An Analysis About The Role Of The National People's Party In The Process Of The Weimar Republic's Destruction

The German National People's Party(DNVP)was a main conservative opposition party in the party politics of the Weimar Republic,who was formed in the social chaos,which caused by the November Revolution in the late time of the First World War,and dissolved in 1933,when Hitler seized power,and forced.to practice Nazi dictatorship in the country.In its short history,the aim of DNVP was to overthrow the Republic,and rebuild the monarchy.The anti-republic movement lead by DNVP was not the direct reason to the fall of the Weimar Republic,but it played a major role in this course,and the aim of this article is to make a detail analysis of the role.The development of the Weimar Republic has gone through three stages:the social turmoil stage,which was from the founding of the Republic to the signature of the Dawes Plan;the relative stabilization stage,which was from the signature of the Dawes Plan to the outbreak of the world economic crisis;and the stage of the disintegration of the Republic,which was from the outbreak of the world economic crisis to the Hitler's seizure of power.As the main opposition party,the DNVP adopted different anti-republic measures and resulted in different political consequence in these three stages,so it is also the main reason to divide chapters of this article.This article is composed by three part:introduction,main body and conclusion.The part of introduction is to explain the reason why I choose this topic and the meaning of this research,besides to give a brief outline over the research status on this subject at home and abroad.The main body is divided into three chapters chronologically.Chapter one mainly expound the background,process of the formation of the DNVP and the anti-republic movement in the early days after it formed.After November Revolution,the center-left parties dominated by Social Democratic Party(SPD)established an interim government,but it did not use the favorable conditions to implement a thorough democratization reform in the country,but compromised with the conservatism,which provided social foundation for the establishment of the DNVP.In order to survive in Republican regime,after a brief negotiation,the conservative parties of the second empire jointly established the DNVP,who was anti-republic and anti-democratic,but the internal contradictions were not resolved.In initial period,the DNVP was weak and unable to revolt the democratic regime,but it supported and participated the Kapp Pusch secretly and took advantage of the government's diplomatic crisis to absorb conservative voters.Besides it also defamed the republic and created a conservative social atmosphere through mass media,which triggered two assassination activities against the ministers of the Republic.Chapter two emphatically analyzes,in the relative stabilization of the Republic,what impact the DNVP,who has become a major party in the Reichstag,has imposed on domestic and foreign affairs of the government,and the development of internal contradictions of the DNVP.After the failure of the extreme conservatism revolt,most of the anti-republic forces gathered in the DNVP,which made it a major political party in cabinet quickly,but the contradictions of the party also gradually intensified.After the Ruhr crisis,the government engaged to build a favorable diplomatic situation with the Allied Powers actively,and followed by a large influx of foreign funds,which helped the economy of Republic recovered,and the society stabilized.In diplomacy,the central leadership of the DNVP accepted the reality and became rational,tended to moderate with the Republic,but the grassroots organizations still put national dignity and honor in the first place,firmly opposed the government to sign the Dawes Plan and the Locarno Convention,which has been the reason of the party's disintegration;in internal affairs,the DNVP joined in cabinet twice briefly,it did not achieve significant political results,but it succeeded turn the political situation of the Republic to the right,which also reflected the revival of domestic conservatism.Chapter three focus on the elaboration of the stubborn opposition of the extremist DNVP towards the republic regime,the role it have played in the rise of the Nazi and the failure to prevent Hitler's dictatorship.After the extreme conservative Hugenberg took up the post of the party's president,the attitude of the DNVP to the Republic undergone a fundamental change and refused to cooperate with the government,but allied with the Nazi to build the extreme Hartsburg Front,in order to overthrow the Republic.Under the world economic crisis,a large number of middle-class were bankrupt,and the society once again gone into chaos,with the help of Hugenberg on funds and propaganda,the Nazi successfully attracted these voters who were unsatisfied with the status quo,and became the largest party of the parliament,the DNVP was declined however.After Hitler was appointed to form a cabinet,attempted to prevent Hitler's dictatorship,Hugenberg joined the new cabinet,but foiled,and the DNVP was forced to dissolve under the pressure of the Nazi.The conclusion is to further summarize the role which the DNVP has played in the process of the Weimar Republic's demise,and combine with the current politics to analyze the challenges brought about by the revival of conservatism in European and American in recent years to the globalization and the threat posed by the growing nationalism to world peace.