View source for Conservatism in Germany

{{short description|Overview of conservatism in Germany}}
{{Conservatism in Germany}}
'''Conservatism in Germany''' ({{langx|de|Konservatismus}}) has encompassed a wide range of theories and ideologies in the last three hundred years, but most historical [[Conservatism|conservative]] theories supported the [[Monarchy of Germany|monarchical]]/[[Social stratification|hierarchical]] political structure.

== Historical conservative strains ==
During the pre-revolutionary [[Vormärz]] era, the label conservatism united a loose movement of intellectual and political forces without any party organisation comparable to the British [[Tories (British political party)|Tories]]. The tradition of conservative theorists like [[Justus Möser]] (1720–1794) opposed [[Age of Enlightenment|the Enlightenment]] tendencies and the ideals of the [[French Revolution]].<ref>{{cite book|last=James N. Retallack|title=The German Right, 1860–1920: Political Limits of the Authoritarian Imagination|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pa4LXN4HjNkC&pg=PA278|year=2006|publisher=University of Toronto Press}}</ref>

While many of the conservative theorists are labelled "political Romantics" (most notably by [[Carl Schmitt]], himself a conservative), at least four strains are distinguishable before 1945:
* ''[[Reactionary|Status quo ante]]'' [[German Romanticism|Romantic conservatives]], who wanted to restore the medieval as it was prior to the French Revolution. Notable theorists are [[Novalis]], [[Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling|Friedrich Schelling]], [[Karl Ludwig von Haller]] and [[Adam Müller]].
* Conservative Journalism defends the ''[[status quo]]'' of [[Concert of Europe|Metternichs System]] (the Restoration) and [[national conservatism]]. Notable theorists include [[Friedrich von Gentz]], [[Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel|Friedrich Schlegel]] and [[Ernst Moritz Arndt]].
* Conservative writing in defense of the (constitutional) [[monarchy in Germany]] included theorists [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]], [[Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein]] and [[Friedrich Julius Stahl]].
* The [[conservative revolutionary movement]] and pre-Nazi radicals, such as [[Arthur Moeller van den Bruck]], [[Oswald Spengler]] (adding [[pessimism]] and [[cultural conservatism]]) and [[Carl Schmitt]].

Also included are the [[anti-Enlightenment]] [[Romanticism]] of [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], the conservative ''[[Realpolitik]]'' and [[Public administration|statecraft]] of [[Otto von Bismarck]] and the anti-republican [[monarchism]] of the [[German National People's Party]] (DNVP) during the [[Weimar Republic]].

== Otto von Bismarck ==
Conservative thought developed alongside [[German nationalism|nationalism in Germany]], culminating in Germany's victory over France in the [[Franco-Prussian War]], the creation of the unified [[German Empire]] in 1871 and the simultaneous rise to power of Chancellor [[Otto von Bismarck]].  Bismarck's "balance of power" foreign policy model maintained peace in Europe for decades at the end of the 19th century. His "revolutionary conservatism" was a conservative state-building strategy designed to make ordinary Germans—not just his own Junker elite—more loyal to state and emperor. He created the modern welfare state in Germany in the 1880s. According to [[Kees van Kersbergen]] and [[Barbara Vis]], his strategy was "granting social rights to enhance the integration of a hierarchical society, to forge a bond between workers and the state so as to strengthen the latter, to maintain traditional relations of authority between social and status groups, and to provide a countervailing power against the modernist forces of liberalism and socialism".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kersbergen|first1=Kees van|last2=Vis|first2=Barbara|title=Comparative Welfare State Politics: Development, Opportunities, and Reform|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UQL3AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA38|year=2013|publisher=Cambridge UP|page=38}}</ref>

Bismarck also enacted [[universal male suffrage]] in the new German Empire in 1871.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Moore|first1=Robert Laurence|last2=Vaudagna|first2=Maurizio|title=The American Century in Europe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PeoqKSxiOu4C&pg=PA226|year=2003|publisher=Cornell University Press|page=226}}</ref>  He became a great hero to German conservatives, who erected many monuments to his memory after he left office in 1890.<ref>Richard E. Frankel, "From the Beer Halls to the Halls of Power: The Cult of Bismarck and the Legitimization of a New German Right, 1898–1945," ''German Studies Review,'' Vol. 26, No. 3 (Oct., 2003), pp.&nbsp;543–560 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1432746 in JSTOR]</ref>

