National Democratic Party (Germany)
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The National Democratic Party of Germany (german: Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands or NPD) is a
far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
Neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
and ultranationalist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 1964 as successor to the
German Reich Party The Free Conservative Party (german: Freikonservative Partei, FKP) was a liberal-conservative political party in Prussia and the German Empire which emerged from the Prussian Conservative Party in the Prussian Landtag in 1866. In the federal el ...
(german: link=no, Deutsche Reichspartei, DRP). Party statements also self-identify the party as Germany's "only significant patriotic force". On 1 January 2011, the nationalist German People's Union (german: link=no, Deutsche Volksunion) merged with the NPD and the party name of the National Democratic Party of Germany was extended by the addition of "The People's Union". The party is a
neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
organizationNeo-Nazis push into town councils
published by thelocal.de on 9 June 2009 "The neo-Nazi NPD party is entering several German city parliaments for the first time after this weekend’s local elections, news magazine Der Spiegel reported on Monday."
Neonazis in der NPD auf dem Vormarsch
published by sueddeutsche.de on 19 May 2009 "Das neonazistische Spektrum hat seinen Einfluss innerhalb der NPD ausgebaut."
Verfassungsschutzbericht 2010
published by the German Ministry of the Interior p. 67 "Die ethnisch homogene „Volksgemeinschaft“ stellt für sie das Kernelement dar." * The National Democratic Party: Right Radicalism in the Federal Republic of Germany by John D. Nagle and published by Hardcover on 1 December 1970
Europe for the Europeans: The Foreign and Security Policy of the Populist Radical Right
Chapter: 'Nationalism Ensures Peaces': the Foreign and Security Policy of the German Populist Radical Right After Reunification by Christina Schori Liang and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. in 2013 p. 139
Encyclopedia of modern worldwide extremists and extremist groups
by Stephen E. Atkins. p. 106 "the oldest of the German neo-Nazi parties"
Germany transformed: political culture and the new politics
, by Kendall L. Baker, Russell J. Dalton, Kai Hildebrandt. p. 318 "the neo-Nazi NPD (National Democratic Party of Germany)"
Europe since 1945: an encyclopedia, Volume 2
, by Bernard A. Cook. p.903 "possibly deserving of the label "neofascist" .... The NPD was founded in 1964 by survivors of the overtly neo-Nazi SRP"
The Routledge companion to Nazi Germany
by Roderick Stackelberg. p.287 "a Neo-Nazi party founded in 1964 in West Germany"
Encyclopaedia of international law
by Vinod K. Lall, Danial Khemchand. p. 180 "frankly fascist NPD", "the Neo-Nazi NPD", "this neo-Nazi organization"
The beast reawakens
by Martin A. Lee. "neo-Nazi NPD"
and has been referred to as "the most significant neo-Nazi party to emerge after 1945".Peter Davies, Derek Lynch
The Routledge companion to fascism and the far right
, Psychology Press, 2002, pg. 315
The German Federal Agency for Civic Education, or BPB, has criticized the NPD for working with members of organizations which were later found unconstitutional by the federal courts and disbanded, while the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (german: Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz), Germany's domestic security agency, classifies the NPD as a "threat to the constitutional order" because of its platform and ideology, and it is under their observation.Austrian 'neo-Nazi' joins NPD's executive committee
.
Austrian Times
''. Published 8 April 2009.
An effort to outlaw the party failed in 2003, because the government had many informers and agents in the party, some in high position, who had written part of the material used against them. Since its founding in 1964, the NPD has never managed to win enough votes on the federal level to cross Germany's 5% minimum threshold for representation in the Bundestag; it has succeeded in crossing the 5% threshold and gaining representation in state parliaments 11 times, including one-convocation entry to seven West German state parliaments between November 1966 and April 1968 and two-convocation electoral success in two East German states of Saxony and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern between 2004 and 2011. Since 2016, the NPD has not been represented in state parliaments. Udo Voigt led the NPD from 1996 to 2011. He was succeeded by Holger Apfel, who in turn was replaced by Udo Pastörs in December 2013. In November 2014, Pastörs was ousted and
Frank Franz Frank Franz (born 21 November 1978) is a German politician who has been the leader of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) since 2014. He was formerly the national chairman of the NPD in the German state of Saarland from 200 ...
became the party's leader. Voigt was elected the party's first Member of the European Parliament in 2014. The party lost the seat in the
2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held between 23 and 26 May 2019, the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent more than 512 million peopl ...
.


