National Liberal Party (Germany)
국민자유당 (독일)
A liberal party of the North German Confederation and the German Empire. It arose in 1866–1867 when the right wing of the German Progress Party split off in support of Bismarck's indemnity bill, and it stood for national unification, a constitutional state under the rule of law and industrial modernisation. It broke up after the November Revolution of 1918, most of its members moving to the German People's Party (DVP).
In depth
Liberals willing to grant Bismarck retrospective 'indemnity' for governing without a proper budget formed the 'faction of the national party' in the Prussian House of Representatives on 17 November 1866 with 19 members, among them Karl Twesten and Eduard Lasker. At the end of February 1867 more than seventy deputies of the North German Reichstag joined as the 'faction of the National Liberal Party', and the official founding programme was adopted on 12 June 1867. The party chiefly represented the Protestant educated and propertied middle class and the industrial upper bourgeoisie.
After the founding of the Empire it became the largest group in the 1871 Reichstag election with 30.2 percent and remained the strongest party until 1878, sharing as a 'quasi-governing party' in Bismarck's Kulturkampf and extensive legislation. It split in 1879–1880 over the introduction of protective tariffs, and with the Heidelberg Programme of 1884 it turned to a Bismarck-loyal, statist line, forming the 'Kartell' with the conservatives in 1887. Its chairmen were Rudolf von Bennigsen (1867–1883), Johannes von Miquel (1883–1901), Ernst Bassermann (1905–1912) and Robert Friedberg (1917–1918).
It modernised its organisation after 1900 but kept losing influence, winning only 13.6 percent in the last Reichstag election of 1912. During the First World War it supported unrestricted submarine warfare and far-reaching annexations. After the November Revolution of 1918 the party fell apart: its left wing joined the German Democratic Party (DDP), parts of the right the German National People's Party (DNVP), and the majority founded the German People's Party under Gustav Stresemann.