The Reich Party of the German Middle Class (), known from 1920 to 1925 as the Economic Party of the German Middle Classes (), was a conservativeStanley G. Payne, Fascism:Comparison and Definition, Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1983, p. 16 Weimar era political party in Germany. It was commonly known as the Economic Party (, WP).
History
Background Following the establishment of the Weimar Republic, the German National People's Party (DNVP), which emerged as the main conservative party, hoped to include Germany's established bourgeoisie as a natural part of its own support base. This however was not to be the case, as the party quickly became associated with general rural interests as well as those of big business. In addition to their political homelessness the middle class also had to content with the new Weimar Republic which intervened in and regulated the economy and especially the housing market far more, as well as persistently high inflation and rising interest rates on mortgages.
This situation led to a great deal of unease in the German middle class. On February 16, 1919, the Neue Zeit a local middle class newspaper in Charlottenburg called for the town middle class to form an election committee to which 38 responded. And in spring of 1920 the Charlottenburg Economic Union formed, followed by the Economic Association of Greater Berlin in April. The two combined to form the Economic Union for Town and Country, winning seats in the Berlin House of Representatives, as interest spread to Mecklenburg, Breslau, and Pomerania.
Founding From September 11 to 13 of 1920 representatives of the aforementioned regions met to discuss their political futures and eventually decided to found a new political party, the Business Party of the German Middle Class.Jones, German Liberalism and the Dissolution of the Weimar Republic, 1918-1933, p. 253-255 Led by baker Hermann Drewitz, architect and carpenter Franz Holzamer, and Mecklenburg representative Fritz Sonnichsen leaded to new party, all having been among the original 38 respondents. Allying with local landlords, they offered to serve as a political vehicle for those landlords in exchange for funding. The party reached out to several other parties offering their support in exchange for the incorporation of their ideas but this idea was rejected by every party they contacted. Looking for a figurehead for the party they eventually settled on Johann Viktor Bredt, who was middle class oriented, ideologically compatible, sufficiently well known, and had no concrete party affiliations. Despite some misgivings Bredt agreed to join the party.
In order to reflect the varied views of the different groups within the middle class, the WP called for a reduction in government economic involvement, a freer hand for business and lower taxes.William Brustein, The Logic of Evil: The Social Origins of the Nazi Party, 1925–1933, Yale University Press, 1998, p. 221 It was particularly opposed to currency revaluation, which it considered an attack on the rights of property owners.Richard_Bessel & E.J. Feuchtwanger, Social Change and Political Development in Weimar Germany, Croom Helm, 1981, , p. 59 As a result of the focus on issues purely pertaining to the special interest they represented, the WP often found itself voting with the DNVP, NSDAP, and KPD in the Reichstag, though the group would go on to refuse coalitions with the SPD in the future.
Rise to Prominence
The WP quickly attracted the interest of organized housing interests headed by the former DNVP politician Johann Viktor Bredt. Bredt’s allies in the Prussian chapter of the Central Association of Home and Property Owners’ Organization, a lobby for housing interests, threw their full support behind the Party in the 1921 Prussian State Elections and were rewarded when the WP won it first representation in a State Landtag with 4 seats, the party also performed well in the 1921 Mecklenburg-Schwerin election winning 2 seats. Many artisans were also homeowners, which the WP attempted to capitalize on by getting artisans organizations to endorse the party, but these hopes were crushed when the National Association of German Artisanry and the Christian conservative Christian Middle Class rejected the founding of the WP and refused to align with any particular party in order to remain flexible to the changing political climate, though individual artisans still made up a large share of the party's voterbase. Because of its relationship with housing interests, in its early history the WP was often viewed as a puppet of organized housing interests. In 1925, following a recommendation from Bredt — who was the party's best known member — the party changed its name from the Economic Party of the German Middle Classes to the Reich Party of the German Middle Classes. The name change was intended to overcome the WP's perception as a special interest party and to broaden its appeal among Germany's middle-class voters. Nevertheless, the previous name remained more widely used.Geoff Eley, Reshaping the German Right: Radical Nationalism and Political Change After Bismarck, University of Michigan Press, 1991, p. 359
The party had been quite successful up until this point, but it needed a more coherent ideological identity to make it appear more legitimate to its potential voters. The party held its first national congress in Breslau in April 1921, here they would resolve this ideological problem with a rudimentary party program. The party program was made up of two primary parts.Jones, German Liberalism and the Dissolution of the Weimar Party System, 1918-1933, p. 256-257
