Zentrum was strongly Catholic, but not conservative in the German tradition. It was not militarist and believed strongly in a restricted economic role for the state, as well as nominal democracy and minority rights, and relied on the support of the middle class. You could maybe argue that Zentrum wasn’t a liberal party in the German Empire, but in the Weimar Republic it very much was a liberal party, in the literal and abstract classical sense.
How?
It was literally THE conservative catholic party. That was its entire thing.
Well that and the OG culture war.
Zentrum was strongly Catholic, but not conservative in the German tradition. It was not militarist and believed strongly in a restricted economic role for the state, as well as nominal democracy and minority rights, and relied on the support of the middle class. You could maybe argue that Zentrum wasn’t a liberal party in the German Empire, but in the Weimar Republic it very much was a liberal party, in the literal and abstract classical sense.