History


Early history

In the 1950s, despite the overall failure of de-Nazification, early right-wing extremist parties in West Germany failed to attract voters away from the moderate government that had presided over Germany's recovery. In November 1964, however, right-wing splinter groups united to form the NPD. One of the four founding members was Adolf von Thadden (1921–1996), alleged to have been an agent for the British MI6. Thadden had a British grandmother and was NPD chairman from 1967 to 1971. Owing to von Thadden's effective leadership the NPD achieved success in the late 1960s, winning local government seats across West Germany. In 1966 and 1967, fuelled by West German discontent with a lagging economy and with the leadership of Chancellor Ludwig Erhard, the NPD won 15 seats in Bavaria, 10 in lower Saxony, 8 in Hesse, and several other seats. However, the NPD did not then and has never since received the minimum 5% of votes in federal elections that allow a party to send delegates to the German Parliament. The NPD came closest to that goal in the 1969 election, when it received 4.3 percent of the vote. Helping pave the way for these NPD gains were an economic downturn, frustrations with the emerging leftist youth counter-culture, and the emergence of a tripartite
coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...
among the center-right Christian Democratic Party (CDU), the Christian Social Union (the CDU's present-day sister party), and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). The coalition government had created a vacuum in the traditional political right wing, which the NPD tried to fill. Additionally, the party benefited from hostility to the growing immigrant population and fears that the government would repudiate claims to the "lost territories" ( pre-World War II German territory east of the Oder-Neisse River.) The historian Walter Laqueur has argued that the NPD in the 1960s cannot be classified as a neo-Nazi party. Yet, when the coalition fell apart, around 75 percent of those who had voted for the NPD drifted back to the center-right. During the 1970s, the NPD went into decline, suffering from an internal split over failing to get into the German Parliament. The issue of immigration spurred a small rebound in popular interest from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, but the party only saw limited success in various local elections.


Recent history

In September 2019, the NPD politician
Stefan Jagsch Stefan Jagsch (born 8 August 1986 in Hanau) is a German politician from the extreme-right National Democratic Party of Germany. In September 2019 he was unanimously elected as representative of Waldsiedlung (Altenstadt, Hesse Altenstadt is a m ...
was elected as representative of Altenstadt-Waldsiedlung. The unanimous election of the NPD politician by the local council led to irritation and horror in other parties, such as Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), whose local council members had voted for Jagsch.


Electoral history

Since its founding in 1964, the NPD has only won seats in regional assemblies. Its successes in state parliaments can be grouped into two periods: the late 1960s (1966 in Hesse; 1967 in
Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Schleswig-Holstein; and 1968 in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria), and former East Germany since reunification (2006 and 2011 in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, 2004 and 2009 in Saxony). In the 2004 state election in Saxony, the NPD won 9.2% of the overall vote. After the 2009 state election in Saxony, the NPD sent eight representatives to the Saxony state parliament, having lost four representatives since the 2004 election. The NPD lost their representation in Saxony at the 2014 state election. They also lost all representation in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern at the 2016 state election. The NPD maintained a non-competition agreement with the German People's Union (DVU) between 2004 and 2009. The third nationalist-oriented party, the Republicans (REP), has so far refused to join this agreement. However, Kerstin Lorenz, a local representative of the Republicans in Saxony, sabotaged her party's registration to help the NPD in the Saxony election. In the 2005 federal elections, the NPD received 1.6 per cent of the vote nationally. It garnered the highest per cent of votes in the states of Saxony (4.9 per cent), Thuringia (3.7 per cent), Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (3.5 per cent) and Brandenburg (3.2 per cent). In most other states, the party won around 1 percent of the total votes cast. In the
2006 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state election The 2006 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state election was held on 17 September 2006 to elect the members of the 5th Landtag of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The incumbent coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Party of Democratic Sociali ...
, the NPD received 7.3% of the vote and thus achieved state representation there, as well. The NPD had 5,300 registered party members in 2004. Over the course of 2006, the NPD processed roughly 2,000 party applications to push the membership total over 7,200. In 2008, the trend of a growing number of members has been reversed and NPD's membership is estimated at 7,000. In the 2014 European elections, Udo Voigt was elected as the party's first Member of the European Parliament.


