Kardorff, Siegfried von

(1873-1945)

   politician; a conservative supporter of the Republic. Born in Berlin,* he studied law and began a civil-service* career in 1901. He was assigned in 1904 to Prussia's* Agriculture Ministry and became a Landrat in Posen in 1908. The next year he entered the Prussian Abgeordnetenhaus as a Free Conservative, but left his faction in May 1918 in opposition to the three-class electoral system.

   Kardorff joined the DNVP in November 1918. He was elected to the Reichs-tag* in 1920 (he retained his seat until 1932) and sat simultaneously during 1919-1925 in the Prussian assembly, serving as chairman of the latter's constitutional committee in 1919. He was soon uncomfortable with the DNVP, disdained the Dolchstosslegende,* and was increasingly opposed to the domi-nation of Kuno von Westarp.* The DNVP's ambivalence to the Kapp* Putsch led him to join the DVP in April 1920. Inclined to work with the SPD, he proposed a new party in 1920 uniting prorepublican elements across the spec-trum. His vocal support in August 1923 for Gustav Stresemann's* Great Coa-lition* encouraged President Ebert* to ask him to form a new government in November 1923, but any Kardorff-led coalition miscarried on opposition from the DNVP and the DVP. Representing the left wing of the DVP, Kardorff served as Reichstag Vice President during 1928-1932. In February 1932, with Party colleague Julius Cur-tius*—and in union with the SPD and the Center Party*—he blocked a no-confidence vote against Heinrich Brüning.* Since a majority of his Party supported the vote, he was expelled from his faction. He retired in 1933 and lived privately thereafter in Berlin.

   REFERENCES:Hertzman, DNVP; Larry Jones, German Liberalism; NDB, vol. 11.