German Fatherland Party

The German Fatherland Party (, abbreviated as DVLP) was a short-lived far-right political party active in the German Empire during the last phase of World War I. It rejected the Burgfriedenspolitik or "party truce" policy which dominated the domestic political landscape at that time and promoted maximum German war goals. The Fatherland Party is considered the first attempt at reconciliation and cooperation between the traditional right, characteristic of the Wilhelmine Period, and militant nationalists of the extreme right who would become popular during the interwar period. History Foundation Backed by the Pan-German League, the German Fatherland Party was founded by Heinrich Claß, August von Dönhoff, Alfred von Tirpitz and Wolfgang Kapp on 2 September 1917. On 9 September, the DVLP made its existence public in newspaper advertisements. The established bourgeois parties reacted inconsistently to the founding of the Fatherland Party. Many conservative parties expressly welcomed them. The board of the National Liberal Party offered to cooperate with the Fatherland Party and left party members the option to join it. The left-liberal Progressive People's Party, which lost a noticeable number of members to the DVLP, expressly refused to work with it. The Catholic Centre Party (Zentrum) told party members on 12 October 1917 not to assist the DVLP.