2001–2003 banning attempt

In 2001, the federal government, the Bundestag, and the Bundesrat jointly attempted to have the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany ban the NPD. The court, the highest court in Germany, has the exclusive power to ban parties if they are found to be "anti-constitutional" through the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany. However, the petition was rejected in 2003 after it was discovered that a number of the NPD's inner circle, including as many as 30 of its top 200 leaders were undercover agents or informants of the German secret services, like the federal Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz. They include a former deputy chairman of the party and author of an anti-Semitic tract that formed a central part of the government's case. Since the secret services were unwilling to fully disclose their agents' identities and activities, the court found it impossible to decide which moves by the party were based on genuine party decisions and which were controlled by the secret services in an attempt to further the ban. The court determined that so many of the party's actions were influenced by the government that the resulting "lack of clarity" made it impossible to defend a ban. "The presence of the state at the leadership level makes influence on its aims and activities unavoidable," it concluded. Horst Mahler (NPD), a former member of the far-left terrorist organisation Red Army Faction, defended the NPD before the court. In May 2009, several state politicians published an extensive document which they claim proves the NPD's opposition to the constitution without relying on information supplied by undercover agents. This move was intended to lead up to a second attempt to have the NPD banned.


Merger with DVU

At the 2010 NPD party conference at Bamberg it was announced that the party would ask its members to approve a merger with the German People's Union (DVU). After the merger on 1 January 2011, the combined party briefly used the name ''NPD – Die Volksunion'' (NPD - The People's Union). Between 2004 and 2009 the two parties had agreed not to compete against each other in elections. However, on 27 January 2011, Munich's ''
Landgericht ''Landgericht'' may refer to: * Landgericht (Germany), a mid-level court in the present-day judicial system of Germany *: For example, ** Landgericht Berlin ** Landgericht Bremen * Landgericht (medieval) The ''Landgericht'' (plural: ''Landgerichte ...
'' (regional court) in a
preliminary injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in par ...
declared the merger null and void.


The Green Movement

The National Democratic party has recently supported the
green movement Green politics, or ecopolitics, is a political ideology that aims to foster an ecologically sustainable society often, but not always, rooted in environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice and grassroots democracy. Wall 2010. p. 12-13. It be ...
. This is one of many strategies the party has used to try to gain supporters. Historically the opposing party the German Greens have fully supported the green movement in Germany. The German Greens group was a successful European ecological group that began in 1980. Kate Connolly who is a correspondent for The Guardian wrote the article: ''German far-right extremists tap into green movement for support''. In the article Connolly explains the opposition between these two political groups pertaining to the green movement. The Artaman league is essential in understanding the green movements history. This was a farming movement that was inspired by the " blood and soil" ruralist ideology adopted from the
Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
. This farming movement affected the Mecklenburg region of Germany during the 19th century. Settlers at this time took advantage of the cheap cost of land in these rural communities. These settlers were in support of the Artaman league and continued to reinforce the ideology. The NDP's plans are to take the ecological movement back from the German Greens group. Connolly spoke to different farmers, organizations, and employees of the government to represent the different perspectives of the ecological movement. Hans-Gunter Laimer a farmer who ran for election for the NPD mentions his frustration that the German Greens groups has dominated the organic farming market for too long. He has also been linked to other German groups specifically Umwelt and Aktiv. Both political parties are concerned with the ways they are in opposition to one another. The NPD supporters of the green movement are in favour of local produce. However, they are against GMOS,
pesticide Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microbicide, fungicide, and lampri ...
s, and intensive livestock. Organisations involved in the farming industry have lost consumers because they are not able to state what the political views of the farmers products are to the consumer. For example, BioPark is an organic cultivation organisation with a vetting process to certify organic farmers. The vetting process is strictly based on cultivation methods and not on political affiliations. BioPark has lost costumers because left-leaning supporters worry buying local organic produce is supporting the far-right extremist. The department of rural enlightenment has supported the importance of distinguishing between these two political parties. The department created a brochure called "Nature Conservation Versus Right-wing Extremist". The brochure was created in order to help consumers distinguish from the far-right extremists. Other representatives from the government have spoken on this divide. For example, Connolly mentions a representative of the Centre for Democratic culture in Mecklenburg who chose to stay anonymous in order to protect themself. The representative stated the goal of the NDP is to build bridges between citizens. The NDP is strategic in the way they are going about this in a subtle quite manner. The result the NDP is trying to achieve is to reinforce the division between the two political parties for when NDP no longer becomes associated with politics.