Identifying the party with the material interests of the homeowners and the artisans, the two social groups most important in the party's rise An ideological program which espoused Classical Liberalism, Middle Class interests, and cultural Christian conservatism. Early in its history WP took a large degree of support away from the DDP, attacking the DDP for being too friendly with the SPD and Jews and as a party of Big business and banks, while the WP's Christianity helped it attract voters from the secular DDP. The DDP and the DVP (who had also lost voters to the WP) responded by attacking the party for its narrow focus and its rampant materialism.Frye, Liberal Democrats in the Weimar Republic: the history of the German Democratic Party and the German (1980), p. 125 During the campaign for the May and December 1924 elections the WP sought to capitalize on anti-capitalist sentiments which had existed in the middle class since the hyperinflationary crisis, while also capitalizing on anti-communism and the legacy of the November revolution within the middle class. The party first appeared in the Reichstag in May 1924 election achieving 7 seats.William Brustein, The Logic of Evil: The Social Origins of the Nazi Party, 1925–1933, Yale University Press, 1998, p. 221
In June 1926, the WP held its first national party congress in Görlitz and established their new party program called the Görlitz Guidelines (German: Görlitzer Richtlinien). The work of Saxon party leader Walther Wilhelm, the Görlitz Guidelines first outlined the WP's support for republicanism while also undermining this position by calling for government authority to be freed from the "excesses of popular sovereingty". More significantly the program worked the incorporate the demands of the various groups within the German middle class into a Corporatist platform, reducing the influence of Liberalism within the party and distancing it further from Germany's two Liberal parties the DDP and the DVP. With the new party program, the Business Party's transformation from a party easily stigmatized as an agent for organized housing interests into one that claimed to represent the entire spectrum of the German middle class was finished. All of this, including the choice of Görlitz as the site of the party congress, was part of a conscious effort to give the WP the best possible chances in the upcoming Saxon elections. This proved successful when in the 1926 Saxon Landtag elections provided the WP achieved 10.1 percent of the vote and received a very useful platform for validating themselves as the party of the Middle Class and their discontent.Jones, German Liberal and the Dissolution of the Weimar Republic, 1918-1933, p. 259 The late 1920s saw many artisans in particular join the party, with the support of artisans organizations contributing to its particularly strong performances in Saxony and Thuringia while artisans interests gained almost total control of the party in Hamburg.
1928 Elections Among the German Right, the campaign for the 1928 Reichstag elections was dominated above all else by electoral attacks of various special interests parties such as CNBLP and the WP. The WP, which had been steadily growing at the expense of the other right wing parties since their founding, continued to campaign for the support of the parts of the middle-class that had not benefited from Germany's economic stabilization in the late 1920's. On 18 March 1928 Drewitz and the leaders of a nonpartisan organization known as the Reich Cartel of the German Middle Class (German: Reichskartell des deutschen Mittelstandes) launched with a series of demonstrations throughout the country under the slogan “Mittelstand in Not.” This initiative reached its high point in Berlin, where several thousand small business owners closed their shops and took to the streets in protest against high taxes, rent controls, and excessive government spending. Though officially nonpartisan, the demonstrations gave the WP an great opportunity for attacking other parties. They focused their attacks on the DNVP, especially for their support of the 1927 work hours law, which put more restrictions on working hours. The party improved their performance and won 23 seats.
In cabinet negotiations following the elections, president Paul von Hindenburg had asked the WP to consider joining the Second Müller Cabinet, however in a meeting between the President and Drewitz, Drewitz had stated that Müller was simply unwilling to assent to the economic demands of the WP, thus pushing them into a position of opposition which they did not desire. The WP had demanded, among other things, the enforcement of laws against cartels, the reduction of taxes on department stores, and abolition of the housing allocation system. The other parties were worried about the continued opposition of a party who had only gained at the expense of them, and thought of the WP as unreliable. Though the DVP still hoped to potentially bring them into the Reich or even Prussian government, the compromises needed to make sure the nominally anti-socialist WP could coalition with the SPD were deemed too much of a risk for the WP to take.
After the collapse of Müller's cabinet in March 1930, the WP participated in cabinet negotiations to form the First Brüning Cabinet. Due to the necessity of having the support of as many of the parties in-between the SPD and DNVP he could, Brüning was willing to negotiate with them. The WP asked for the Ministry of Justice, thinking it would be the best ministry to advance the cause of the middle class, due to it writing the instructions on how to implement laws. Though Brüning had planned on giving it to the DVP, he accepted their demand. While further conflict arose over the perceived marginalization of conservatives and the domination of the Zentrum in cabinet, the cabinet was successfully formed in the same month, with Johann Victor Bredt as Justice minister.Katz, John Michael, "Johann Victor Bredt and German Party Politics: From Empire to Republic to Dictatorship, 1912 to 1933" (1996). All Master's Theses. 1790. https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/1790
Decline