National Democratic Party of Germany

For the East German block party, see National Democratic Party of Germany (East Germany)

The National Democratic Party of Germany (German: Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands, NPD) is a political party in Germany. The party was founded November 28, 1964 as a successor to the German Empire Party: (German: Deutsche Reichspartei, DRP), and since 1996 the party has been led by Udo Voigt. The party colours which are used by the party itself are black-white-red, the colours of the German Empire. The party's opponents identify the party with brown.

History

Efforts were made in the 1960s to have the NPD declared a direct successor to the Nazi Party and disbanded under West German law; however, the Party survived to a large enough extent that it still maintains a presence in German politics to this day. The party has never managed to win the minimum 5% of votes in federal elections that allows a party to send delegates to the Bundestag, but it was represented in several state parliaments in the 1960s and won 9.2% (or 12 representatives to the state parliament, the Landtag) in the 2004 state election in Saxony, after coming into a non-competition agreement with its major rival on the far right, the German People's Union (DVU), which states that only one of the two parties will compete in any given election. The third German far-right party, The Republicans (REP), has so far refused to join this agreement. The NPD had 5,300 registered party members in 2004, compared to 400 in the DVU [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-Western Pomerania (3.5 percent), and Brandenburg (3.2 percent). In most other states, the party won around 1 percent of the total votes cast. [2] The NPD is considered a party of "grandparents and grandchildren", as the sixties generation seldom votes in line with "far right" politics.

Platform and Philosophy

The National Democratic Party and Deutsche Volksunion appeal to ethnic nationalisms and operate primarily on anti-immigration campaigns. Germany's nationalist parties, particularly the Republicans, all place a heavy focus on the concepts of law, order, and punishment. In particular, the NPD states that their philosophy differs from the ideologies of Communism and liberalism in that it acknowledges people as unequal products of their societies and environments, largely governed by the "laws of Nature". The NPD's frontman, Udo Voigt, states that the work of modern sociologists such as Konrad Lorenz and Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt has contributed to their shaping of policy.

According to Voigt, there are four major points regarding the party's "vision of a future Germany":

"Politicians will do their utmost to serve the people, rather than to be served by them."
"Germany will honorably take her place among the world's nations as an equal partner and will no longer tolerate the blackmail methods used by her enemies because of 'the past'."
"There will be a new economic as well as a new social order, which will ensure an honored place for the German family and which will give financial support to young Germans in order to enable them to raise children, the most precious resource of [the country's] people."
"Ausländer (foreigners) will be welcomed as guests, but should live and work in their own countries."

Voigt also envisions future collaboration - and continued friendly relations - with other nationalists and European national parties, such as the Ukrainian National Party.

Recent Banning Attempts

In 2003, the federal government, the Bundestag, and the Bundesrat jointly attempted to ban it in a trial before the Bundesverfassungsgericht, the highest court in Germany and the only institution that has the power to ban parties, if it considers them anti-constitutional. However, the case was thrown out when it was discovered that a large percentage of the leadership were in fact undercover agents or informants of the German secret services. Since these 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. Horst Mahler, a former member of the far left terrorist organisation Red Army Faction, defended the NPD before the court. Former chancellor Gerhard Schröder has suggested that the government should try to place a ban on the party again, but others did not see why it would be any more successful than the previous failed attempt.

Auschwitz and Dresden Bombing Controversy

On 21 January 2005 the discussion on whether to ban the NPD was revived after an incident in the Saxon state assembly in Dresden. During a silence to mark the 60th anniversary of the Soviet take-over of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in the Saxon state assembly in Dresden, 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 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 Landtag in which he called the Allied forces of the USA and Britain "mass murderers" because of their role in the bombing. His colleague, Jürgen Gansel went on to describe the bombing itself as a "holocaust of bombs".

Recent News

The NPD has come under criticism for allegedly exerting party influence by means of "intimidation", creating "fear zones" in areas where their support is the strongest. This tactic is seen by some as an attempt by the NPD to circumvent their marginal electoral status. As also reported by Deutsche Welle, the Party utilized this strategy to prevent a concert by leftist musician Konstantin Wecker in Halberstadt, Saxony-Anhalt, vouching to buy out the tickets and put its followers in attendance at the March 2006 show.

NPD supporters had planned to march around the city of Leipzig on June 21, 2006, in support of the Iranian national football team at the 2006 World Cup match held in the city. Although they intended to show their support of Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the event was cancelled and only a counter demonstration, opposed to the President, actually took place in the city.[3]

During several commemoration minutes in the Saxon Landtag, the entire party of the NPD walked out of the session, because they felt more condolences to German victims rather than to Jewish and foreign victimes of the victims in World War II and the Holocaust.

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