Bund der Deutschen
Encyclopedia
The Alliance of Germans, Party for Unity, Peace and Freedom – in German: Bund der Deutschen, Partei für Einheit, Frieden und Freiheit (BdD) – was a political party in the Federal Republic of Germany
.
's policies of Western integration. After signing of the general agreement on June 26, 1952, the German Union (Deutsche Sammlung) was founded in Dortmund
. Members of the presidium were the former state chancellor Joseph Wirth
(CDU), Katharina von Kardorff-Oheimb and Wilhelm Elfes (also former CDU member). The Deutsche Sammlung called for an opposition to the Western integration and demanded that every opportunity for German re-unification should be used.
The foundation of the BdD followed the initiative of the politbureau of the Socialist Unity Party
of East Germany. Despite the fact that 'bourgeois' politicians like Joseph Wirth
, Wilhelm Elfes made up the leadership, the party organisation and finances were in firm control of communist functionaries. The goal of the SED
was to form a so-called National front
of bourgeois and „national“ forces (”national-gesinnte”), similar to the communist-controlled 'National Front' in East Germany.
The core program of the BdD was a policy of neutrality
as well as opposition to the re-armament of West Germany and the Western integration. Unlike Konrad Adenauer
's policies, an understanding/a compromise with the USSR was sought.
Though the BdD tried to advance economic and social demands of the middle classes and the peasants, it also sought socialisation of the large industrial enterprises. In 1956 the Communist Party of Germany
was forbidden just like re-foundation of possible communist successor parties. Therefor, in the late 1950s, the BdD started to act increasingly as a substitute (Ersatzorganisation) for West German communists.
preferred to fuse the BdD with the newly founded GDR-sponsored organisation DFU. The constitutional court of North Rhine-Westphalia
thus classified the BdD in 1964 as a cadre organisation of the DFU. In effect the BdD –despite continued existence of its own organisation – no longer took part in elections but rather delegated its candidates to the DFU list. On 2 November 1968 the German Communist Party
, DFU, BdD and other leftist groupings formed a common list, the Democratic Progress Action (Aktion Demokratischer Fortschritt) for the Bundestag election of 1969. The number of BdD members had fallen (according to SED records) from 12,000 (1953/1955) to less than 3,000 (1965).
The BdD was never officially disbanded but it fused de facto
after its last party conference in 1968 with the DFU. The last chairman of the party was Josef Weber (chairman since 1964; previously general secretary of the BdD and later a DFU and ADF functionary).
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
.
Origins of the BdD and its program until the foundation of the German Peace Union
The BdD resulted from the opposition movement to Konrad AdenauerKonrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman. He was the chancellor of the West Germany from 1949 to 1963. He is widely recognised as a person who led his country from the ruins of World War II to a powerful and prosperous nation that had forged close relations with old enemies France,...
's policies of Western integration. After signing of the general agreement on June 26, 1952, the German Union (Deutsche Sammlung) was founded in Dortmund
Dortmund
Dortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....
. Members of the presidium were the former state chancellor Joseph Wirth
Joseph Wirth
Karl Joseph Wirth, known as Joseph Wirth, was a German politician of the Catholic Centre Party who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1921 to 1922.-Biography:...
(CDU), Katharina von Kardorff-Oheimb and Wilhelm Elfes (also former CDU member). The Deutsche Sammlung called for an opposition to the Western integration and demanded that every opportunity for German re-unification should be used.
The foundation of the BdD followed the initiative of the politbureau of the Socialist Unity Party
Socialist Unity Party of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...
of East Germany. Despite the fact that 'bourgeois' politicians like Joseph Wirth
Joseph Wirth
Karl Joseph Wirth, known as Joseph Wirth, was a German politician of the Catholic Centre Party who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1921 to 1922.-Biography:...
, Wilhelm Elfes made up the leadership, the party organisation and finances were in firm control of communist functionaries. The goal of the SED
Socialist Unity Party of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...
was to form a so-called National front
National Front
The name National Front is used by a number of political parties and coalitions.* Albania — National Front * Belarus — Partyja BPF* Belgium — National Front * Botswana — Botswana National Front...
of bourgeois and „national“ forces (”national-gesinnte”), similar to the communist-controlled 'National Front' in East Germany.
The core program of the BdD was a policy of neutrality
Neutrality (international relations)
A neutral power in a particular war is a sovereign state which declares itself to be neutral towards the belligerents. A non-belligerent state does not need to be neutral. The rights and duties of a neutral power are defined in Sections 5 and 13 of the Hague Convention of 1907...
as well as opposition to the re-armament of West Germany and the Western integration. Unlike Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman. He was the chancellor of the West Germany from 1949 to 1963. He is widely recognised as a person who led his country from the ruins of World War II to a powerful and prosperous nation that had forged close relations with old enemies France,...
