The Free Conservative Party (German: Freikonservative Partei, FKP) was a liberal-conservative[1][2] political partyinPrussia and the German Empire which emerged from the Prussian Conservative Party in the Prussian Landtag in 1866. In the federal elections to the Reichstag parliament from 1871, it ran as the German Reich Party (German: Deutsche Reichspartei, DRP). DRP was classified as centristorcentre-right by political standards at the time, and it also put forward the slogan "conservative progress".[3]
Free Conservative Party
Freikonservative Partei
| |
|---|---|
| Historic leader | Victor I, Duke of Ratibor |
| Founded | 1867 (1867) |
| Dissolved | 1918 (1918) |
| Split from | Prussian Conservative Party |
| Succeeded by | DNVP (right-wing factions) DVP (moderate factions) |
| Headquarters | Berlin, Prussia |
| Newspaper | Die Post |
| Ideology | Liberal conservatism Progressive conservatism Political Protestantism East Elbia regionalism German nationalism Agrarianism |
| Political position | Centretocentre-right |
| Colors | Sky blue |
|
| |
The Free Conservative Association achieved party status in 1867, comprising German nobles and East Elbian Junkers (land owners) like Duke Victor of Ratibor, Wilhelm von Kardorff, Karl Rudolf Friedenthal, Hermann, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, and Hugo zu Hohenlohe-Öhringen industrialists and government officials like Johann Viktor Bredt, Hermann von Hatzfeldt, Hermann von Dechend, Friedrich Alfred Krupp, Eduard Puricelli, Prince Karl Max von Lichnowsky, and Theodor Heinrich Engelbrecht, diplomat Herbert von Bismarck, generals Hans Hartwig von Beseler and Eduard von Liebert, jurists Karl Heinrich von Boetticher and Heinrich Triepel and scholars like Hans Delbrück, Adolf Grabowsky and Otto Hoetzsch.
It was distinguished from the German Conservative Party established in 1876 by its unqualified support of German unification and was seen as the political party which beside the National Liberals was closest in views to those of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, including his Anti-Socialist Laws and Kulturkampf policies. The party was generally dominated by conservative industrialists and while it opposed political liberalism it also tended to support free trade and the development of industry. Upon the accession of Emperor Wilhelm II in 1888, the party backed his naval policies and the formation of the German colonial empire, approaching towards the German nationalist Pan-German League pressure group while centrists like Adolf Grabowsky did not prevail.
The party disbanded in November 1918 following the end of the Hohenzollern monarchy and the German Revolution. Several members had supported the formation of the German Fatherland Party in 1917, now most of its constituency turned to the newly established German National People's Party while some also joined the national liberal German People's Party.
| Date | Votes | Seats | Position | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | ± pp | No. | ± | |||
| February 1867 | 348,537 | 9.33 | New |
39 / 297
|
New | Opposition | 4th |
| August 1867 | 205,792 | 8.95 |  0.38
|
36 / 297
|
3 |
Opposition |  4th
|
| 1871 | 343,098 | 8.83 | 0.12
|
37 / 382
|
1 |
Extra-parliamentary | 5th
|
| 1874 | 388,840 | 7.49 | 1.34
|
32 / 397
|
5 |
Extra-parliamentary | 4th
|
| 1877 | 424,228 | 7.85 | 0.36
|
38 / 397
|
6 |
Extra-parliamentary | 5th
|
| 1878 | 785,631 | 13.64 | 5.79
|
57 / 397
|
19 |
Extra-parliamentary | 3th
|
| 1881 | 382,149 | 7.50 | 6.14
|
27 / 397
|
30 |
Extra-parliamentary | 6th
|
| 1884 | 387,637 | 6.85 | 0.65
|
28 / 397
|
1 |
Extra-parliamentary |  6th
|
| 1887 | 736,389 | 9.77 | 2.92
|
41 / 397
|
13 |
Extra-parliamentary | 6th
|
| 1890 | 461,307 | 6.38 | 3.39
|
19 / 397
|
22 |
Extra-parliamentary | 6th
|
| 1893 | 437,972 | 5.71 | 0.67
|
28 / 397
|
9 |
Extra-parliamentary | 6th
|
| 1898 | 337,601 | 4.35 | 1.36
|
22 / 397
|
6 |
Extra-parliamentary | 6th
|
| 1903 | 336,617 | 3.54 | 0.81
|
21 / 397
|
1 |
Extra-parliamentary | 6th
|
| 1907 | 471,863 | 4.19 | 0.65
|
24 / 397
|
3 |
Extra-parliamentary | 6th
|
| 1912 | 396,948 | 3.25 | 0.94
|
14 / 397
|
10 |
Extra-parliamentary | 6th
|
The liberal conservatism of the parliamentary group around Bethmann—Hollweg would later appear in the FreiKonservative Partei.
... FK: Freikonservative Partei (Liberal Conservative Party); FrVp: Freisinnige Volkspartei (Liberal People's Party); K: Konservative Partei (Conservative Party); Linke (Left); Linkes Zentrum (Left Centre); ...
Conservative centrists even adopted positivist ideas of progress. For example, the Prussian Free Conservative Party (Freikonservative Partei) launched the slogan of 'conservative progress' in 1867 and, in the same year, ...