World War II and Holocaust commemoration controversies

On 21 January 2005, during a moment of silence in the Saxon state assembly in Dresden to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi Auschwitz extermination camp, twelve members of the NPD walked out in protest. The NPD stated that they were upset that a moment of silence was being held for those who were murdered in the Auschwitz camp and that none was being given for those who died during the bombing of Dresden in World War II, with the anniversary of both events falling relatively close to each other. Holger Apfel, leader of the NPD in Saxony and deputy leader of the party nationwide, made a speech in the Saxon State Parliament in which he called the Allied forces of the United States and the United Kingdom "mass murderers" because of their role in the bombing. His colleague
Jürgen Gansel Jürgen Werner Gansel (born 6 July 1974) is a German politician. He is a representative of the National Democratic Party, a pan-German nationalist party in Germany. From 2004 until 2014, he was a member of the Landtag of Saxony The Landtag ...
went on to describe the bombing itself as a "holocaust of bombs". Voigt voiced his support and reiterated the statement, which some controversially claimed was a violation of the German law which forbids Holocaust denial. However, after judicial review, it was decided that Udo Voigt's description of the 1945 RAF bombing of Dresden as a holocaust was an exercise of free speech and "
defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
of the dead" was not the purpose of his statement. In 2009, the NPD joined the Junge Landsmannschaft Ostdeutschland in a demonstration on the anniversary of the bombing of Dresden in World War II. Roughly 6,000 people came to participate in the event.


