Internal Structures and Political Practice of the German Progress Party between Fundamental Opposition and Reform Policy (1861-1878/79)

德国进步党充其量只是一个历史研究的利基话题。然而，它在塑造德意志帝国的政治格局中发挥了决定性的作用：最初是在普鲁士宪法冲突中作为奥托·冯·俾斯麦的坚定对手，通过努力建立一个自由的民族国家，并从1867年开始成为一个重要的反对党。该项目基于档案资料，采用以行动者为中心的方法，批判性地分析了德国进步党及其在自由主义时代(1861-1878/79)的政治实践。它侧重于党的影响、行动范围、内部结构、舆论领导、政治内容、心态和组织的变化，以及根据政治动荡、党内冲突后和与政治对手的调整过程。该项目还考察了政党在普鲁士和德国政治制度中的地位及其议会实践。为此，该研究项目将英国高级政治方法的理论和方法应用于历史政党研究。在建立对以冲突为基础的政治的意识形态批判理解的基础上，它还特别注意日常政治生活、个人关系、野心和敌意，以分析和解释政治行动。然而，该项目既不会忽视文化和社会历史的视角，也不会忽视思想史的视角，也不会把政治仅仅放在精英的历史上。它旨在重建党内的政治程序和决策过程，以揭示权力中心、政治战略和动机、采取行动的选择和意图以及党内谈判、冲突和矛盾。该项目将探索扩大的积极参与者群体，从而超越评价政治自由主义的思想史的范围。将首次系统分析来自德国档案的原始材料：党的内部和机构文件(从警察监视和线人的报告到会议纪要到通告等)和自我文件(特别是议会成员的信件和便条)。议会辩论和报纸文章的文字记录补充了档案材料。由于德国进步党的多重意义，该项目涉及政治史的几个研究领域(政党历史、议会历史、自由主义和民族主义)。它采用了方法论创新的视角来探讨民族国家的内生和外生形成。

The German Progress Party is at best a niche topic of historical research. And yet, it played a decisive role in shaping the political landscape of Imperial Germany: initially as a staunch opponent of Otto von Bismarck in the Prussian constitutional conflict, by striving for a liberal nation state, and from 1867 as an important oppositional party. Based on archival sources the project critically analyses the German Progress Party and its political practice during the liberal era (1861-1878/79), using an actor-centred approach. It focuses on the party’s impact, scope of action, internal structures, opinion leadership, changes of political content, mentality and organisation as well as adjustment processes in the light of political upheaval, after internal conflicts within the party and with political opponents. The project also examines the party’s position within the Prussian and German political systems and its parliamentary practice.For this purpose, the research project applies theoretical and methodological aspects of the British ‘high politics’ approach to historical party research. In building upon an ideology-critical understanding of politics based on conflict, it also pays particular attention to everyday political life, personal relationships, ambitions and enmities to analyse and explain political action. However, the project will neither ignore the perspective of cultural and social history as well as of the history of ideas, nor lower politics merely to the history of elites. It aims to reconstruct political procedures and decision-making processes within the party to reveal centres of power, political strategies and motives, options and intentions to act as well as inner-party negotiations, conflicts and ambivalences. The project will explore an expanded group of active players and thus go beyond the scope of the history of ideas in evaluating political Liberalism. For the first time, source material from German archives will be systematically analysed: the party’s internal as well as institutional documents (ranging from police surveillance and informants’ reports to minutes to circulars etc) and ego documents (especially letters and notes of members of parliament). Transcripts of parliamentary debates and newspaper articles complement the archival material.Due to the manifold significance of the German Progress Party, the project touches upon several research areas of political history (the history of parties, of parliamentarianism, of liberalism and nationalism). It adopts a methodologically innovative perspective to explore the internal and external formation of the nation state.