's policies, an understanding/a compromise with the USSR was sought.
Though the BdD tried to advance economic and social demands of the middle classes and the peasants, it also sought socialisation of the large industrial enterprises. In 1956 the Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
was forbidden just like re-foundation of possible communist successor parties. Therefor, in the late 1950s, the BdD started to act increasingly as a substitute (Ersatzorganisation) for West German communists.
The BdD as a component of the DFU
With the foundation of the German Peace Union (Deutsche Friedensunion) the SEDSocialist Unity Party of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...
preferred to fuse the BdD with the newly founded GDR-sponsored organisation DFU. The constitutional court of North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...
thus classified the BdD in 1964 as a cadre organisation of the DFU. In effect the BdD –despite continued existence of its own organisation – no longer took part in elections but rather delegated its candidates to the DFU list. On 2 November 1968 the German Communist Party
German Communist Party
The German Communist Party is a Marxist-Leninist party in Germany.-History:The DKP was formed in West Germany in 1968, in order to fill the place of the Communist Party of Germany , which had been banned by the Federal Constitutional Court in 1956...
, DFU, BdD and other leftist groupings formed a common list, the Democratic Progress Action (Aktion Demokratischer Fortschritt) for the Bundestag election of 1969. The number of BdD members had fallen (according to SED records) from 12,000 (1953/1955) to less than 3,000 (1965).
The BdD was never officially disbanded but it fused de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
after its last party conference in 1968 with the DFU. The last chairman of the party was Josef Weber (chairman since 1964; previously general secretary of the BdD and later a DFU and ADF functionary).
Media
In 1953, the Deutsche Volkszeitung was founded as a BdD-close body. The weekly Freitag, still published today, was the indirect successor to that newspaper.Elections
The BdD took part in the following Bundestag resp. Landtag elections:- 1953 election to BundestagGerman federal election, 1953The 2nd German federal election, 1953, was conducted on September 6, 1953, to elect members to the Bundestag of West Germany.-Issues and Campaign:...
in a joint ticket with the GVPAll-German People's PartyThe All-German People's Party, in German Gesamtdeutsche Volkspartei was a political party in the Federal Republic of Germany. The party was founded on November 29, 1952 and ceased to exist in 1957...
- 318,475 votes (1.2 %). - 1954 election to North Rhine-WestphaliaNorth Rhine-WestphaliaNorth Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...
landtagLandtagA Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...
19,515 votes (0.3 %). - 1954 election to Schleswig-HolsteinSchleswig-HolsteinSchleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...
landtagLandtagA Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...
10,009 votes (0.8 %). - 1954 election to HesseHesseHesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
landtagLandtagA Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...
12,047 votes (0.5 %). - 1954 election to BavariaBavariaBavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
landtagLandtagA Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...
43,720 votes (0.4 %). - 1955 election to Lower SaxonyLower SaxonyLower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
landtagLandtagA Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...
8,600 votes (0.3 %). - 1955 election to Rhineland-PalatinateRhineland-PalatinateRhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
landtagLandtagA Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...
10,527 votes (0.7 %). - 1955 election to BremenBremenThe City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
city council 3,988 votes (1.1 %). - 1956 election to Baden-WürttembergBaden-WürttembergBaden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
landtagLandtagA Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...
18,077 votes (0.6 %). - 1957 the BdD had its own list on Bundestag electionGerman federal election, 1957The 3rd German federal election, 1957, was conducted on September 15, 1957, to elect members to the Bundestag of West Germany.-Issues and Campaign:...
and won 58,725 votes (0.2 %). - 1957 election to HamburgHamburg-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
city council 3,469 votes (0.3 %). - 1958 election to North Rhine-Westphalia landtagLandtagA Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...
176 votes (0.0 % (-0.3 %)). - 1958 election to Schleswig-Holstein landtagLandtagA Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...
6,037 votes (0.5 % (-0.3 %)). - 1959 election to Lower Saxony landtagLandtagA Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...
4.947 votes (0.1 % (-0.2 %)). - 1959 election to Rhineland-Palatinate landtagLandtagA Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...
6.613 votes (0.4 % (-0.3 %)). - 1959 election to Bremen city council 1.337 votes (0.3 % (-0.8 %)).
- 1961 election to Baden-Württemberg landtagLandtagA Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...
15.333 votes (0.5 % (-0.1 %)).
See also
- All-German People's PartyAll-German People's PartyThe All-German People's Party, in German Gesamtdeutsche Volkspartei was a political party in the Federal Republic of Germany. The party was founded on November 29, 1952 and ceased to exist in 1957...
- Christian Democratic UnionChristian Democratic Union (Germany)The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...