Activism and controversy

The NPD's strategy has been to create "nationally liberated zones" and circumvent its marginal electoral status by concentrating on regions where support is strongest. In March 2006, musician Konstantin Wecker tried to set up an in-school
anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...
concert in Halberstadt, Saxony-Anhalt two weeks before the state elections. The NPD argued that because of politics, the date and the in-school venue, the concert "was an unacceptable form of political campaigning." In protest, the NPD vowed to buy the tickets and turn up en masse at Wecker's show, which led local authorities to cancel the event. The Social Democrats and the
Greens Greens may refer to: *Leaf vegetables such as collard greens, mustard greens, spring greens, winter greens, spinach, etc. Politics Supranational * Green politics * Green party, political parties adhering to Green politics * Global Greens * Europ ...
were outraged by the decision, which the Central Council of Jews in Germany criticized as "politically bankrupt". The NPD was going to sponsor a march through Leipzig on 21 June 2006, as the
2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...
was going on. The party wanted to show its support for the Iranian national football team, which was playing in Leipzig, and Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( fa, محمود احمدی‌نژاد, Mahmūd Ahmadīnežād ), born Mahmoud Sabbaghian ( fa, محمود صباغیان, Mahmoud Sabbāghyān, 28 October 1956),
. However, the NPD decided against the demonstration; only a counter-demonstration took place that day, in support of Israel. During the World Cup, the party's web site stated that due to the prevalence of people of non-German descent on the German national football team, the team "was not really German". Later in 2006, the party designed leaflets, which said "White – not just the color of a jersey! For a true National team!" This leaflet was never mass-distributed, but copies were confiscated during a raid on the NPD's headquarters, when authorities had been hoping to find material linking the party to Nazism.
Patrick Owomoyela Patrick Olaiya Olukayode Owomoyela (; born 5 November 1979) is a German former professional footballer of Nigerian descent who played mainly as a right-back. He previously played for Lüneburger SK, VfL Osnabrück, SC Paderborn 07, Arminia Biel ...
was later informed about the poster after it was noted that the image depicted a footballer wearing a white jersey with Owomoyela's number on it. Owomoyela, of Nigerian descent, had played for the German national team in the years before the World Cup and proceeded to file a lawsuit against the party. The party was able to delay the procedures but in April 2009 three party officials ( Udo Voigt, Frank Schwerdt and Klaus Beier) were sentenced for Volksverhetzung (Voigt and Beier to 7 months on probation, Schwerdt to 10 months on probation). In November 2008, shortly after the
2008 United States presidential election The 2008 United States presidential election was the 56th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 2008. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, the senior senator from ...
, the NPD published a document entitled "Africa conquers the White House" which stated that the election of Barack Obama as the first African-American President of the United States was the result of "the American alliance of Jews and Negroes" and that Obama aimed to destroy the United States' " white identity". The NPD claimed, "A non-white America is a declaration of war on all people who believe an organically grown social order based on language and culture, history and heritage to be the essence of humanity" and "Barack Obama hides this declaration of war behind his pushy sunshine smile." The NPD also stated that the extensive support for Obama in Germany "resembles an African tropical disease." In September 2009, another incident involving the NPD and a football player of the German national team was reported. In a television show of a regional channel, NPD spokesman Beier called midfielder
Mesut Özil Mesut Özil (, ; born 15 October 1988) is a German professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Süper Lig club İstanbul Başakşehir. Özil is known for his technical skills, creativity, passing skills, and vision. He can ...
a "Plaste-Deutscher" ("Plastic German" or "ID Card German"), meaning someone who is not born German, but becomes German by naturalisation, particularly for certain benefits. The
German Football Association The German Football Association (german: Deutscher Fußball-Bund ; DFB ) is the governing body of football in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and is in charge of t ...
announced that they would immediately file a lawsuit against the NPD and their spokesman, if requested by Özil. During the Gaza War in 2009, the NPD planned a "Holocaust" vigil for
Gaza Gaza may refer to: Places Palestine * Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea ** Gaza City, a city in the Gaza Strip ** Gaza Governorate, a governorate in the Gaza Strip Lebanon * Ghazzeh, a village in ...
in support of the
Palestinians Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
. Charlotte Knobloch, the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said "joint hatred of everything Jewish is unifying neo-Nazis and Islamists." Knobloch claimed German-Palestinian protestors "unashamedly admitted" that they would vote for the NPD during the next election. In 2009, the NPD hung
anti-Polish Polonophobia, also referred to as anti-Polonism, ( pl, Antypolonizm), and anti-Polish sentiment are terms for negative attitudes, prejudices, and actions against Poles as an ethnic group, Poland as their country, and their culture. These incl ...
posters with
slogan A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a clan, political slogan, political, Advertising slogan, commercial, religious, and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose, with the goal of persuading members of the publi ...
''"Polen-Invasion Stoppen"'' ("Stop the Polish invasion") in Dresden and
Görlitz Görlitz (; pl, Zgorzelec, hsb, Zhorjelc, cz, Zhořelec, :de:Ostlausitzer Mundart, East Lusatian dialect: ''Gerlz'', ''Gerltz'', ''Gerltsch'') is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is located on the Lusatian Neisse River, and ...
. Mayor of Görlitz and then
Chancellor of Germany The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany,; often shortened to ''Bundeskanzler''/''Bundeskanzlerin'', / is the head of the federal government of Germany and the commander in chief of the Ge ...
, Angela Merkel, condemned the posters. In April 2009, the party was fined 2.5 million euros for filing incorrect financial statements, resulting, according to German broadcaster
Deutsche Welle Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service con ...
, in "serious financial trouble" for its administration.Far-right politician convicted over racist World Cup flyers
.
Deutsche Welle Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service con ...
. Published 24 April 2009.
On 23 September 2009, four days before the federal elections, German police raided the Berlin headquarters of the NPD to investigate claims that letters sent from the NPD to politicians from immigrant backgrounds incited racial hatred. The NPD leader in Berlin defended the letters saying that "As part of a democracy, we're entitled to say if something doesn't suit us in this country."


