After WW I and the end of the Kaiser era....one of the significant parties that came to exist in 1919....was the German People's Party. This is a brief introduction essay over the party, it's 13-year history, and where things went wrong.
The party is often noted as the DVP or Deutsche Volkspartei. The basic description is that it was a liberal party....existing in the Weimar Republic days, and leaned slightly to the right (conservative). It's big-name political figure? Gustav Stresemann (you often find German city streets named after the guy)....who was the the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize winner. He would briefly serve as a Foreign Minister and Chancellor.
The party found success in 1919's national election, with around 4.5 percent of the national vote. Their peak came a year later (1920's national election) with around 14-percent of the national vote. By 1928, they were back down to 8.7-percent of the vote. By 1930, with the Nazis on the rise, they managed only 4.5-percent of the vote, and in the 1932 election....they were down to 1.9-percent of the national vote. A year later, they virtually disappeared.
Their theme? They supported jobs (via the German industry)....and had a family values related platform. They voiced negativity about higher taxes, and went against religious-oriented education/schools. Communism? Opposed, to the maximum extent possible.
Their downward path? Historians argue over this. Some suggest that the 1920 election was just a lucky break. Some suggest that the family values chatter really didn't help attract voters. Some will suggest that they could not explain their pro-jobs stance to any real plan to achieve such success.
After the war, elements (former members) came up and they ended up forming what is known today as the FDP (the Free Democratic Party) which traditionally gets around five to eight percent of the national vote.
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