Thomas Dehler - Party Leader

Party Leader

Immediately after his departure from government, Dehler was elected chairman of FDP's parliamentary group and of the federal party, replacing Hermann Schäfer and Vice-Chancellor Franz Blücher, respectively. The reasoning behind this move was that the FDP deputies blamed their party's losses in the election on a lack of distinctive profile and now chosing an opponent of Adenauer as their leader. Dehler now combined two central party offices for the first time since 1949. Even though the FDP remained the CDU/CSU's partner in government, the party now vocally addressed disagreements. Notable issues were the Saar issue, which hit its peak in the mid-fifties, and proposed changes to electoral law.

In 1954, Dehler played a vital role in Bavarian politics again, engineering a coalition between his party, the Social Democrats, the Bavaria Party and the refugee party BHE. All parties in the Bavarian parliament except the largest - the Christian Social Union - combined to elect Social Democrat Wilhelm Hoegner as prime minister. A major issue for Dehler was the replacing Bavaria's system of denominational elementary schools, which had been restored after the fall of the Nazi regime, with interdenominational institutions. The coalition indeed reformed the training of elementary school teachers but proved unstable. After the CDU/CSU's triumphal victory at the Federal elections of 1957, the coalition fell apart when the BHE and the Bavaria Party withdrew their ministers.

In 1956, Dehler supported a group of young FDP politicians dubbed "Young Turks" - Erich Mende, Walter Scheel and others - as they ousted the prime minister of in North Rhine-Westphalia, Karl Arnold by a vote of no confidence. Arnold had governed as head of a CDU/FDP-coalition but now the FDP switched their allegiance to elect the Social Democrat Fritz Steinhoff. However, as in its Bavarian counterpart, success was short-lived, as CDU gained an absolute majory in the 1958 state elections and returned to government with Franz Meyers. The immediate and lasting result of the coup was the resignation of Middlehauve and end to any nationalist strategies.

It was in 1956 as well that Dehler made his decisive move against Adenauer: On 23 September 1956, just a year before the next federal elections, the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag decided to leave the coalition with CDU/CSU. However, sixteen deputies, including all four of the party's government ministers refused to accept this move, split from their party and founded the Free People's Party (FVP), which continued to support Adenauer's government.

Dehler had hoped to weaken Adenauer's government and establish his party as a "third force" but the Federal elections of September 1957 resulted in a triumphant victory for CDU and CSU, who won an absolute majority in parliament and henceforth could govern without the support from any other party. After this defeat, Dehler reluctantly resigned as chairman of party and parliamentary group. He was replaced by Reinhold Maier and Max Becker, respectively.

Though an immediate failure, Dehler's strategy has been credited with enabling the FDP to survive beyond the 1950s, when most smaller parties disappeared from the political scene.