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The German Centre Party (Deutsche Zentrumspartei or merely Zentrum), often called the Catholic Centre Party, was a Catholic political party in Germany during the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic.
Founded in 1870 to protect Catholic minority rights in the new Germany, the party gained strength in the 1870s in reaction against Bismarck's Kulturkampf, or "cultural struggle" against the Catholic Church. In addition to supporting Church interests, the Centre Party generally supported representative government and minority rights. However, it was most notable for its pragmatism - the party was willing to support a wide variety of policies so long as the interests of German Catholics and of the Catholic Church itself were advanced. The party was also notable for the mixture of class interests it represented, ranging from Catholic trade unions to aristocrats.
The Centre Party is most remembered for having capitulated to Allied demands for financial reparations in 1921, furthering its acceptance of the armistice.
The party also proved crucial in the Nazi takeover, with most of its delegates voting for Hitler's Enabling Act in March of 1933, thus giving Hitler the two thirds vote necessary to pass the bill. Kaas, the erstwhile leader of the party, was instrumental in the drafting of the Concordat of 1933 between Germany and the Vatican. The party dissolved itself on July 6, 1933, shortly before the conclusion of the Concordat.
Coalitions
After the end of the Kulturkampf, the Centre Party made its peace with the government and frequently formed a part of the coalitions which gave the various German governments a majority in the Reichstag. Although the party supported the government upon the outbreak of World War I, many of the leaders of its left wing, particularly Matthias Erzberger, came to support a negotiated settlement, and Erzberger was key in the passage of the Reichstag Peace Resolution of 1917.
The Centre Party, whose pragmatic principles generally left it open to supporting either a monarchical or republican form of government, proved one of the mainstays of the Weimar Republic participating in every Weimar government between 1919 and 1932, despite the defection of its more conservative Bavarian wing in 1919 to form the Bavarian People's Party. Its electorate also proved less susceptible to the allure of Nazism than most other bourgeois parties, largely due to its strong ties to the Church.
Although the party was, in the early years of the republic, normally allied to the Social Democrats and the left-liberal German Democratic Party in the Weimar Coalition, the party's leadership gradually moved to the right over the course of the republic's life. Twice between 1925 and 1928, the Centre participated in coalition governments which also included the right-wing German National People's Party (DNVP), and cooperated with the DNVP in supporting legislation to expand the power of religious schools. The right wing Centrists, led by Heinrich Brüning and Ludwig Kaas, were also instrumental in bringing about the fall of Social Democrat Hermann Müller's grand coalition in 1930.
The Cabinet crisis of the Luther resignation in 1928 had produced a deadlock whereby the extreme Nationalists under the leadership of Alfred Hugenburg would not enter a cabinet with the Centre, whom they accused of being agents of the Vatican. Until then the Centre had favoured a minority government, relying on the neutrality of the Left, whilst not in principle against an alliance with the Nationalists. However Hindenburg, as Chief of State, imposed Wilhelm Marx as Chancellor in an Order of the Day of January 20, 1928, on the basis that his coalition of the Right and the Centre parties would, in the absence of the Left, safeguard the 'interests of the working classes' (Wheeler Bennett Hindenburg The Wooden Titan pp309-310, Macmillan, 1936.)
The military, through the intrigue of General Kurt von Schleicher had previously picked the marginal Centre Party figure of Papen, a charming Catholic nobleman and Cavalry Captain, as nominee to succeed the Centre Chancellor Heinrich Bruning. Both figures formed Cabinets, which they led under the presidential Decree of article 48 of the Constitution. It was Schleicher's intention that by replacing one Centre Chancellor by another that he would split the Party and destroy it as a political factor. Papen of all the previous Chancellors (Muller, Marx and Bruning) obtained close relations with Hindenburg because the latter appreciated Papen's attempt to break the connection of the Centre Party with the Left and to build up a Catholic Conservative movement.
1932
The Centre Party entered the opposition following the dismissal of its leader, Heinrich Brüning, as Chancellor in 1932. Although the party generally was not supportive of either the right-wing authoritarian rule of Franz von Papen and Kurt von Schleicher or of Adolf Hitler's National Socialists, they were far from the bulwark of democracy and the republic that they had been in the early years of the republic. Brüning had, during his chancellorship, hoped to restore the monarchy, and, in general, the center, like most of the other parties, supported a revision of the constitution in a more authoritarian direction.
After the July 1932 elections had brought nearly 14 million Nazi votes out of a total of 37 million, the left-wing of the Nazi party sought to form a coalition with the Centre Party. The Centre Party voted support for the installation of Hermann Goering as president of the Reichstag in the opening session. Within a week however Hitler had ordered his delegates to make no objections to a Communist vote of no confidence in the Papen Government, which was defeated by 512 to 42 with the support of the Centre Party. The Reichstag was dissolved by Papen to prevent a formation of an opposition majority composed of the National Socialists and the Centre Party (Arthur Rosenburg -a History of the German Republic 1936,Methuen).
