German-Hanoverian Party

For other uses, see German Party.
German-Hanoverian Party
Deutsch-Hannoversche Partei
Founded1867
Dissolved1933
Succeeded byLower Saxony State Party
NewspaperHannoversche Landeszeitung
IdeologyAgrarianism[1]
Federalism[2]
Hanoverian regionalism[3]
Hanoverian independence[4]
Christian democracy[5]
Political positionCentre-left[n 1]
Historical (pre-WWI):
Centre-right[7]

The German-Hanoverian Party (German: Deutsch-Hannoversche Partei, DHP), also known as the Guelph Party (German: Welfenpartei), was an agrarian, federalist political party in the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. It represented the interests of Hanoverian separatists and regionalists that sought to restore the overthrown House of Welf and separate from Prussia to either become a kingdom within Germany or to become independent outright.[3] The party was a part of the anti-Prussian faction in the Reichstag and closely cooperated with the Catholic Centre Party, including opposing Kulturkampf and centralization legislations.[8]

German political commentators mockingly considered the party the Protestant wing of the Centre Party, given their similar political programs and anti-Prussian agenda. E. Bukey remarked that "the DHP behaved as if it were an integral part of the Zentrum" and "had most Guelphs not been Protestants the DHP might have disappeared altogether."[3] The party also cooperated with the SPD and both parties together voted against the anti-socialist laws and opposed military and colonial expansion; because the "SPD-DHP cooperation was a major factor in maintaining DHP strength in the province of Hanover", DHP was able to maintain its strong position in the German Empire. The party tried to separate Hanover from Germany in 1920, in a coup attempt that became known as the Welfenputsch [de].[9] The party declined after the failure of the 1924 Hanoverian secession referendum and moved to the left, abandoning monarchism in favour of republicanism and denouncing right-wing parties and movements.[6] It disbanded in 1933 in response to the rise of the NSDAP.[3]

  1. ^ Heinzen, Jasper (2017). Making Prussians, Raising Germans: A Cultural History of Prussian State-Building after Civil War, 1866–1935. Cambridge University Press. p. 22. doi:10.1017/9781108182737. ISBN 9781108182737. DHP strategists and newspapers took advantage of rural voters' respect for tradition by reminding the electorate of the good the Guelphs had done for the peasantry and championing agricultural causes such as low tariffs on imported grain and fodder for the cattle industry.
  2. ^ Heinzen, Jasper (2017). Making Prussians, Raising Germans: A Cultural History of Prussian State-Building after Civil War, 1866–1935. Cambridge University Press. p. 266. doi:10.1017/9781108182737. ISBN 9781108182737. The longing for the revision of the constitution even in republican circles gave federalists and separatists an opening to advance their own ideas for change. Under the auspices of the German Federal League (DFB), the DHP, SchleswigHolstein's Landespartei, the Hessian People's Union, and the Rhenish People's Coalition collaborated with the Bavarian People's Party (BVP) to campaign for a national federation of 'equal states on the basis of tribal allegiance' as the model for a European league of nations.
  3. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference bukey was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Heinzen, Jasper (2017). Making Prussians, Raising Germans: A Cultural History of Prussian State-Building after Civil War, 1866–1935. Cambridge University Press. p. 262. doi:10.1017/9781108182737. ISBN 9781108182737. A pro-independence petition secured 600,000 signatures in December 1918 and the elections for the National Assembly a few months later returned the separatist DHP in second place behind the SPD.
  5. ^ Heinzen, Jasper (2017). Making Prussians, Raising Germans: A Cultural History of Prussian State-Building after Civil War, 1866–1935. Cambridge University Press. p. 19. doi:10.1017/9781108182737. ISBN 9781108182737. In the same way that the rejection of Bismarckian power politics galvanised legitimists, federalists and even democrats in the Deutsch-Hannoversche Partei (German Hanoverian Party, DHP), liberals remembered their persecution at the hands of the deposed Guelph regime, a trope that was potent enough to keep up their solidarity in Hanover while the movement fractured in the rest of the Kaiserreich after 1878.
  6. ^ a b Heinzen, Jasper (2017). Making Prussians, Raising Germans: A Cultural History of Prussian State-Building after Civil War, 1866–1935. Cambridge University Press. pp. 282–283. doi:10.1017/9781108182737. ISBN 9781108182737.
  7. ^ Heinzen, Jasper (2017). Making Prussians, Raising Germans: A Cultural History of Prussian State-Building after Civil War, 1866–1935. Cambridge University Press. pp. 102–103. doi:10.1017/9781108182737. ISBN 9781108182737. Thanks to such family celebrations, the exchange of gifts and letters, royalist clubs, and the political activities of the anti-annexationist German Hanoverian Party, the Guelphs managed to overcome the isolation of their exile by becoming the moderate centre of a 'conservative milieu' (Frank Bösch).
  8. ^ Heinzen, Jasper (2017). Making Prussians, Raising Germans: A Cultural History of Prussian State-Building after Civil War, 1866–1935. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108182737. ISBN 9781108182737.
  9. ^ Heinzen, Jasper (2017). Making Prussians, Raising Germans: A Cultural History of Prussian State-Building after Civil War, 1866–1935. Cambridge University Press. p. 255. doi:10.1017/9781108182737. ISBN 9781108182737. Shouting 'Hanover to the Hanoverians and not the Russian Bolshevists!', they armed supporters and began organising them in civil guards, which at their height counted no fewer than 50,000 members, according to one estimate. Although the free corps put a quick end to the Spartacist uprising, the Guelphs learned an important lesson during the difficult months after the collapse of the Hohenzollern monarchy: if deployed at the right moment and backed up by convincing rhetoric, force could bring the government to its knees. Barely a year later, the German Hanoverian Party saw a chance to test this insight during the Kapp putsch to launch a secondary coup with the aim of gaining Hanoverian independence from Prussia. Two companies of the DHP's paramilitary affiliate, the Hanoverian Legion, occupied the seat of the provincial administration in the Leine Palace and would have seized control of other facilities had they not been disarmed by the regular army before they could mobilise further civil guards units. The abject failure of what would half-mockingly become known as the Welfenputsch was more the result of poor execution than a lack of commitment on the part of the separatists because subsequent house searches turned up several hundred rifles, machine guns, and a howitzer.


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