The Greater German People's Party (German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 Großdeutsche Volkspartei, GDVP) was a German nationalist

German nationalism in Austria

German nationalism is a political ideology and a current in Austrian politics. It has its origins in the German National Movement of the 19th century, a nationalist movement of the German-speaking population in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and had striven for a closer connection of the...

 and national liberal

National liberalism

National liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining nationalism with some liberal policies, especially regarding economic liberalism. The roots of it are to be found in the 19th century, when conservative liberalism was the ideology of the political classes in most European countries, then...

 party

Political party

A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 during the First Republic

First Austrian Republic

The Republic of Austria encompasses the period of Austrian history following the signing of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye of September 1919, the settlement after the end of World War I which put an end to the Republic of German Austria, continuing up to World War II...

 of Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

.

Foundation

In the Provisional National Assembly of German-Austria in 1918, the German nationalist and "German-Liberal" camp, fragmented into many splinter parties and factions, formed the largest group, with 102 representatives, ahead of the Socialists

Social Democratic Party of Austria

The Social Democratic Party of Austria is one of the oldest political parties in Austria. The SPÖ is one of the two major parties in Austria, and has ties to trade unions and the Austrian Chamber of Labour. The SPÖ is among the few mainstream European social-democratic parties that have preserved...

 and the Catholic Christian Socials. In 1919, the 17 different groupings and clubs formed a federation, the Greater German Association. In 1920, it was transformed into a single party, the Greater German People's Party. The only nationalist parties which did not join were the Workers' Party

German Workers' Party (Austria-Hungary)

----The German Workers' Party in Austria-Hungary is the predecessor of the Austrian and Czechoslovak Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei , founded on 14 November 1903, in Aussig , Bohemia...

 and the Landbund

Landbund

The Landbund was an Austrian political party during the period of the First Republic .-History:The Landbund was founded in 1919 as Deutsche Bauernpartei and represented liberal and protestant farmers in Styria, Carinthia and Upper Austria...

. The party did not have a strong organisation but instead was supported by people who were nationalistic but not generally involved or interested in politics. The party received strong support from students, teachers and bureaucrats.Jelavich, p. 168.

Ideology

The party was strongly anti-semitic and supported the creation of a Volksgemeinschaft

Volksgemeinschaft

Volksgemeinschaft is a German expression meaning "people's community". Originally appearing during World War I as Germans rallied behind the war, it derived its popularity as a means to break down elitism and class divides...

 or people's community. They called for unification of Austria with Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and free trade

Free trade

Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...

.

Support

During the First Republic the party never won more than 17% in elections and from 1921 to 1932 was the junior partner of the Christian Social Party in government. From 1922 to 1927, the Greater Germans provided the Austrian Vice Chancellors. Chancellor Johann Schober

Johann Schober

Johann Schober was an Austrian police officer who served three times as Chancellor of Austria .-Early career:...

 (in office 1921-22, 1930-31), although not a party-member, was considered to be close to the pan-Germanists. With the rise in support for the Austrian Nazi Party

Austrian National Socialism

Austrian National Socialism was a Pan-German movement that was formed at the beginning of the 20th century. The movement took a concrete form on November 15, 1903 when the German Worker's Party was established in Austria with its secretariat stationed in the town of Aussig...

 in the early 1930s, the Greater German People's Party lost support. On 15 May 1933, it formed an action group ("Kampfgemeinschaft") with the National Socialists and eventually merged with the Nazi party during 1933-34.

Legacy

The Greater German People's Party represented the Austrian Third Camp ("Drittes Lager") which traditionally has embraced pan-German nationalists and national liberals (in Austria "German-Liberals"). The Third Camp was revived after 1945 in form of the Federation of Independents

Federation of Independents

The Federation of Independents was a German national and national-liberal political party in Austria active from 1949 to 1955...

 and later the Freedom Party of Austria

Freedom Party of Austria

The Freedom Party of Austria is a political party in Austria. Ideologically, the party is a direct descendant of the German national liberal camp, which dates back to the 1848 revolutions. The FPÖ itself was founded in 1956 as the successor to the short-lived Federation of Independents , which had...

.