page_title: German National People's Party
section_title: Dawes Plan vote: a change in direction
hierarchical_section_title: German National People's Party / History / Dawes Plan vote: a change in direction
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Alfred von Tirpitz Porträt Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz in Uniform (ohne Orden) Abgebildete Personen: Tirpitz, Alfred von: Großadmiral, Stabschef der Marine, Staatssekretär des Reichsmarineamts, preußischer Staatsminister, Deutschland (GND 118622870) Information added by Wikimedia users.English: "Builder of the German fleet" Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz
context_page_description: The German National People's Party was a national-conservative party in Germany during the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the Nazi Party, it was the major conservative and nationalist party in Weimar Germany. It was an alliance of nationalists, reactionary monarchists, völkisch and antisemitic elements supported by the Pan-German League.
  It was formed in late 1918 after Germany's defeat in World War I and the November Revolution that toppled the German monarchy. It combined the bulk of the German Conservative Party, Free Conservative Party and German Fatherland Party with right-wing elements of the National Liberal Party. The party strongly rejected the republican Weimar Constitution of 1919 and the Treaty of Versailles which it viewed as a national disgrace, signed by traitors. The party instead aimed at a restoration of monarchy, a repeal of the dictated peace treaty and reacquisition of all lost territories and colonies.
  During the mid-1920s, the DNVP moderated its profile, accepting republican institutions in practice and participating in centre-right coalition governments on federal and state levels.
context_section_description: At a party conference in early April 1924, the DNVP had come out clearly against proposed bail-out of Germany that came to be known as the Dawes Plan, which the DNVP denounced as the "second Versailles". A consortium of Wall Street banks led by the House of Morgan agreed to provide a loan to the Reich government that would bail out Germany after the hyper-inflation of 1923 had destroyed the economy. Helfferich, the DNVP's leading economic expert, had published two detailed critiques in Die Kreuzzeitung that purported to prove that the Dawes Plan existed only to "enslave" Germany by allowing the Allies to take control of and exploit the German economy forever. The spring 1924 campaign was largely led and organized by charismatic, media savvy Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz who was presented as the "savior" type figure, able to rally together the entire nation to both win the election and then restore Germany back as a great power. The ineffectual Hergt had chosen to stay on the sidelines in order to improve his party's chances. Unusually for a DNVP politician, Tirpitz based his campaign in Munich as part of an effort to win Catholic support. In the Reichstag election of 4 May 1924, the DNVP posted its best showing yet, winning 19% of the vote.
  A major problem for the DNVP throughout its entire existence was the tension caused between its tendency towards a policy of total opposition to the Weimar Republic and pressure from many of its supporters for the DNVP to participate in the government. Since the DNVP was unlikely to win the majority of the seats in the Reichstag on account of the proportional representation system, as a party committed to total opposition to the republic it doomed itself to being an opposition party forever. Many of the DNVP's supporters made it clear by 1924 that they were unhappy about supporting a party whose role was purely negative in opposing everything that the government did while refusing to take part in any of the coalition governments. The British historian Sir John Wheeler-Bennett wrote "At no time during the Weimar Republic did they make a single constructive contribution to the government of the country". At the same time, there was another equally influential fraction within the DNVP who took it for granted that it was only a matter of time before the republic disintegrated, and that the best thing to do was to maintain the current course of total opposition to the republic, secure in knowing that all of the blame for the current problems would rest with the parties of the Weimar coalition who were willing to assume the burdens of office.
  In the summer of 1924, these tensions came out in the open with a vigorous display of party in-fighting over the question of should the DNVP's MPs (German MdR: Mitglied des Reichstags—Member of the Reichstag) vote for the American-led international bail-out of Germany known as the Dawes Plan or not. Initially, the DNVP had promised to vote against the Dawes Plan when it came up for ratification in the Reichstag on the grounds that Germany should not have to pay any reparations at all, resulting in many of the economic lobbying groups that donated to the party such as the Landbund, the Reich Association of German Industry (RDI) and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce threatening to cease donating to the party forever if its MPs voted against the Dawes Plan. The Dawes Plan was a crucial element in the international attempt to stabilise the German economy after hyper-inflation had destroyed the German economy in 1923, and the economic lobbying groups that supported the DNVP were appalled at the party's intention to reject the Dawes Plan, and thereby risk a return to the economic chaos of 1923. As the parties of the Weimar coalition did not have a two-thirds majority in the Reichstag, it was clear that the DNVP would have to vote for the Dawes Plan to have it ratified. The American banks had demanded as one of the conditions of the loan that the Reich government put up the state-owned Deutsche Reichsbahn railroad as collateral, but the 1919 constitution stat
caption: In 1924, the DNVP made a major push to have Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz as Chancellor, sparking widespread international condemnation
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