It was alleged by foreign press in May 1932 that the Centre Party was being influenced by the Roman Catholic Church from to support and ally with Hitler against the Communist Party (Edgar Ansel Mowrer: Triumph & Turmoil p 209, 1968).
The Catholic Bloc (the Centre Party and the Bavarian People's Party) rose by 10 votes in the Reichstag from 87 to 97 largely as a result of Catholic indignation at the way von Schleicher as minister of Defense had forced Prussia under the rule of Reich Commissioner (von Papen) and generally de-stabilised first Bruning, and then von Braun (the Prime Minister of Prussia) in the Reichstag (Wheeler Bennett The Nemesis of Power pp252-254 1953).
The April 24, 1932 Diet Elections in Prussia had left a Centre Party-Nazi coalition as the only possible outcome, and this "Cabinet of Barons", with President Hindenburg's assent, staged a successful Coup of the Right under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution instituting Martial Law in Prussia (soon repealed under general protest). This was achieved by von Schleicher presenting charges of a Prussian Police conspiracy with the Communists. The Military Dictatorship template was thus first tried unsuccessfully under the Papen administration, and only repealed following strong protest from the Prime Minister of the state of Bavaria, Dr. Held.
November 6th Elections and the Putsch
During this short period within the Weimar Republic, the Centre Party opposition can be seen as non-existent. Following the November 6 elections, the Nazi Party could no longer achieve a simple majority with the support of the Centre Party alone. This raised fears of a triple alliance with the Conservatives under Huguenberg, the Centre party and the Nazis. Such a situation caused consternation throughout German civil society.
Von Schleicher had himself previously undermined Papen by suggesting the German Armys inability to restrain insurrection (by the Left or the Nazis or both), and had been thereupon persuaded by the Cabinet under these fears to install himself, Schleicher as Chancellor, guarantor for the safety of the State.
Schleicher soon found Papen reversing the situation, intriguing with the Centre, with Hitler and with the Westpahalian Industrial Magnates. The Nazi popular vote had dropped from 13,732,413 in July to 11,700,000 in November and the Nazi Party had built up huge debts, which were now guaranteed by the magnates, thus repairing the waning fortunes of the Nazis - who were close to dividing under the financial strain.
Hitler had found some strength with the Centre Party vote on December 9th when by 402 votes to 127 he changed Article 51 of the Constitution devolving the vacancy, upon death of the President, to the President of the Supreme Court rather than upon the acting Chancellor, thus pressuring the aging and constitutionally minded Hindenberg.
Hitler was also blackmailing Hindenberg with the release of incriminating documents concerning corrupt land deals, and this was when von Papen engineered a putsch, purportedly to protect Hindenberg, but effectively installing himself as Vice-Chancellor under Hitler. This happened through the feverish night of 29 January with neither Papen nor Hitler nor Hindenberg nor Schleicher clear as to the outcome until the last, which was actually Hitler's swearing in as Chancellor. The Centre Party had reduced from 97 seats in July to 70 in November. An attempt by the leaders of the Centre Party under Ludwig Kaas to form a coalition with Hitler failed.
Hindenberg was given comfort by the previous swearing in of a new minister of defence, General von Blomberg into an as yet non-existent Cabinet. On the morning of January 30, 1933, Papen assembled Hugenberg and Hitler in Hindenberg's presence, assuaging the enraged Hugenberg by assurances that he, Papen, would consult with the Centre Party (and of course its offshoot the Bavarian People's Party) to ensure the widest possible basis for parliamentary majority. Papen had come to install the Nazis, nominally as a way of controlling them and of forestalling the threat of a Military Putsch by von Schleicher and the Abwehr, saying: "If the new government isn't formed by eleven o'clock, the army is going to march", claiming as his informant Hindenberg's son Oskar.
1933, The Enabling Act, and Ludwig Kaas
The relationship between the Centre Party leader (Ludwig Kaas) and the Nazi Party Fuhrer is shrouded in 'private' meetings at which agreement was evident and followed by widespread German Catholic compliance, as well as resultant voter acceptance of the new government amongst the Centre Party electoral base.
Cardinal Faulhaber exhorted the catholic voters "to profess anew their loyalty to people and to fatherland and their agreement to forceful efforts by the Fuhrer to spare the people the terrors of war and the horrors of Bolshevism..." and for them to support Hitler's plebiscite on withdrawal from the League of Nations, as they did, with 95.1 per cent backing Hitler's foreign policy.