2011 banning attempt

In 2011, authorities were reportedly trying to link the party, and specifically 30-year-old national organization director Patrick Wieschke, to the so-called " Zwickau terrorist cell". This raised the possibility of another effort to outlaw the party. The cell had been implicated in a string of murders and the November robbery of a savings bank in Eisenach. Authorities were also pursuing a gun case against Ralf Wohlleben, former deputy chairman of the party's branch in Thuringia, though the latter case was reportedly unlikely to translate into a national-level challenge to the party's legal standing. The likelihood of success of renewed banning attempts has been questioned, given the
Office for the Protection of the Constitution The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (german: Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz or BfV, often ''Bundesverfassungsschutz'') is Germany's federal domestic intelligence agency. Together with the Landesämter für Verfassungs ...
has over 130 informants in the party, some in high positions, raising the question of whether the party is effectively controlled by the government.


2012 Thor Steinar clothing controversy

In June 2012, several NPD members of Saxony's parliament attended the parliament's sittings wearing clothing from Thor Steinar, a clothing brand that is popular amongst neo-Nazis; the legislature responded by saying that such provocative clothing was not permitted to be worn in the parliament and demanded that the NPD members remove and replace their attire; the NPD members refused, resulting in the members being expelled from the parliament and banned from attending the next three parliamentary sittings.German far-right deputies expelled over clothing
", BBC News, 13 June 2012. Accessed on 17 June 2012.
The NPD members denied accusations that they wore the shirts as a deliberate provocation.


2012 banning attempt

German officials tried to outlaw the party again in December 2012, with the interior ministers of all 16 states recommending a ban. The Federal Constitutional Court is yet to vote on the recommendation. In March 2013 the Merkel government said it would not try to ban the NPD.


2016 banning attempt

German officials again tried to outlaw the NPD by submitting a request to the Federal Constitutional Court in 2016. On 17 January 2017, the second senate of the Federal Constitutional Court rejected the attempt to outlaw the party. The reasoning behind the decision was that the NPD's political significance is virtually nonexistent at both the state and federal levels and that as such, the party had no chance of posing a significant threat to the constitutional order. It was also reasoned that outlawing the party would not change the mindset and political ideology of its members and supporters, who in the event of a ban could simply form a new movement under a different name. However, the Court also openly acknowledged that NPD is unconstitutional based on its manifesto and ideology, citing "links to neo-Nazism" and that "anti-semitism was a structural element of the party ideology" in its reasoning.BVerfG, Urteil des Zweiten Senats vom 17 January 2017 - 2 BvB 1/13 - Rn. (1-1010), http://www.bverfg.de/e/bs20170117_2bvb000113.html ''(in German)'' The Court also indirectly suggested that state grants or other financial contributions should not be given to such parties to further their unconstitutional cause. This prompted calls by the public for the proposal of a
constitutional amendment A constitutional amendment is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly altering the text. Conversely, t ...
which would forbid unconstitutional parties' financing to the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany. The proposal was criticised by the interior policy spokesman of
Die Linke The Left (german: Die Linke; stylised as and in its logo as ), commonly referred to as the Left Party (german: Die Linkspartei, links=no ), is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of th ...
,"German politicians seek way to bankrupt 'neo-Nazi' NPD"
Ben Knight. Deutsche Welle. 20 January 2017. Accessed 20 January 2017
who claimed that such a constitutional amendment could stand to serve as a politically dubious way to remove a political opponent. Law Professor Hans Herbert von Arnim defended the rights of small parties, including the NPD.


