Martin Mussgnug (22 February 1936 – 2 February 1997) was a German politician and leader of the

National Democratic Party of Germany The National Democratic Party of Germany (german: Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands or NPD) is a far-right Neo-Nazi and ultranationalist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 1964 as successor to the German Reich Part ...

(NPD) from 1971 to 1991.

Life

Mussgnug was born in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

. He first came to prominence in 1956 when he set up the ''Bund Nationaler Studenten'', a far-right student organisation that was banned in 1963. Whilst leading this group he became involved with the

Deutsche Reichspartei The Deutsche Reichspartei (DRP, ''German Reich Party'', ''German Imperial Party'' or ''German Empire Party'') was a nationalist, far-right and later Neo-Nazi political party in West Germany. It was founded in 1950 from the German Right Party (ger ...

, becoming deputy chair of their Heidelberg group and following the party into the NPD in 1964.Lutz Niethammer, ''Angepasster Faschismus. Politische Praxis der NPD'', S. Fischer, Frankfurt 1969, p. 204 By 1968 he had been appointed chair of the NPD in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

and was elected to the state

Landtag A Landtag (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence in non ...

that same year. He held the seat until 1972 when the party was eliminated from the Landtag. He replaced

Adolf von Thadden Adolf von Thadden (7 July 1921 – 16 July 1996) was a German far-right politician. Born into a leading Pomeranian landowning family, he was the half-brother of Elisabeth von Thadden, a prominent critic of the Nazis who was executed by the Nazi g ...

as party leader in 1971 although the battle for the leadership proved somewhat divisive as his defeated opponent, Siegfried Pöhlmann, split away from the NPD with his supporters the following year in order to establish his own group, '' Aktion Neue Rechte''.Klaus Larres, Panikos Panayi, ''The Federal Republic of Germany Since 1949: Politics, Society and Economy Before and After Unification'', Routledge, 2014, p. 221 Mussgnug followed a largely similar course in party policy terms, in the process becoming the party's longest serving leader to date. Nonetheless, he and von Thadden did not enjoy a good relationship, due to Mussgnug's closeness to his rival

Gerhard Frey Gerhard Frey (; born 1 June 1944) is a German mathematician, known for his work in number theory. Following an original idea of Hellegouarch, he developed the notion of Frey–Hellegouarch curves, a construction of an elliptic curve from a pur ...

. Von Thadden left the party in 1975 over the issue and Mussgnug secured for Frey a seat on the NPD's executive committee. Ultimately Mussgnug resigned on 16 December 1990 following poor results for the party in the 1990 federal election. Succeeded by Deckert, he left the NPD after this and became involved in setting up the German League for People and Homeland (DLVH).Hans-Joachim Veen, Norbert Lepszy, Peter Minch, ''The Republikaner party in Germany: right-wing menace or protest catchall?'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 1993, pp. 27-8 He disappeared from politics when this group proved unsuccessful. He died on 2 February 1997 in Singen.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mussgnug, Martin 1936 births 1997 deaths Politicians from Heidelberg People from the Republic of Baden Deutsche Reichspartei politicians National Democratic Party of Germany politicians German League for People and Homeland politicians Leaders of political parties in Germany