The Free Democratic Party (FDP) was once pivotal in shaping policy in post-World War II West Germany. It was part of almost all federal governments between 1994 and 2013.

However, since its defeat in the 2025 federal election, the liberal party has almost disappeared from the public eye.

In an interview with DW, party leader Christian Dürr nevertheless remained optimistic: "Even though we are not represented in the Bundestag, we are loud and we make ourselves heard.”

Political scientist Albrecht von Lucke sees litte reason for optimism. "The FDP is in no man's land and is fighting its last battle," Lucke told DW.

"The last battle" refers to the five state elections coming up this year, at a time when the FDP is languishing at around 3% in the polls nationwide.

In early January, party leaders convened in Stuttgart, the capital of the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, the self-proclaimed heartland of the FDP, for the traditional Three Kings' Day meeting, a solemn ritual for the party since 1866.

But the future fate of the FDP could be decided in this state, where a new parliament will be elected on March 8. Here, the FDP has never failed to clear the five percent hurdle — not yet, anyway.

"My theory is that if Baden-Württemberg is not held by the FDP — and I don't really see how it could be — then the party will no longer be viable," said von Lucke.

Party with long tradition

Civil liberties, an economy largely free from state control, the rule of law: these were the slogans with which the party, as an alliance of various liberal currents, campaigned as early as 1948.

For decades, the FDP was considered a major party in West Germany. Sometimes it was in power together with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), but mostly with the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and its sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).

Scheel, Genscher, Westerwelle, Lindner

The era of East-West rapprochement began in the 1970s with SPD Chancellor Willy Brandt and the FDP leader and Foreign Minister Walter Scheel. Chancellor Helmut Kohl (CDU) came to power because the FDP broke away from the SPD and switched sides in 1982.

For almost 25 years, foreign policy was shaped by the FDP. Hans-Dietrich Genscher (FDP) served as Foreign Minister from 1974 to 1992, longer than anyone else. He experienced his greatest moments during the years of change in 1989/90. On September 30, 1989, Genscher announced that the approximately 4,000 East German citizens who had sought refuge in the Prague embassy were permitted to leave the country. German reunification was Genscher's dream come true — particularly since he hailed from eastern Germany. 

Guido Westerwelle served as the head of the FDP from 2001 to 2011. It was thanks to him that the FDP managed its record result of 14.6% in the general election in 2009, after which he served as Angela Merkel's vice chancellor and foreign minister, becoming Germany's first openly gay cabinet minister. Westerwelle did poorly in opinion polls at home, and was accused of being callous when — true to his party's platform —he called for tax breaks for high-income earners. Lashing out at Germany's unemployed, he claimed that they still had it too good.

Today, the FDP has largely relinquished any significant role in foreign policy.

Christian Lindner rescued the party from obscurity after its electoral defeat in 2013 and then brought it back into government in 2021 in Germany's first-ever three-way coalition government at the federal level. In the center-left government with Social Democrats and the environmentalist Greens, Lindner became finance minister. Continual infighting made the "traffic light coalition" (named for the parties' colors: red for the SPD, yellow for the FDP and green for the Greens) the most unpopular government in Germany's history.

Following last year's electoral wipeout, Lindner resigned as party leader. Today, he works as a corporate advisor in the private sector.

The political landscape has fundamentally changed, and the FDP is no longer the kingmaker it was. Other parties have long since adopted the FDP's former core principles, believes von Lucke: The party's economically liberal wing has merged into the conservative CDU/CSU or moved closer to the far-right populist Alternative for Germany party (AfD), while the left-liberal wing defected to the Greens decades ago..

New start with a new program?

The new FDP leader, Dürr, is little known in Germany. He previously headed the party's parliamentary group in the Bundestag when the FDP was still part of the coalition government with the SPD and the Greens. He remains optimistic about his party's survival: "The FDP is needed. People have the impression that the previous parties that held power in Germany — the CDU/CSU, SPD, and Greens — have become parties of the status quo. They don't change anything."

A new party platform is currently being developed — with input from party supporters and artificial intelligence. It is to focus on education, technological openness, deregulation and more heavily controlled immigration.

The litmus test is the election on March 8. Even if the FDP loses and fails to clear the 5% hurdle, Dürr intends to soldier on." When I applied to be party leader, I was aware that this would be a marathon," he told DW. 

This article was originally written in German.

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