The German People's Party (German: Deutsche Volkspartei, DVP) was a conservative-liberal political party during the Weimar Republic that was the successor to the National Liberal Party of the German Empire. Along with the left-liberal German Democratic Party (DDP), it represented political liberalism in Germany between 1918 and 1933.

The party's best known politician was its founding chairman and later Chancellor and Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann. With the exception of two short-lived cabinets in 1921 and 1922, the DVP was represented in all Weimar governments from 1920 to 1931. In the late 1920s it turned more to the right politically but could not compete with other nationalist parties. By 1932 the DVP's share of the vote had shrunk to barely over one percent, and it disbanded shortly after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933.

Following the end of World War I and the collapse of the German Empire, the party system in Germany remained largely in place because the groups with a common religion, social status, culture, etc. had for the most part survived. In the political center, there were strong efforts in both the Progressive People's Party (FVP) and the National Liberal Party (NLP) to overcome the historical split between "democrats" (more left-liberal, as the FVP) and "liberals" (more to the right, as the NLP) and to form a large middle class democratic party. Economist and banker Hjalmar Schacht, economist and sociologist Alfred Weber and journalist and editor Theodor Wolff were the driving forces.

At the beginning of the 1918 November Revolution that brought down the German Empire, party leaders Gustav Stresemann (National Liberals) and Otto Fischbeck (Progressive Liberals) also discussed such possibilities. Negotiations between the two parties began on 15 November 1918, and on the same day they agreed on a program that required significant concessions from the National Liberals, including a commitment to a republic as the future form of government. On 16 November representatives of both parties issued an Appeal for the Formation of a German Democratic Party. For the first time it seemed possible to unite the middle class non-sectarian forces in Germany. When Stresemann asked Alfred Weber whether he could be admitted to the executive committee of the new party, the latter expressed reservations because during World War I Stresemann had become known as an annexationist, i.e., someone who favored increasing Germany's power by annexing land either in Europe or as overseas colonies. Weber did not, however, object to collaboration with Stresemann or to his candidacy for the Weimar National Assembly.

Further negotiations on the merger on 18 and 19 November ultimately failed because the majority of National Liberal board members were not prepared to lose their political head and most gifted speaker. As a result, on 20 November Stresemann and three other leading National Liberals drew up an appeal for the formation of the German People's Party. It was founded provisionally on 22 November 1918 and permanently on 15 December 1918 by a resolution of the central executive committee of the former National Liberal Party. They stressed the importance of members viewing the action not as the foundation of a new party but rather as a reorganization of the old National Liberal Party. The executive committee's resolution was approved only narrowly, by a vote of 33 to 28.

Most of the National Liberal Party's center and right wing joined the DVP. Between 22 November and 15 December there were additional attempts to reach an agreement with the new German Democratic Party (DDP), which had been formed out of the Progressive People's Party and the more left-leaning members of the National Liberal Party, but these failed. Stresemann remained chairman of the DVP until his death in 1929.

Although the DVP initially rejected the Weimar Constitution, it participated in almost all Reich governments from 1920 to 1931. This was primarily due to Stresemann. Although he was at heart a monarchist, he recognized that a return to monarchy could only be achieved through a coup followed by civil war, a path he firmly rejected. At the party congress in Jena on 13 April 1919, he said: "We must not proceed from one bloodbath to another. ... The path to domestic peace can only be on the basis of a republican form of government. That is why we are working for it."

Initially, this balancing act – cooperation in forming the new state despite rejection of the Republic – was successful. The party criticized the Treaty of Versailles and the enormous burdens associated with it as well as the tax policy of Finance Minister Matthias Erzberger of the Catholic Centre Party, which especially affected the middle class. Unlike the nationalist-conservative German National People's Party (DNVP), the DVP was not directed destructively against the Weimar Republic but combined its criticisms with proposals for reform that stayed within the system. During the 1920 Kapp Putsch, however, the party, like its chairman Stresemann, played a role that was less than friendly to the Republic. At first they openly tolerated the putsch, which attempted to overthrow the Republic and set up an autocratic state in its place, although they opposed the use of violence. Only when the failure of the putsch was obvious did they attempt to mediate between the putschists and the Reich government.