German Centre Party (Germany)

Zentrum, Deutsche Zentrumspartei

Last modified: 2004-12-29 by santiago dotor
Keywords: german centre party | deutsche zentrumspartei | zentrum |
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• Description
• Flag Used

See also:

• Roman Catholic Church
• Political Parties (Germany)
• Germany

The Zentrum (Deutsche Zentrumspartei, German Centre Party, 1945-today) is a Catholic party tracing back its history to the Weimar Republic and before. During the Weimar Republic it was one of the major democratic parties, but after the Second World War the newly founded CDU and CSU absorbed almost all the support by Catholic, conservative people. In its stronghold, North Rhine-Westphalia it was represented in the Landtag until 1958, in the Bundestag until 1957. It shortly became part of a CVP (Christliche Volkspartei, Christian People's Party) in 1956-57 and 1965, but was reorganised afterwards. Now it is basically a regional party in Catholic areas of North Rhine-Westphalia.

It had (and has) no party flag in a strict sense. However to show its affiliation to the Catholic church it used (and probably uses up to now) the well-known Catholic colours yellow and white. Sources: Rabbow 1965, Rabbow 1970 and party website.

Marcus Schmöger, 10 September 2001

by Jorge Candeias