Germany’s first modern political party is founded in Frankfurt
The Frankfurt National Assembly of 1848 had no political parties in the modern sense, and all the representatives sat as independents. Nevertheless, deputies with similar political ideas congregated in certain meeting places outside parliament to discuss policy options. Those seeking to establish a democratic nation state began working together when it appeared that the March Revolutions were losing momentum. They organized a Democrats’ Congress in Frankfurt in the summer of 1848 to thrash out a strategy of cooperation and set up a Central Committee based in Berlin. Funds were collected from local associations and individuals to pay for a full-time staff, and a kind of party headquarters began to develop. When the declaration of a state of siege in Berlin made political work impossible during the autumn of 1848, it was decided to make a fresh start in Frankfurt am Main, where the Central March Association was founded on 21 November.
The Central March Association acted as an umbrella organization coordinating the work of parliamentary groups and nationwide associations that were seeking to democratize Germany. Working to maintain progress towards this end in the face of counter-revolutionary pressures, the association distributed appeals and circulars, provided the press with information and called for citizens’ assemblies and demonstrations. The Central March Association quickly developed into the largest mass organization of the revolutionary period, comprising 1,000 individual associations and half a million members. In the cities, it was supported by workers’, gymnastics, singing and shooting clubs; even some rural regions such as Silesia featured prominently. The Central March Association did not survive the defeat of the revolution in the summer of 1849.
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