Free Conservative Party

Moderate right-wing political party in Prussia and the German Empire

This article is about the party that existed in Imperial Germany. For the post-war party, see Deutsche Reichspartei.

Free Conservative Party

Freikonservative Partei

Historic leader| Victor I, Duke of Ratibor
Founded| 28 July 1866 (28 July 1866)
Dissolved| 13 December 1918 (13 December 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| Centre to centre-right
Colors|  Sky blue

* Politics of Germany
* Political parties
* Elections

The Free Conservative Party (German: Freikonservative Partei, FKP) was a liberal-conservative[1][2] political party in Prussia 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 centrist or centre-right by political standards at the time, and it also put forward the slogan "conservative progress".[3]

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, Prince 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 December 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.

## Election results

[edit]

Reichstag  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

## See also

[edit]

* Conservatism in Germany

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Philip G. Dwyer, ed. (2014). Modern Prussian History: 1830-1947. Routledge. p. 93\. ISBN 9781317887003. "The liberal conservatism of the parliamentary group around Bethmann—Hollweg would later appear in the FreiKonservative Partei."
2. ^ Marco E.L. Guidi, Massimo M. Augello, ed. (2014). Economists in Parliament in the Liberal Age: (1848–1920). Routledge. p. 93\. ISBN 9781351941778. "... FK: Freikonservative Partei (Liberal Conservative Party); FrVp: Freisinnige Volkspartei (Liberal People's Party); K: Konservative Partei (Conservative Party); Linke (Left); Linkes Zentrum (Left Centre); ..."
3. ^ Ido de Haan, Matthijs Lok, ed. (2019). The Politics of Moderation in Modern European History. Springer Nature. p. 121\. "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, ..."

* v
* t
* e

Political parties in Germany until the end of World War I

Socialist|

* General German Workers' Association (ADAV)
* Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (SDAP)
* Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)
* Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD)
* Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany (MSPD)

Catholic|

* Centre Party (Zentrum)

Liberal|

| Social liberal|

* German Progress Party (DFP)
* Democratic People's Party (DVP)
* German People's Party (DtVP)
* Liberal Union (LV)
* German Free-minded Party (DFsP)
* Free-minded People's Party (FVP)
* Free-minded Union (FV)
* National-Social Association (NSV)
* Democratic Union (DV)
* Progressive People's Party (FVP)

|

National liberal|

* National Liberal Party (NLP)
* Imperial Liberal Party (LRP)

Conservative|

* Free Conservative Party (FKP)
* German Conservative Party (DkP)
* Christian Social Party (CSP)
* German Fatherland Party
* Conservative Party (Prussia)

Antisemitic|

* German Reform Party (DRP)
* German Social Party (DSP)
* German Social Reform Party (DSRP)

Regionalist|

* Saxon People's Party
* German-Hanoverian Party (DHP)
* Bavarian Peasants' League (BB)
* Polish Party
* Danish Party

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* Germany
* Israel

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template