Platform and ideology

The NPD is a
neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
political party. It calls itself a party of "grandparents and grandchildren" because the 1960s generation in Germany, known for the leftist student movement, strongly opposes the NPD's policies. The NPD's economic program promotes social security for Germans and control against plutocracy. They discredit and reject the "liberal-capitalist system".Rechtsextremisten thematisieren die internationale Fianzkrise
Verfassungsschutz MV, 2 December 2008
The NPD argues that NATO fails to represent the interests and needs of European people. The party considers the European Union to be little more than a reorganisation of a Soviet-style government of Europe along financial lines. Although highly critical of the EU, as long as Germany remains a part of it, the NPD opposes Turkey's incorporation into the organisation. Voigt envisions future collaboration and continued friendly relations with other nationalists and European nationalist parties. The NPD is strongly
anti-Zionist Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestine ...
, frequently criticizing the policies and activities of Israel. The NPD's platform asserts that Germany is larger than the present-day Federal Republic, and calls for a return of German territory lost after World War II, a foreign policy position abandoned by the German government in 1990. In the early 21st century, long-standing efforts to ban the party were renewed. The 2005 report of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution contains the following description:
The party continues to pursue a "people's front" of the nationalists onsisting ofthe NPD, DVU, and forces not attached to any party, which is supposed to develop into a base for an encompassing 'German people's movement'. The aggressive agitation of the NPD unabashedly aims towards the abolition of parliamentary democracy and the democratic constitutional state, although the use of violence is currently still officially rejected for tactical reasons. Statements of the NPD document an essential affinity with Nazism; its agitation is
racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
,
antisemitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
, homophobic, revisionist, and intends to disparage the democratic and lawful order of the constitution.


International connections

Voigt has held meetings with various proponents of white nationalism, including David Duke, a US white nationalist, author, politician, and activist. Between 1989 and 1992, the
International Third Position International Third Position (ITP) was a neo-fascist organisation formed by the breakaway faction of the British National Front, led by Roberto Fiore, an ex-member of the Italian far-right movement Third Position. Development Though a key formul ...
began to ally itself with the NPD in Germany and '' Forza Nuova'' in Italy. They have been in contact with Youth Defence, the Irish anti-abortion group, since 1996.
Justin Barrett Justin Barrett (born 13 April 1971) is an Irish far-right politician who has been the leader of the National Party since 2016. Barrett's activism began in the 1990s, with the anti-abortion campaign group Youth Defence. He campaigned against t ...
, former leader of Youth Defence and current President of the National Party of Ireland, has spoken at their events in Passau in 2000. The NPD has also links with the Romanian neo-Legionary group
Noua Dreaptă ''Noua Dreaptă'' ( en, The New Right) is an ultranationalist, far-right organization in Romania and Moldova, founded in 2000. The party claims to be the successor to the far-right Iron Guard, with its aesthetics and ideology being directly i ...
.


Connections with Croatian far right

The party also has connections with
far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
parties and politicians in Croatia. In 2017, according to the claims of Dražen Keleminec, president of the marginal far-right Autochthonous Croatian Party of Rights (A-HSP), NPD party member Alexander Neidlein took part in the party's march to show their support and declare allegiance to then-recently elected American president Donald Trump. During the march, the party's members, dressed in black uniforms, were waving flags of the NPD and the United States while shouting the Ustasha salute " Za dom spremni". The following day, the U.S. embassy in Zagreb reacted by publishing a statement in which they strongly condemned the march and rejected any attempts to connect the United States with Ustasha ideology. In 2018, Croatian far-right MP
Željko Glasnović Željko Glasnović (born 24 February 1954) is a former Croatian military officer and politician. He was a member of Croatian Parliament's club called Independents for Croatia. Biography He was born in Zagreb in 1954. His late father was from Janj ...
took part in the party congress in the town of Büdingen, expressing his support for them.


