German Fatherland Party
The left-liberal Progressive People's Party, which lost a noticeable number of members to the DVLP, expressly refused to work with it.
[24] German scholar Dirk Stegmann concluded that the Fatherland Party was pre- or proto-fascist because of Drexler's involvement.
In 1997, scholar Heinz Hagenlücke argued that "the party was explicitly founded as a party and not a movement, members reflected the typical picture of high Wilhelmine society in contrast to the lower class organizations of the Weimar Republic, which sociologically reached the lower-middle class, soldiers, and the youth.
"[26] The Fatherland Party represented pan-German,[27][28] national liberal, conservative, nationalist, populist, antisemitic and völkisch political circles, united in their opposition against the Reichstag Peace Resolution of July 1917.
[29][30] The Fatherland Party was decidedly monarchist and supportive of the war efforts of German Emperor Wilhelm II.
[9] In March–April 1915, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz stated that the only thing that was keeping Germany from winning the war was the poor leadership of the Chancellor and the Emperor.
[36] The official purpose for the existence of the Fatherland Party was to end the war victoriously and secure a "German peace.
"[8] On 24 September 1917, Tirpitz had demanded a "correct solution to the Belgian question," a "safeguarding of the open sea lanes," "physical compensation" and a "place in the sun" secured for Germany.
In the months that followed, the following ideas gradually emerged:[37][38] The war aims of the DVLP were concerted at every possible opportunity in "countless meetings (...) and a flood of declarations, appeals, writings, demands and telegrams to the Kaiser, the government, the Reichstag, the Supreme Army Command and to the public" became known and popularized.
The call to members and supporters, which was still little veiled in the "Great Appeal," to stand up against a Prussian electoral reform, the parliamentarization of Reich policy, and the government's commitment to the DVLP line were deleted on 24 September 1917, without comment.
The party promised not to put up its own candidates for Reichstag elections, and the "internal dispute" should rest until the war's end.
The main domestic political goal of the party leadership was clearly to force a dissolution of the Reichstag by employing extra-parliamentary pressure.
[42] Media baron Alfred Hugenberg was also a prominent member and Duke John Albert of Mecklenburg[43] was made "Honorary Chairman".
The party included many leading industrialists, large landowners, and business association officials, including Georg Wilhelm von Siemens, Carl Duisberg, Ernst von Borsig, Hugo Stinnes, Emil Kirdorf and Hermann Röchling, but also humanities scholars such as Eduard Meyer.
The DVLP had its central main management based in Berlin and was divided into state, district, and local associations at the middle and lower levels.
It is also known that several higher officials - including Prussian government presidents - forced the staff of the departments and authorities they headed to join the party.
