German National People's Party

The German National People's Party (German: Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP) was a national-conservative and monarchist political party in Germany during the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the Nazi Party, it was the major nationalist party in Weimar Germany. It was an alliance of conservative, nationalist, monarchist, völkisch, and antisemitic elements supported by the Pan-German League. Ideologically, the party was described as subscribing to authoritarian conservatism, German nationalism, and monarchism. Until 1931, the party also advocated for national liberal and protectionist economic policies, embracing corporatist economic policies from 1931 onwards. Some members like the populist media mogul Alfred Hugenberg embraced economic nationalism and statism. It held anti-communist, anti-Catholic, and antisemitic views. On the left–right political spectrum, it belonged on the right wing. Specifically, it is classified as far-right in its early years and then again in the late 1920s when it moved back rightward. It has also been described as proto-fascist.

It was formed in late 1918 after Germany's defeat in World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919 that toppled the German Empire and the monarchy. It combined the bulk of the German Conservative Party, Free Conservative Party, and German Fatherland Party, with right-wing elements of the National Liberal Party. The party strongly rejected the republican Weimar Constitution of 1919 and the Treaty of Versailles, which it viewed as a national disgrace, signed by traitors. The party instead aimed at a restoration of monarchy, a repeal of the dictated peace treaty and reacquisition of all lost territories and colonies.