Siegfried von Kardorff
Siegfried von Kardorff | |
|---|---|
Kardoff in 1925 | |
| Member of the Prussian House of Representatives | |
| In office 1910–1918 | |
| Member of the Reichstag | |
| In office 1920–1932 | |
| Constituency | Potsdam II |
| Member of the Prussian Landtag | |
| In office 1919–1925 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 4 February 1873 Berlin, Germany |
| Died | 12 October 1945 (aged 72) Berlin, Germany |
| Party | FKP (1910-1918) DNVP (1918-1920) DVP (1920-1933) |
| Parent | Wilhelm von Kardorff |
Siegfried Alfred Rudolf Friedrich von Kardorff (4 February 1873 in Berlin − 12 October 1945 in Berlin) was a German politician.
Life
He was born the son of Wilhelm von Kardorff and followed him in adopting a career in politics. He studied law and began a career in the civil service in 1901. In 1904 he was assigned to become part of the Prussian Agriculture Ministry and became a Landrat for Posen in 1908.
In 1909 he entered the Prussian House of Representatives as a member of Free Conservative Party but left the party in 1918 in opposition to the three-class franchise.[1]
Describing himself as a "left-wing Free Conservative",[2] Kardoff helped found the German National People's Party.[3] At one of its first public meetings in December 1918, Kardorff was the main speaker. He declared: "Our new party, in which friendly right-wing parties have united, has no past and rejects any responsibility for the past. We have a present and, if God will, a good future".[4] Kardorff said that the party would uphold the monarchy, agriculture, the middle class and the church: "But we are not a party of Lutheran orthodoxy, rather we find recognition wherever living Christianity is found".[5]
From 1920 to 1932 he was member of German Reichstag, while at the same time being a member of the Prussian House of Representatives from 1919-1925. He had joined the DNVP in November of 1918 but over time he became increasingly uncomfortable with the parties indifference to the Kapp Putsch and its embrace of the Stab-in-the-back myth. Which led him to join the German People's Party in April 1920, joining the parties left-wing. He was inclined to work with the SPD and would go on to support Streseman's first cabinet in 1923; based on these inclinations he proposed the creation of a new party to unite all the pro-republic parties in Germany though this party never formed. His support of Streseman's first cabinet led President Friedrich Erbert to ask him to form a new Great Coalition but this was prevented due to opposition from the DVP and the DNVP. From 1928 to 1932 he served as Reichstag Vice President.[1]
In February 1932, alongside the SPD and the Zentrum Party and Julius Curtius, he blocked a vote of no confidence against Heinrich Brüning. And since a majority of his Party supported the vote, he was expelled from the party. He retired in 1933 and lived the rest of his life privately in Berlin.[1]
He also composed political biographies of Otto von Bismarck and his father; the latter was praised by G. P. Gooch,[6] Carlton J. H. Hayes[7] and Sidney B. Fay.[8]
Notes
- ^ a b c Vincent, C. Paul (1992). A Historical Dictionary of Germany's Weimar Republic 1918-1933. Greenwood Press. pp. 246–247. ISBN 0313273766.
- ^ Lewis Hertzman, 'The Founding of the German National People's Party (DNVP), November 1918-January 1919', The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Mar., 1958), p. 35, n. 43.
- ^ Hertzman, p. 26, n. 7.
- ^ Hertzman, pp. 29-30.
- ^ Hertzman, p. 30.
- ^ G. P. Gooch, 'Reviewed Work: Wilhelm von Kardorff: ein Nationaler Parlamentarier im Zeitalter Bismarcks und Wilhelms II, 1828-1907 by Siegfried von Kardorff', The English Historical Review Vol. 51, No. 204 (Oct., 1936), p. 713.
- ^ Carlton J. H. Hayes, 'Reviewed Work: Wilhelm von Kardorff, ein nationaler Parliamentarier im Zeitalter Bismarcks und Wilhelms II, 1828-1907 by Siegfried von Kardorff', The American Historical Review Vol. 43, No. 1 (Oct., 1937), p. 127.
- ^ Sidney B. Fay, 'Reviewed Work: Wilhelm von Kardorff: Ein Nationaler Parliamentarier im Zeitalter Bismarcks und Wilhelms II, 1828-1907 by Siegfried von Kardorff', The Journal of Modern History Vol. 9, No. 4 (Dec., 1937), pp. 529-530.