German Conservative Party

(Deutschkonservative Partei),a German political party that existed from 1876 to 1918 as the successor to the Conservative Party of Prussia.

The German Conservative Party expressed the interests of the Junkers (Prussian landed nobility) and the aristocracy, as well as of the army command and the upper ranks of the clergy and bureaucracy. The party advocated maximum expansion of the army and navy, germanization of Polish lands seized by the Junkers, and ruthless suppression of the liberation struggle in the German colonies. The party also opposed democratization of Prussia’s political system.

During World War I (1914–18), the German Conservative Party vigorously supported German imperialism’s attempted course toward world domination. The party disintegrated after the November Revolution of 1918; a substantial portion of its membership joined the newly formed German National People’s Party (Deutschnationale Volkspartei).