After the establishment of the German Empire in 1871 under Prussia, the solution which excluded Austria, it advocated federalist structures and defended the South German states' rights against increasing strengthening of the central government in Berlin.
The party put the liberal notion of liberty above the prospect of a German unification led from above.
The party was highly critical of the Prusso-German monarchy and advocated the separation of church and state.
Most of the party's members were craftsmen, small traders, farmers and clerks.
Leopold Sonnemann (proprietor of the newspaper Frankfurter Zeitung) and the lawyer Friedrich von Payer served as Chairmen.