After the [[Revolutions of 1848 in the German states|Revolutions of 1848]], conservative parties were represented in several [[Landtag]] assemblies of the [[German Confederation|German states]], particularly in the [[Preußischer Landtag|Prussian Landtag]], from 1871 onwards also in the [[Reichstag (German Empire)|Reichstag]] parliament of the German Empire. The Prussian conservatives, mainly [[East Elbia]]n landowners (''[[Junker]]''), who had been sceptical towards the [[Unification of Germany]] promoted by [[Minister President of Prussia|Minister President]] Bismarck, re-organised themselves within the [[German Conservative Party]]. In the Reichstag, they had to face the rivalry of the [[Free Conservative Party|Free Conservative]] secession, which comprised bureaucratic elite leaders as well as [[Rhine Province|Rhenish]] business [[magnate]]s, who had supported Bismarck's politics from the beginning.

During Bismarck's time in office, German conservatives more and more turned to [[statism]] and [[paternalism]] in the rising conflict between [[economic liberalism]] as promoted by the [[National Liberal Party (Germany)|National Liberals]] and the [[labour movement]] represented by the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democratic Party]]. They supported the Chancellor's [[Anti-Socialist Laws]], but also strongly embraced the implementation of a [[social insurance]] (pensions, accident insurance and medical care) that laid the ground for the German [[welfare state]]. Likewise, conservative politicians appreciated the enforcement of what they called [[national interest]]s during the [[Kulturkampf]] against the [[Catholic Church]] and the [[Centre Party (Germany)|Centre Party]]. Though Bismarck's domestic policies did not prevail against his opponents, they further strengthened the power of the state.

At the same time, the influence of the parliament on those policy guidelines remained limited. [[Universal suffrage]] (for men) had been implemented already in the 1867 [[Reichstag (North German Confederation)|Reichstag]] election of the [[North German Confederation]], but the MPs had few [[legislature|legislative]] powers. The German government remained responsible only to the [[German Emperor|Emperor]] and the [[Chancellor of Germany|Chancellor]] used to rule by alternating majorities. Not until the late days of [[World War I]] a [[parliamentarism|parliamentary]] reform was carried out, instigated by the [[Oberste Heeresleitung]] (Supreme Army Command) in view of the German defeat. Biased by particular interests and reserved towards political parties espousing an ideology or vision in general, German conservatives up to then had not been able to install a [[big tent]] in the sense of a people's party.

== Weimar Republic and Nazi oppression ==
Conservatism in Germany was shaken by the lost World War I and the [[German Revolution of 1918–1919]]. The thinkers of the conservative revolution, a reaction to the lapse of the once venerated monarchical tradition, strived for an inventive realignment ([[New world order (politics)|new world order]]) based on continuous principles while in the late 1920s the [[German National People's Party|DNVP]] under press baron [[Alfred Hugenberg]] turned towards far-right nationalist policies, culminating in the co-operation with the [[Nazi Party]] on the eve of the ''[[Machtergreifung]]'' in 1933. Several conservative politicians like Hugenberg himself, [[Franz von Papen]] and [[Konstantin von Neurath]] became members of the [[Hitler Cabinet]] and some like [[Franz Seldte]] even joined the NSDAP.

During the period of [[Nazi Germany|Nazi rule]], all other political parties, including conservative, were outlawed. The "national revolution" of the [[Nazism|Nazis]] had priority and the [[racism|racist]] and social changes in German society were not allowed to be stopped by the conservative forces of "reaction" (''Reaktion'', see "[[Horst-Wessel-Lied]]"), like for instance the Catholic, Christian-democratic [[Centre Party (Germany)|Zentrum]] and the [[Prussianism|Prussian]] [[Monarchism|monarchists]]. Several conservative opponents of the Nazi regime like former Chancellor [[Kurt von Schleicher]] or [[Edgar Julius Jung]] were murdered during the [[Night of the Long Knives]] in 1934. After a period of pacification in the Third Reich, notable conservatives were involved in the [[German resistance to Nazism|German Resistance]], most notably in the [[20 July plot]].

== Modern conservatism ==
After [[World War II]], conservatism in Germany had to deal with the experience of [[totalitarianism]] and its own involvement. Its protagonists finally adopted the ideals of a [[Liberalism|liberal]] constitutional (''[[Rechtsstaat]]'') [[democracy]] and in turn eliminated themselves as a separate political power.

