Editing German Democratic Party (section)

{{Short description|Former liberal political party in Germany}}
{{distinguish|Democratic Party of Germany}}
{{more citations needed|date=November 2012}}
{{Infobox political party
| name             = German Democratic Party
| native_name      = Deutsche Demokratische Partei
| colorcode        = {{party color|German Democratic Party}}
| foundation       = {{start date and age|20 November 1918}}
| dissolution      = {{start date and age|July 1930}}
| predecessor      = [[Progressive People's Party (Germany)|Progressive People's Party]]
| merged           = [[German State Party]]
| youth_wing       = [[JungdemokratInnen/Junge Linke|Young Democrats]]
| wing2_title      = {{nowrap|Paramilitary wing}}
| wing2            = ''[[Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold]]'' (1924–1930)
| newspaper        =
| ideology         = {{nowrap|[[Republicanism]]<ref name=Kurlander>{{cite book |last=Kurlander |first=Eric |author-link=Eric Kurlander |year=2006 |title=The Price of Exclusion: Ethnicity, National Identity, and the Decline of German Liberalism, 1898–1933 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=1-8454-5069-8 |page=197}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Maier |first=Charles S. |author-link=Charles S. Maier |year=1975 |title=Recasting Bourgeois Europe: Stabilization in France, Germany and Italy in the Decade after World War I |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=0-691-05220-4 |page=56}}</ref><br />[[Classical liberalism]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Mommsen |first=Hans |author-link=Hans Mommsen |year=1996 |title=The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/risefallweimarde00momm/page/n76 58] |isbn=0-8078-2249-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/risefallweimarde00momm |url-access=limited}}</ref><ref name="Kurlander"/><br />[[Social liberalism]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Van De Grift |first=Liesbeth |year=2012 |title=Securing the Communist State: The Reconstruction of Coercive Institutions in the Soviet Zone of Germany and Romania, 1944–48 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=978-0-7391-7178-3 |page=41}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Lash |first1=Scott |author-link1=Scott Lash |last2=Urry |first2=John |author-link2=John Urry (sociologist) |year=1987 |title=The End of Organized Capitalism |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |isbn=0-7456-0068-9 |page=27}}</ref><br />[[Progressivism]]<ref name="Sartori76_156">{{cite book |last=Sartori |first=Giovanni |author-link=Giovanni Sartori |year=1976 |title=Parties and Party Systems |publisher=Cambridge University Press |volume=1 |page=156}}</ref>}}
| position         = [[Centrism|Centre]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Lee |first=Stephen J. |year=1998 |title=The Weimar Republic |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-17178-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/weimarrepublic00lees/page/n31 23] |url=https://archive.org/details/weimarrepublic00lees |url-access=limited}}</ref> to [[Centre-left politics|centre-left]]<ref name="Sartori76_156"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Allinson |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Allinson |year=2015 |title=Germany and Austria since 1814 |edition=second |publisher=Routledge |page=58}}</ref>
| colours          = {{color box|#000000|border=darkgray}} [[Black]] {{color box|#FF0000|border=darkgray}} [[Red]] {{color box|#FFCC00|border=darkgray}} [[Gold (color)|Gold]] ([[Flag of Germany#Weimar Republic (1918–1933)|republican colors]])<ref>{{cite book |last=Preuss |first=Hugo |author-link=Hugo Preuss |year=2008 |title=Schwarz-Rot-Gold: Zum Nürnberger Parteitag (1920) |language=de |trans-title=Black-Red-Gold: For the Nuremberg Party Congress (1920) |series=Gesammelte Schriften – Vierter Band: Politik und Verfassung in der Weimarer Republik |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |page=155}}</ref>
| international    = [[International Entente of Radical and Similar Democratic Parties]]
| country          = Germany
}}
The '''German Democratic Party''' ({{Lang|de|Deutsche Demokratische Partei}}, '''DDP''') was a [[Liberalism|liberal]] political party in the [[Weimar Republic]], considered [[Centrism|centrist]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lee |first=Stephen J. |url=http://archive.org/details/weimarrepublic00lees |title=The Weimar Republic |date=1998 |publisher=London; New York: Routledge |others=Library Genesis |isbn=978-0-415-17178-6}}</ref> or [[Centre-left politics|centre-left]].<ref name="LeftWingLiberal">{{cite book |author=Orlow |first=Dietrich |url=https://archive.org/details/weimarprussia19100orlo |title=Weimar Prussia, 1918–1925: The Unlikely Rock of Democracy |date=15 December 1986 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |isbn=978-0-8229-7640-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/weimarprussia19100orlo/page/329 329] |url-access=registration}}</ref> Along with the right-liberal [[German People's Party]] ({{Lang|de|Deutsche Volkspartei}}, DVP), it represented political liberalism in Germany between 1918 and 1933. It was formed in 1918 from the [[Progressive People's Party (Germany)|Progressive People's Party]] and the liberal wing of the [[National Liberal Party (Germany)|National Liberal Party]], both of which had been active in the [[German Empire]].

After the formation of the first German state to be constituted along pluralist-democratic lines, the DDP took part as a member of varying coalitions in almost all Weimar Republic cabinets from 1919 to 1932. Before the [[1930 German federal election|Reichstag elections of 1930]], it united with the {{Lang|de|Volksnationale Reichsvereinigung}}, which was part of the national liberal [[Young German Order]] ({{Lang|de|Jungdeutscher Orden}}). From that point on the party called itself the [[German State Party]] ({{Lang|de|Deutsche Staatspartei}}, DStP) and retained the name even after the Reich Association left the party. Because of the connection to the Reich Association, members of the left wing of the DDP broke away from the party and toward the end of the Republic founded the Radical Democratic Party, which was unsuccessful in parliament. Others joined the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (SPD).

After the [[Nazism|National Socialists]] took power, the German State Party was dissolved on 28&nbsp;June 1933 as part of the process of ''[[Gleichschaltung]]'' (coordination) by means of which the Nazis established totalitarian control over German society.