Theodor Barth was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 liberal politician and publicist. He was a member of the Reichstag

Reichstag (German Empire)

The Reichstag was the parliament of the North German Confederation , and of the German Reich ....

 between 1881 and 1884, between 1885 and 1898, and between 1901 and 1903.

Career

Barth started his political career with the National Liberal Party

National Liberal Party (Germany)

The National Liberal Party was a German political party which flourished between 1867 and 1918. It was formed by Prussian liberals who put aside their differences with Bismarck over domestic policy due to their support for his highly successful foreign policy, which resulted in the unification of...

. He soon rejected the Manchesterism

Manchester capitalism

Manchester Capitalism, Manchester School, Manchester Liberalism, and Manchesterism are terms for the political, economic, and social movements of the 19th century that originated in Manchester, England....

 of the old liberals, though, and claimed that liberalism needed a social programme. To that end, he sought the cooperation of the with the Social Democrats, and at multiple times voted against his own party. In the German Freeminded Party

German Freeminded Party

The German Free-minded Party was a German liberal party, founded as a result of the merger of the German Progress Party and Liberal Union in 5 March, 1884....

 (Freisinnige Partei), founded in 1884, Barth would soon found himself opposed to the leadership of Eugen Richter

Eugen Richter

Eugen Richter was a German politician and journalist.-Career:Born as the son of a combat medic, Richter attended the Gymnasium in his home town of Düsseldorf. Since 1856, he studied Law and Economics at the Universities of Bonn, Berlin and Heidelberg, that he finished with a law degree in 1859...

. When the Freeminded Party split in 1893, Barth became a member of the Freeminded Union (Freisinnigen Vereinigung), instead of the Freeminded People's Party

Freeminded People's Party (Germany)

The Free-minded People's Party was a left liberal party in the German Empire, founded as a result of the split of the German Free-minded Party in 1893. One of its most notable members was Eugen Richter, who was party leader from 1893 to 1906...

 of Richter. In 1903, the imperialist

Imperialism

Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...

 Friedrich Naumann would join the Freeminded Union as well. Barth however would found the Democratic Union

Democratic Union (Germany)

The Democratic Union was a German political party in the German Empire.The Union was founded in 1908 by former members of the Freeminded Union . The party demanded full equal voting rights for all, and a strict separation of Church and State...

 (Demokratische Vereinigung) in 1908, together with Rudolf Breitscheid

Rudolf Breitscheid

Rudolf Breitscheid, was a leading member of the Social Democratic Party and a delegate to the Reichstag during the era of the Weimar Republic in Germany....

 and Hellmut von Gerlach

Hellmut von Gerlach

Hellmut Georg von Gerlach was a German journalist and politician.-Life:Hellmut von Gerlach, the son of landowner Max von Gerlach, was born in Mönchmotschelnitz in Silesia. He studied law at the universities of Gent, Strasbourg, Leipzig, and Berlin, and was a member of the Verein Deutscher Studenten...

, after the Freeminded Union's participation in the Bülow-Block coalition in the 1907 elections

German election, 1907

The 12th German federal election to the Reichstag of 1907.-Results:-Further reading:* Bureau des Reichstages : Reichstags-Handbuch. Zwölfte Legislaturperiode. Berlin: Norddeutsche Verlagsanstalt, 1907...

.

Barth founded the liberal weekly Die Nation (The Nation) in 1883 and remained as editor until his death in 1909.