National Democratic Party of Germany
The National Democratic Party of Germany (German: Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands, abbreviated as NPD) is the main nationalist opposition party in Germany. The party was organized on 28 November 28 1964 after the banning of Deutsche Reichspartei and several other nationalist groups. There have been four failed attempts to ban the party, such as due to claimed National Socialism, illegal in Germany. Despite this, leftist Wikipedia classifies it as "Neo-Nazi". The party is the owner of the publisher Deutsche-Stimme-Verlag, with activities including publishing the former newspaper and now magazine Deutsche Stimme (de).
Contents
Platform and philosophy
The NPD's political philosophy coincides with the notion of a third political position, an idea which developed amidst criticisms of both liberal capitalism and communism. The NPD also endorses certain beliefs about human nature. NPD leader Udo Voigt states that the philosophy of the NPD differs from both communism and social liberalism in that it acknowledges people as unequal products of their societies and environments, largely governed by what is called natural law. Voigt states that the party is also influenced by the views of modern ethologists such as Konrad Lorenz and Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt.
The NPD 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, but it does not oppose private property. They discredit and reject the liberal-capitalist system.
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 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 national parties.
The NPD's platform says that Germany is larger than the present-day Federal Republic, and calls for revision of the post-war border concessions. At one point, a map of Germany was shown on the party website omitting the border that divides Germany from Austria. The NPD also refuse to colour in the Oder-Neisse Line, territory that was stolen from Germany at Versailles and 1945, the border which established the limits of federal Germany to the east and was agreed upon with Poland in 1990.
History
Early history
The NPD achieved success in the late 1960s, winning local government seats across West Germany. In 1966 and 1967, it won 15 seats in Bavaria, 10 in lower Saxony, 8 in Hesse, and several other seats. However, it 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 the closest to that goal in the 1969 election, when it got 4.3 percent of the vote. An economic downturn, frustrations with the emerging leftist youth counter-culture and the emergence of a coalition government between 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) helped pave the way for those NPD gains. The coalition government had created a vacuum in the traditional political right wing, which the NPD tried to fill.
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
Electoral history
In the 2004 state election in Saxony, the NPD won 9.2 % of the overall vote. The NPD currently sends 8 representatives to the Saxony state parliament, the Landtag, having lost 4 representatives in the 2009 elections. The NPD maintained a non-competition agreement with the German People's Union (DVU) between 2004 and 2009. The third white 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.[1]
In the 2005 federal elections, the NPD received 1.6 percent of the vote nationally. It garnered the highest percent of votes in the states of Saxony (4.9 percent), Thuringia (3.7 percent), Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (3.5 percent) and Brandenburg (3.2 percent). In most other states, the party won around 1 percent of the total votes cast. In the 2006 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state election, the NPD received 7.3 % of the vote and thus achieved state representation there, as well.[2]
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 about 7,000.[3]
The 2001–2003 banning attempt
In 2001, the federal government driven by jews, the Bundestag, and the Bundesrat jointly attempted to ban the NPD in a trial before the Federal Constitutional Court, the Bundesverfassungsgericht, the highest court in Germany with the exclusive power to ban parties if they are found to be "anti-constitutional". However, the case was thrown out in 2003 after it was discovered that a number of the NPD's inner circle were in fact 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 government assemblies 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 party was, in part, responding to the government's dictates”, the court said. “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.
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). Between 2004 and 2009 the two parties had agreed not to compete against each other in elections. However, world jewry again acted and on 27 January 2011, the Munich Landgericht (regional court) in a preliminary injunction declared the merger null and void.
Marking of world war 2 allied war crime- Bombing of Dresden
On 21 January 2005, during a silence in the Saxon state assembly in Dresden to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the National Socialist Auschwitz working camp, twelve members of the NPD walked out in protest. The NPD was upset that a moment of silence was being held for those who died in the Auschwitz camp and that none was being given for those who died during the criminal 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 of America and Britain mass murderers because of their role in the bombing.
Previous leader Udo Voigt voiced his support and reiterated the 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. 6,000 people took part in the event.
Party leaders
- Friedrich Thielen (de) 1964–1967
- Adolf von Thadden (de) 1967–1971
- Martin Mussgnug (de) 1971–1990
- Günter Deckert (de) 1991–1996
- Udo Voigt (de) 1996–2011
- Holger Apfel 2011–2013
- Udo Pastörs (de) 2013–2014
- Frank Franz (de) 2014–present
See also
- Frank Rennicke, also called National bard of Germany, a member of the NPD
- Junge Nationaldemokraten, NPDs youth organization.
External links
- NPD official site
- Deutsche Stimme
- Brief history of the NPD and an interview with Udo Voigt (archive)
- American Friends of the NPD
References
- ↑ Kerstin Lorenz, ehem. Landeschefin der Republikaner in Sachsen, tritt in die NPD ein! http://www.wno.org/newpages/par46b.html
- ↑ update. BBC News (18 September 2006). Retrieved on 19 April 2012.
- ↑ Verfassungsschutzbericht 2008. [1] (May 2009). Retrieved on 23 August 2009. “Mit rund 7.000 Mitgliedern verzeichnete die NPD im Vergleich zum Vorjahr (7.200) einen leichten Rückgang, bleibt jedoch mitgliederstärkste Partei im rechtsextremistischen Spektrum.”
