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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.
Although many members and leaders of the Centre Party had grave misgivings about the Nazis, the party also proved crucial in allowing 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. Monsignor Ludwig Kaas, the erstwhile leader of the party, was instrumental in the drafting of the Concordat of 1933 between Germany and the Vatican, and it appears that Kaas and the Vatican were willing to acquiesce in the Nazi dictatorship and the dissolution of the Centre Party if the Concordat could be achieved. The party dissolved itself on July 6, 1933, shortly before the conclusion of the Concordat.
The Centre and Weimar
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. As such, the Centre had a share of the odium attached to the so-called "Weimar Establishment," which was blamed, especially on the right, for the "stab in the back" of the German army at the end of the war, as well as for the humiliations of the Versailles Treaty and reparations. Erzberger himself was assassinated by right wing extremists in 1920.
The party's 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.
In May 1932 The military and President Hindenburg, through the intrigue of General Kurt von Schleicher, picked the marginal Centre Party figure of Papen, a charming Catholic nobleman and Cavalry Captain, as nominee to succeed the Centre Chancellor Heinrich Bruning, who had governed 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. However, Papen was disowned by the Centre and expelled from the party, bringing with him few, if any, fellow travellers.
1932
The Centre Party thus entered the opposition following Brüning's dismissal. Although the party generally was supportive of neither the right-wing authoritarian rule of Papen and of Schleicher, who succeeded him in December, and Kurt von Schleicher nor 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, had hoped to restore the monarchy, and, in general, the Centre, 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 Nazi leader Hermann Göring as president of the Reichstag in the opening session. The two parties also joined together in a vote of no confidence in the Papen Government, which was defeated by 512 to 42 with the support of virtually every party with a mass following in the Reichstag - the Social Democrats joined the Centre, the Nazis, and the Communists in the vote, with only the Nationalists supporting the government. Although Papen almost immediately dissolved this unworkable Reichstag, the Centre and the Nazis continued to negotiate over the possibility of a coalition. However, the aims of the two groups were largely incompatible. The Centre hoped to tame the Nazis by bringing them into a coalition under Brüning's leadership, while the Nazis would only accept a dominant position in any coalition.
The April 24, 1932 Diet Elections in Prussia, still under the rule of a Social Democratic-Centre coalition under Social Democrat Otto Braun, had brought a loss of the government's majority, and this Papen's "Cabinet of Barons", with President Hindenburg's assent, staged a successful Coup of under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution instituting Martial Law in Prussia (soon repealed under general protest). This was achieved by von Schleicher presenting false charges of a Prussian Police conspiracy with the Communists. A military dictatorship was thus first tried unsuccessfully under the Papen administration, although a compromise by which Braun's government remained as the official representatives of the Prussian state in the Bundesrat was worked out following strong protest from the BVP Prime Minister of Bavaria, Dr. Heinrich Held.
November 6th Elections and the Putsch
Following the November 6 elections, the Nazi Party could no longer achieve a simple majority with the support of the Centre Party alone, and negotiations largely came to an end.
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 Nationalists, 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. Ultimately, Papen engineered the installation of a new coalition government of the Nazis and the Nationalists, 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.
Hindenberg was given comfort by the previous swearing in of a new minister of defence, General Werner 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.
However, in spite of the wishes of Papen and Hugenberg, no real negotiations were entered into with the Centre for the purpose of establishing a government majority. Instead, the Reichstag was dissolved, and new elections called for March.
1933, The Enabling Act, and Ludwig Kaas
In the March 1933 elections, that Centre Party campaigned hard against the Hitler government, and, in spite of considerably electoral violence, was able to secure 14% of the vote. After the election, Hitler demanded an Enabling Act to give the chancellor the power of legislation for a period of four years. However, even with the rather tepid support of Hugenberg's Nationalists, the Centre Party vote was again required, since the Enabling Act would be a constitutional amendment, which would thus require a two thirds vote. Among other factors German Catholics desired to prove their nationalist credentials after the era of the the Armistice.
Many members of the Centre Party, including former Chancellor Brüning, were deeply uncomfortable with Hitler's government and with the Enabling Act, with Brüning describing it as the "most monstrous resolution ever demanded of a parliament." Nevertheless Kaas, who, working closely with Pope Pius XI and Cardinal Pacelli, the Cardinal Secretary of State, desired a Concordat between Germany and the Vatican, pushed the party towards accepting the 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. Brüning refused to counsel voting for the Enabling Act, but the Centre Party majority decided to vote in favour and Kaas submitted the vote on 23 March. In the end, only the Social Democrats opposed it.
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. Hindenberg also wrote the Centre Party requesting it to wholeheartedly support Hitler.
The Centre Party dissolved
Kaas relinquished the leadership of the Centre party on April 3. On April 8 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 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 revealed the secret Papen visit. On April 15 Papen and Kaas met with Cardinal Pacelli and Kaas, no longer chairman of the Centre Party, was given the honour of drafting the terms of the future Concordat. This Kaas rapidly drafted and the result was perused at length on April 18 by Pope Pius XI and Cardinal Pacelli.
The Centre Party had, by then, already 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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