reichstag elections of June 1920, the Democrats sustained significant losses against the right-wing nationalist Bavarian Middle Party (Bayerische Mittelpartei, BMP). This article explores the rise and fall of the DDP in Hof by showing that a pro-republican politics initially proved popular among the local Bürgertum , until its credibility was undermined and ultimately destroyed by a series of devastating crises: the Bavarian Räterepublik of April 1919, the publication of the Versailles Treaty a month later, and the revolutionary and counterrevolutionary convulsions triggered by the Kapp Putsch in March 1920. This article concludes that political violence and a burgeoning confrontation between bürgerliche and socialist milieus were the key factors in explaining the eclipse of left-liberalism in Hof during the first years of the Weimar Republic

Archaeology · Democracy · Economic history · German · Liberal Party · Liberalism · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Treaty · Weimar Republic · European history and politics · European Political History Analysis · French Historical and Cultural Studies · History · Law