Editing Free Democratic Party (Germany) (section)

=== 1949–1969: reconstruction of Germany ===
[[File:Schlußstrich drunter - FDP election campaign poster, Germany 1949.jpg|thumb|alt=Political poster in German: "Schlußstrich drunter! Schluss mit Entnazifizierung / Entrechtung / Entmündigung / Schluss mit dem Staatsbürger 2. Klasse / Wer staatsbürgerliche Gleichberechtigung will, wählt FDP (bisher LDP)"|{{lang|la|"Schlußstrich drunter!"}}—FDP election campaign poster reading "Draw a line under it" before the 1949 Bundestag election in Hesse calling for a halt to "[[denazification]], disenfranchisement, disempowerment, second class citizenship" and for "equality of civil rights"]]

In the [[1949 West German federal election|first elections to the Bundestag on 14 August 1949]], the FDP won a vote share of 11.9 percent (with 12 direct mandates, particularly in Baden-Württemberg and Hesse), and thus obtained 52 of 402 seats. In September of the same year the FDP chairman [[Theodor Heuss]] was elected the first [[President of Germany|President]] of the [[Federal Republic of Germany]]. In his [[1954 West German presidential election|1954 re-election]], he received the best election result to date of a President with 871 of 1018 votes (85.6 percent) of the [[Federal Convention (Germany)|Federal Assembly]]. Adenauer was also elected on the proposal of the new German President with an extremely narrow majority as the first Chancellor. The FDP participated with the [[CDU/CSU]] and the national-conservative [[Deutsche Partei|German Party (DP)]] in Adenauer's coalition cabinet; they had three ministers: [[Franz Blücher]] (Vice-Chancellor), [[Thomas Dehler]] (justice), and [[Eberhard Wildermuth]] (housing).

On the most important economic, social and [[German question|German national]] issues, the FDP agreed with their coalition partners, the CDU/CSU. However, the FDP offered to middle-class voters a secular party that refused the [[Parochial school|religious schools]] and accused the opposition parties of clericalization. The FDP said they were known also as a consistent representative of the market economy, while the CDU was then dominated nominally from the Ahlen Programme, which allowed a [[Third Way]] between [[capitalism]] and [[socialism]]. [[Ludwig Erhard]], the father of the [[social market economy]], had his followers in the early years of the Federal Republic in the CDU/CSU rather than in the FDP. The FDP won Hesse's 1950 state election with 31.8 percent, the best result in its history, through appealing to East Germans displaced by the war by including them on their ticket.

Up to the 1950s, several of the FDP's regional organizations were to the right of the CDU/CSU, particularly the [[Hesse]], [[Lower Saxony]], and [[North Rhine-Westphalia]] branches where [[Friedrich Middelhauve]] tried to foster a National Rally as a third bloc next to Social Democrats and Christian Democrats. This was criticized by the social liberals around [[Theodor Heuss]] who distanced himself from the "Nazi FDP" branches.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Blasius |first=Rainer |date=2011-02-23 |title=Nazi-Liberale: Lumpensammler von Opladen |url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/politik/nazi-liberale-lumpensammler-von-opladen-1597391.html |access-date=2024-12-26 |website=FAZ.NET |language=de}}</ref> Under the influence of the party's right wing, the Free Democrats campaigned against West Germany's [[denazification]] provisions and courted even former office-holders of the Third Reich with nationalist values. At their party conference in Munich in 1951, they demanded the release of all "so-called [[war crime|war criminals]]" and welcomed the establishment of the "Association of German soldiers" of former [[Wehrmacht]] and [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] members to advance the integration of the Nazi forces in democracy. These FDP members were seen as part of the [[far-right]] extremist block along with the [[German Party (1947)|German Party]] in West Germany by the US intelligence officials.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1952-54v07p1/d161|title=Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Germany and Austria, Volume VII, Part 1 |publisher=Office of the Historian, State Department|location=United States}}</ref> The 1953 [[Naumann Circle]], named after [[Werner Naumann]], consisted of a group of former Nazis who tried to infiltrate the party. After the [[British occupation zone|British occupation authorities]] had arrested seven prominent members of the Naumann Circle, the FDP federal board installed a commission of inquiry, chaired by Thomas Dehler, which particularly sharply criticized the situation in the North Rhine-Westphalian FDP. In the following years, the right wing lost power, and the extreme right increasingly sought areas of activity outside the FDP. In the [[1953 West German federal election|1953 federal election]], the FDP received 9.5 percent of the party votes, 10.8 percent of the primary vote (with 14 direct mandates, particularly in [[Hamburg]], Lower Saxony, Hesse, [[Württemberg]], and [[Bavaria]]) and 48 of 487 seats.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

