The Greater German People's Party (German Großdeutsche Volkspartei, GDVP) was a German nationalist and national liberal party during the First Republic of Austria.
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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 and the Catholic Christian Socials. In 1919, the 17 different groupings and clubs formed a federation, the Greater German Association.[1] 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 and the Landbund. 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.[2] The party received strong support from students, teachers and bureaucrats.[3]
The party was strongly anti-semitic and supported the creation of a Volksgemeinschaft or people's community. They called for unification of Austria with Germany and free trade.[2]
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.[4] From 1922 to 1927, the Greater Germans provided the Austrian Vice Chancellors. Chancellor Johann Schober (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 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.[5]
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 and later the Freedom Party of Austria.