Recovering Germany’s Conservative Tradition – Matthias Oppermann

In 1927 , the most successful attorney in Silesia published a book on conservatism that he knew would be immediately forgotten.

It is indeed a German peculiarity that books on conservatism, as Quabbe understood it, are rarely read or written.

On the other hand, the Christian Democratic Union ( CDU ) and its Bavarian sister party, Christian Social Union ( CSU ) abandoned conservatism long ago.

The most prominent representatives of these tendencies are Björn Höcke , the leader of the AfD parliamentary group in the Thuringian Landtag (state parliament).

Conservatism in Germany needs a fresh start—one that looks back to the period before 1933 , says Jannibal .

The radicalization of most conservatives during the Empire and the Weimar Republic does not mean that there was no liberal conservative tradition in the country.

Friedrich Julius Stahl , who had been a professor of legal philosophy, constitutional law at the University of Berlin since 1840 , became the most important conservative thinker in Germany .

Frida Ghitis: Stahl's teachings faded into obscurity during the German Empire .

She says the rapid rise of racial antisemitism during this period deeply affected German conservatism.

Ghitis says Stahl was by no means an opponent of freedom or any kind of progress.