In the second term of the Bundestag, the South German Liberal Democrats gained influence in the party controlling the party leadership between 1954 and 1960.{{Citation needed|date=March 2014}} Thomas Dehler, a representative of a more social-liberal course from [[Bavaria]] took over as party and parliamentary leader. The former Minister of Justice Dehler, who in 1933 suffered persecution by the Nazis, was known for his populist rhetorics and tried to emancipate the party from Adenauer's CDU/CSU. In the mid-1950s, there were some disagreements between Dehler and Adenauer over foreign policy issues, particularly the founding of the [[European Defence Community]] and the [[Saar statute]]. The FDP took an emphatically nationalist stance on both issues.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Weipert |first=Matthias |title=„Verantwortung für das Allgemeine“? Bundespräsident Theodor Heuss und die FDP |publisher=Stiftung Bundespräsident-Theodor-Heuss-Haus |year=2009 |isbn=978-3-9809603-7-3 |location=Stuttgart}}</ref> In 1956, the infights between Dehler and Adenauer culminated in a government crisis: The FDP in North Rhine-Westphalia terminated their alliance with the Christian Democrats and formed a new state government with the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] and the [[Centre Party (Germany)|German Center Party]] which led to a party split. 16 members of parliament, including former party leader [[Franz Blücher]] and the four federal ministers from the FDP left their party and founded the short-lived [[Free People's Party (Germany)|Free People's Party (FVP)]]. Whilst the FVP continued the government coalition with Adenauer's CDU/CSU and merged with the right-wing German Party in 1957, the FDP took it to the opposition for the first time in its history.<ref name=":0" />

Only one of the smaller post-war parties, the FDP survived despite many problems. In the [[1957 West German federal election|1957 federal elections]] they still reached 7.7 percent of the vote and held 41 of 497 seats in the Bundestag. However, they still remained in opposition because the Union won an absolute majority. At the federal party meeting in Berlin at the end of January 1957, Thomas Dehler was replaced as party chairman by another liberal democrat from South Germany, [[Reinhold Maier]], who was able to stabilize his party before he made way for [[Erich Mende]] from North Rhine-Westphalia in 1960. With Mende as party leader the FDP went into the [[1961 West German federal election|1961 federal election]] with the promise of ending Konrad Adenauer's leadership and gained 12.8 percent nationwide, the best result until then. After the election, however, the FDP again formed a coalition with Adenauer's CDU on the condition that he would retire as chancellor after two years. These events led to the FDP being nicknamed the {{lang|de|Umfallerpartei}} ("pushover party").<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OThqlaLQjFIC&pg=PA65 |page=66 |title=Die Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Eine Bilanz nach 60 Jahren |isbn=978-3-412-20237-8 |last1=Schwarz |first1=Hans-Peter |year=2008 |publisher=Böhlau }}</ref> In the 1962 [[Spiegel affair]], the FDP temporarily withdrew their ministers from the federal government forcing [[List of German defence ministers|Defence Minister]] [[Franz Josef Strauss|Franz-Josef Strauß]] to resign. In accordance with his agreement with the FDP, Adenauer resigned from his chancellorship in October 1963, making place for [[Ludwig Erhard]] who appointed FDP leader Erich Mende as Vice Chancellor and [[Minister of Intra-German Relations|Minister of All-German Affairs]].

In the [[1965 West German federal election|1965 federal elections]] the FDP gained 9.5 percent. The Free Democrats initially renewed their alliance with the CDU under Erhard but the coalition broke up in 1966   on the issue of tax increases. During the 1966-1969 [[Grand coalition (Germany)|Grand coalition]] the party led the opposition. Under their new chairman, Walter Scheel, there were signs of a change both in foreign policy and in party strategy: For the first time, the FDP opened up to a coalition with the SPD on a federal level, embracing foreign minister [[Willy Brandt]]'s [[Ostpolitik]].