Youth wing

Junge Nationalisten (short: JN; until 13 January 2018 Junge Nationaldemokraten) is the official youth organization of the right-wing extremist NPD founded in 1967. According to the NPD statutes, the JN are an "integral part" of the party. The JN are committed to the basic program of the NPD, but represent these points of view much more aggressively, which is evident both during demonstrations and in political style. They are observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and classified as right-wing extremists. Their regular publication is called The Activist. In this central organ, under the heading "The Federal Leader Has the Word", they describe themselves as "representatives of the national revolutionary wing within the NPD". The youth organization criticizes those in the NPD who have made the "fight for parliaments" the "most important goal". Instead, "resistance and criticism are appropriate, since these developments run the risk of gradual adjustment and bourgeoisie". The JN describe themselves as anti-imperialist. Among other things, they call for the withdrawal of German troops from Afghanistan, describe Israel as the "enemy of all peoples", and refer to it as becoming a parasitic state. The JN maintains active contacts with a network of neo-Nazi organizations across Europe, like the Nordic Resistance Movement whose Finnish independence day march it has attended, along with National Corps of Ukraine, Bulgarian National Union, Serbian Action and others.


Chairmen of the NPD

* Friedrich Thielen 1964–1967 * Adolf von Thadden 1967–1971 * Martin Mussgnug 1971–1990 * Günter Deckert 1991–1996 * Udo Voigt 1996–2011 * Holger Apfel 2011–2013 * Udo Pastörs 2013–2014 *
Frank Franz Frank Franz (born 21 November 1978) is a German politician who has been the leader of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) since 2014. He was formerly the national chairman of the NPD in the German state of Saarland from 200 ...
2014–present


Election results and current representation


Federal Parliament (''Bundestag'')


European Parliament


Literature

* Ackermann, Robert: ''Warum die NPD keinen Erfolg haben kann – Organisation, Programm und Kommunikation einer rechtsextremen Partei.'' Budrich, Opladen 2012, . * Brandstetter, Marc: ''Die „neue“ NPD: Zwischen Systemfeindschaft und bürgerlicher Fassade. Parteienmonitor Aktuell der Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.'' Bonn 201
(online)
* Brandstetter, Marc: ''Die NPD unter Udo Voigt. Organisation. Ideologie. Strategie'' (= ''Extremismus und Demokratie''. Bd. 25). Nomos Verlag, Baden-Baden 2013, . * Prasse, Jan-Ole: ''Der kurze Höhenflug der NPD. Rechtsextreme Wahlerfolge in den 1960er Jahren.'' Tectum-Verlag, Marburg 2010, . * Philippsberg, Robert: ''Die Strategie der NPD: Regionale Umsetzung in Ost- und Westdeutschland.'' Baden-Baden 2009. * apabiz e. V.: ''Die NPD – Eine Handreichung zu Programm, Struktur, Personal und Hintergründen.'' Zweite, aktualisierte Auflage. 2008
(online)
(PDF; 671 kB)


See also

* Far-right politics in Germany * German nationalism * Irredentism * Politics of Germany *
List of political parties in Germany This article lists political parties in Germany. The Federal Republic of Germany has a plural multi party system. The largest by members and parliament seats are the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), with its sister party, the Christian Social ...
* Frank Rennicke *
Frank Franz Frank Franz (born 21 November 1978) is a German politician who has been the leader of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) since 2014. He was formerly the national chairman of the NPD in the German state of Saarland from 200 ...
* List of National Democratic Party of Germany politicians


References


External links


Party Platform of the NPD (PDF)

History of the National Democratic Party

NPD Russia

BBC news: Poll boost for German far right
{{Authority control 1964 establishments in West Germany Antisemitism in Germany Anti-Zionism in Germany Eurosceptic parties in Germany Far-right political parties in Germany Fascist parties in Germany German nationalist political parties Nationalist parties in Germany Neo-Nazi political parties in Europe Political parties established in 1964 Anti-immigration politics in Germany Opposition to NATO