German Völkisch Freedom Party

The German Völkisch Freedom Party (German: Deutschvölkische Freiheitspartei, or DVFP) was a right-wing and antisemitic political party of Weimar Germany that took its name from the Völkisch movement, a populist movement focused on folklore and the German Volk.

The DVFP was founded on December 16 1922 when Wilhelm Henning, Reinhold Wulle and Albrecht von Graefe broke from the German National People's Party (DNVP).^[1] Leading right-wing figures such as Ernst Graf zu Reventlow, Artur Dinter and Theodor Fritsch joined the party on its foundation.^[2] Many members of the Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund joined the DVFP after the former was banned.

After the Nazi Party was banned in 1924, the DVFP merged with many Nazis to form the National Socialist Freedom Movement, a move endorsed by Erich Ludendorff and encouraged by von Graefe, who hoped to gain control of the far right as a whole.^[3] However this alliance was not a success and thus von Graefe and Wulle reformed the DVFP as a rival to the Nazi Party in 1925.^[4]

References

1. ^ Hermann Beck, The Fateful Alliance, Berghahn Books, 2008, pp. 36-8
2. ^ Richard S. Levy, Antisemitism, ABC-CLIO, 2005, p. 265
3. ^ Douglas G. Morris, Justice Imperiled: The Anti-Nazi Lawyer Max Hirschberg in Weimar Germany, University of Michigan Press, 2005, p. 255
4. ^ Detlef Mühlberger, Hitler's Voice: The Völkischer Beobachter, 1920-1933. Organisation & Development of the Nazi Party, Volume 1, Peter Lang, 2004, p. 105