The BVP was created after splitting with Zentrum, a large centrist political party to form a party with a more conservative outlook. I'm trying to learn more about the political climate in Weimar Germany, but all my sources on the BVP conflict on three key issues:
-Whether the BVP was generally in support or against the Weimar Republic as a whole
-Whether they were friendly towards the NSDAP (Nazi Party) when they started gaining traction in the late 1920s
-Whether the BVP was "friendly" with Zentrum after splitting off, considering that they had closely related political views.
Forgive me for any errors I may have made because I haven't used this subreddit before, but any answer to any one of the three points would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
> Whether the BVP was generally in support or against the Weimar Republic as a whole
They started off demanding a federalistic Germany, in which the states would have reigned without great interference of the central state in the 'Münchner Programm" of 15th November 1918.
This was made redundant by the National Convention in August 1919, which accepted a German constitution which was more centralized then the BVP would have liked. Consequently, the September 1920 'Bamberger Programm' made the goal to change the Weimarer Verfassung to have a more "federalistic composition" ("föderalistische Ausgestaltung"); on their party convention in October, they explicitly stated that this was to be done with "constitutional instruments", and demanded the Reservatsrechte which Bavaria had in the Kaiserreich (Bavaria was allowed to have its own Military and Financial administration and its own post and railway authority; these privileges were abolished with the Weimarer Verfassung). Also, the chamber of the states in the Weimar Republic, the Reichsrat, had lost importance compared to the Bundesrat of the Kaiserreich.
They demanded those things serveral times between 1920 and 1932; they interfered the Reichsreformen (a planed reform of the states and their relation to the central state, which would likely have merged smaller states into bigger ones, leaving - from the BVP point of view - the central state more powerful).
So, in short, they were not against the Weimar Republic (like the NSDAP was) in principle, but wanted to change it in a constitutional manner to a more federalized state. It could be argued that they weakened the Republic with their resistance against the central government (see next paragraph).
> Whether they were friendly towards the NSDAP (Nazi Party) when they started gaining traction in the late 1920s
After the federal government gave up the resistance against the occupation of the Ruhr, the government Knilling (who was the second BVP Ministerpräsident of Bayern, after Lerchenfeld, who's tenure was eventfull, but not important to our subject) gave dicatorial authority to Kahr (which was not against the Bavarian constitution).
Kahr is known for his role in the Hitler-Ludendorff-Putsch, for which he later got killed by the Nazis during the Röhm-Putsch. The BVP government supported Kahr during that time.
After Knilling resigned in 1924, Heinrich Held was the next chairman of the BVP and Ministerpräsident of Bavaria. Held severely condemned the NSDAP several times during his tenure (citing that they were against Christianity, against federalism and condemning their rascism - and supposed socialism). Held met with Hitler after Hitler's discharge from Landsberg. This is mostly seen as a favor for the coalition partner of the BVP, the DNVP. The DNVP justice minister of Bavaria, Gürtner, was severely compromised by his leniency towards the putschists, but ultimately was not replaced, protected by the all time high influence of the DNVP over the Bavarian government. Gürtner later was made Reichsjustizminister and held that post until 1945.
The BVP supported Hindenburg in the 1925 election of the Reichspräsident and not Zentrum candidate Wilhelm Marx.
When it became increasingly likely that the Nazis would take over the central government, Held consulted with the SPD and they agreed to give Rupprecht von Bayern (the pretender to the Bavarian throne) dictatorial powers (as they did with Kahr, again on grounds of the Bavarian constitution). Rupprecht agreed, but when it happened, Rupprecht and Held hesitated and let the opportunity slip.
In short, they were fundamentally opposed to the NSDAP (the Nazis later took revenge on several BVP politicians). But their conservative leanings and unwillingness at crucial times to support the other democratic parties brought them several times on a course which ultimately helped the NSDAP.
> Whether the BVP was "friendly" with Zentrum after splitting off, considering that they had closely related political views.
The BVP diverged from the Zentrum, sometimes more, sometimes less. In the early phase - when several important persons of the BVP who were in the Zentrum before were still alive, they were quite close.
In 1920, the faction of the BVP in the Reichstag split from the one of the Zentrum, as the Zentrum was seen too keen on a unitary state by the BVP (the Zentrum argued that this was required, considering the emergencies of the German state). The most visible point of that split was the mentioned support of the BVP for Hindenburg.
They approached each others position after 1927.
Sources:
Winfried Becker, Heinrich Held (1868-1938). Aufstieg und Sturz des bayerischen Parlamentariers und Ministerpräsidenten
Klaus Schönhoven, Die Bayerische Volkspartei 1924-1932 [which is his dissertation].
Richard Kessler, Heinrich Held als Parlamentarier