fell apart when the BHE and the Bavaria Party withdrew their ministers. In 1956, Dehler supported a group of young FDP politicians dubbed "Young Turks" – Erich Mende, Walter Scheel and others – as they ousted the prime minister of in North Rhine-Westphalia, Karl Arnold by a vote of no confidence. Arnold had governed as head of a CDU-FDP coalition but now the FDP switched their allegiance to elect the Social Democrat Fritz Steinhoff. However, as in its Bavarian counterpart, success was short-lived, as CDU gained an absolute majority in the 1958 state elections and returned to government with Franz Meyers. The immediate and lasting result of the coup was the resignation of Middlehauve and end to any nationalist strategies. It was in 1956 as well that Dehler made his decisive move against Adenauer: On 23 September 1956, just a year before the next federal elections, the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag decided to leave the coalition with CDU/CSU. However, sixteen deputies, including all four of the party's government ministers, refused to accept this move, split from their party and founded the Free People's Party (FVP), which continued to support Adenauer's government. Dehler had hoped to weaken Adenauer's government and establish his party as a "third force" but the Federal elections of September 1957 resulted in a triumphant victory for CDU and CSU, who won an absolute majority in parliament and henceforth could govern without the support from any other party. After this defeat, Dehler reluctantly resigned as chairman of party and parliamentary group. He was replaced by Reinhold Maier and Max Becker, respectively. Though an immediate failure, Dehler's strategy has been credited with enabling the FDP to survive beyond the 1950s, when most smaller parties disappeared from the political scene. Later life Dehler remained a member of parliament until his death and also remained a vocal critic of Adenauer, especially in the field of German policy by calling for renewed attempts to seek reunification via the Soviet Union. Dehler also frequently participated in debates regarding legal issues. He was an unyielding opponent of attempts to exempt Nazi crimes from the statute of limitations by citing basic legal principles. The Bundestag decided in favour of tolling and eventually, years after Dehler, of deciding to exempt all kinds of murder from the statute of limitations. From 1957 to 1961, he chaired both the Bundestag's committee for nuclear energy and water