Hitler's demands for an Enabling Act to exceed previous chancellery powers had surfaced at the moment of the Putsch but Papen managed to gloss them over with Hindenberg by assuring him that these would indeed be the last elections.
Immediately following the putsch Hitler began pressuring the Centre Party with the comment that, since his negotiations had failed with the Centre Party, then fresh elections were therefore required (John Toland Adolf Hitler p 294).
Even with the Huguenberg Conservatives, the Centre Party vote was again required, indeed the Centre Party proved crucial in the Nazi takeover. Among other factors German Catholics desired to prove their nationalist credentials after the era of the the Armistice. Erzberger and the Centre Party moved consistently towards the right under Papen's, and now Kaas' co-operation with the Nazis. Ludwig Kaas is described as being as instrumental, as was von Papen, in both the negotiations preceding the traitorous Enabling Act and in the subsequent Concordat with Rome (Klemens von Klemperer German Resistance Against Hitler, 1992 p 38).
With its delegates voting, together with the Conservatives, for Hitler's Enabling Act in March of 1933, the Centre Party lifted Hitler's 41 % voting strength to the necessary two thirds required to legally institute a self-governing, evolving Dictatorship. The vote was cast en bloc by its leader Ludwig Kaas in the 23 March Act.
Kaas as Party Leader negotiated a letter of assurance from the Nazi party at the final stage before the vote, on top of Hitler’s conciliatory broadcast on 1 February and his joining in ceremony with Hindenberg on the opening session of the Reichstag. This was held in the Potsdam Garrison Church following the allegedly Communist burning of the Reichstag. The promised letter accompanied assurances to the Centre Party, but at the fateful moment Kaas was told that it was still being finished. The vote was cast amidst turbulent scenes and intimidating crowds without. Bruning refused to counsel voting for the Enabling Act, but the Centre Party majority decided to vote in favour and Kaas submitted the vote. (Alan Bullock Hitler and Stalin 1991 p352)
Hitler’s effort towards the Enabling Act involved Papen's persuasion of President Hindenberg who controlled the Chancellorship under decree of article 49 of the Constitution (the Reichstag could only pass a vote of no confidence in the Chancellor who otherwise ruled under Hindenberg's decree).
Following the Enabling Act the Centre Party was weakened both by defections to the Nazi Party, as well as losses due to accommodations to the Nazis. It is said that the decisive blow was provided by Hitler's willingness to sign a Concordat between the State of Germany and the Vatican’s Holy See (ibid p355). Hindenberg also wrote the Centre Party requesting it to wholeheartedly support the Chancellor (Hitler).
The Centre Party dissolved
Kaas relinquished the leadership of the Centre party on April 3. The movements and meetings of Kaas in conjunction with von Papen are reported by the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation Holocaust Timeline.
On April 8 von Papen secretly joined Kaas in Munich, claiming he was taking a holiday in Rome. Arriving on April 9th, Kaas first is received alone by his longstanding friend and mentor Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, later Pope Pius XII. On April 10th von Papen and Kaas meet Pacelli twice, the second time accompanied by Hermann Goering representing the Nazi Party. They meet with the elderly Pope Pius XI as well, who expresses pleasure that Germany has found a 'strong man', (i.e. to counter the Communists).
Kaas announced after his audience with the Pope "Hitler knows how to guide the ship. Even before he became Chancellor I met him frequently and was greatly impressed by his clear thinking, by his way of facing realities while upholding his ideals, which are noble .... It matters little who rules so long as order is maintained " (John Toland Adolf Hitler Doubleday 1976).
The Italian press then reveals the secret Papen visit. On April 15 Papen and Kaas meet with Cardinal Pacelli and Kaas, still Leader of the Centre Party is given the honour of drafting the terms of the future Concordat. This Kaas rapidly drafts and the result is perused at length on April 18 by Pope Pius XI and Cardinal Pacelli.
On April 20 Kaas is still in Rome and assures Adolf Hitler of "unflinching co-operation". A papal telegram is sent to Hitler congratulating him on his birthday and which is widely published in the German press. On April 24th the Bavarian Ambassador von Ritter reveals that Kaas' friend, Cardinal Pacelli , approves sincere co-operation by the Catholic Church to benefit and lead Nazism within a Christian Weltanschauung.
The Centre Party dissolved itself on the 5th of July, thereby not embarrassing Hitler with the necessity to remove it. Kaas left Germany forever to take up a position as lifelong Keeper of the Fabric of St Peter's on the 6th of July. The Nazi Party accepted the Concordat on Jul 14.
Refounding
The Centre Party was refounded following World War II, but soon the majority of its members merged with other confessional parties to form the Christian Democratic Union.
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