In modern [[Germany]], the post-war [[Christian Democratic Union of Germany|Christian Democratic Union]] (CDU) along with the [[Christian Social Union in Bavaria]] (CSU) claim to represent all forms of conservatism in Germany. [[National conservatism|National conservative]] new establishments like the [[German Party (1947)|German Party]] did not last while up to today there remain some marginal parties to the right of the CDU and CSU, difficult to distinguish from the [[Far-right politics|far-right]]-parties, e.g. [[The Republicans (Germany)|The Republicans]]. There also exist marginal movements to restore the German monarchy, most notably [[Tradition und Leben]]. During the [[German student movement]] of the late 1960s, CDU/CSU politicians called for a "strong state" and the restriction of [[Natural and legal rights|individual rights]] in order to put down the disturbances.

Notable modern ("[[Technocracy|technocratic]]") conservative theorists included [[Ernst Jünger]] (1895–1998) and his brother [[Friedrich Georg Jünger]] (1898–1977), [[Hans Freyer]] (1887–1969), [[Helmut Schelsky]] (1912–1984) and [[Arnold Gehlen]] (1904–1976). They stressed the subjection of political decisions to the circumstances determined by a [[Technological change|technologically]] advanced civilisation, denying ideological claims to overcome [[social alienation]], which would remain an illusion only advocated by [[demagogue]]s.

== Recent developments ==
Like most political parties in Germany, the CDU and the CSU to a lesser extent has turned to [[centrism|centrist]] policies after [[German reunification]]. This has led to an emphasis on [[economic liberalism]] and [[social justice]] (in the tradition of [[Catholic social teaching]]) compared to firm conservative positions. However, the party's claimed conservative feature remains a non-defined iridescent term, oscillating between [[National conservatism|national]] and [[social conservatism|social]] manifestation.

Since [[West Germany]] Chancellor [[Helmut Kohl]] formed a [[coalition government]] of the CDU and the liberal [[Free Democratic Party (Germany)|Free Democratic Party]] (FDP) in 1982, both parties have often been frequently referred to as belonging to a larger [[Centre-right politics|centre-right]] (''bürgerlich'', "civic") faction within the [[Politics of Germany|German party system]]. However, this distinction has been criticised for neglecting not only [[social liberalism|social liberal]] trends, but also conservative tendencies within [[Centre-left politics|centre-left]] parties like the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democrats]] or [[Alliance 90/The Greens|The Greens]].

== See also ==
{{portal|conservatism}}
* [[Alternative for Germany]]
* [[CDU/CSU]]
* [[Conservatism]]
* [[Free Democratic Party of Germany]]
* [[Agrarian Conservatism in Germany]]
* [[Conservative Party (Prussia)]]
* [[Liberalism in Germany]]
* [[Far-right politics in Germany (1945–present)|Far-right politics in Germany]]

== Notes ==
<references/>

== Further reading ==
* Berdahl, Robert M. "Conservative Politics and aristocratic landholders in Bismarckian Germany." ''Journal of Modern History'' 44#1 (1972): 2-20. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1878819 in JSTOR].
* {{cite book|last=von Beyme|first=Klaus|title=Politische Theorien im Zeitalter der Ideologien|year=2002|publisher=Westdeutscher Verlag}}
* {{cite book|last=Epstein|first=Klaus|title=Genesis of German Conservatism|year=1975|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0-691-05121-6}}
* {{cite book|last=Jones|first=Larry Eugene|editor=James Retallack |title=Between Reform, Reaction, and Resistance: Studies in the History of German Conservatism from 1789 to 1945|publisher=Berg Publishers|isbn=0-85496-787-7}}
* {{cite book|last=Muller|first=Jerry Z.|title=The Other God that Failed: Hans Freyer and the Deradicalization of German Conservatism|url=https://archive.org/details/othergodthatfail0000mull|url-access=registration|year=1988|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0-691-00823-X}}
* [[Nipperdey, Thomas]]. ''Germany from Napoleon to Bismarck: 1800–1866'' (1996). [https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=FYMABAAAQBAJ excerpt].
* Retallack, James. "'What Is to Be Done?' The Red Specter, Franchise Questions, and the Crisis of Conservative Hegemony in Saxony, 1896–1909." ''Central European History'' 23#4 (1990): 271–312. [http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~retallac/Retallack_What-Is-To-Be-Done_CEH.pdf online].
* Retallack, James. ''The German Right, 1860–1920: Political Limits of the Authoritarian Imagination'' (2006).

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