TheGerman Alternative (German:Deutsche Alternative orDA) was a minorNeo-Nazi group set up inGermany byMichael Kühnen in 1989.
Its declared goal was the restoration of theGerman Reich and rejected thecession of German areas in Eastern Europe following World War II and all immigration to Germany, claiming that there were already too many foreigners in the country.[1]
The group was a successor to the short-livedNationale Sammlung, itself set up following Kühnen's removal from theFree German Workers' Party due to his homosexuality.[2] It was constituted as a legal political arm of theGesinnungsgemeinschaft der Neuen Front (GdNF), Kühnen's more militant neo-Nazi organization.[3] After its founding, it received members from the GdNF,Republicans and theNational Democratic Party of Germany (NPD). The complete leadership of the NPD inBerlin andBrandenburg defected to the DA in 1991.[4]
The group organized under the nameNationale Alternative (National Alternative) in the formerEast Germany, withIngo Hasselbach as leader. This guise of the DA organized militia training camps inEast Berlin and established close links with other groups and with international figures such asGary Lauck. However, after around a year of intense activity, this arm of the DA fell apart.[3]
After Kühnen'sAIDS-related death in 1991,Frank Hübner became the organization's new chairman, whileRene Koswig assumed the role as deputy. Both hail from East Germany. This led about eighty members, primarily from the western part of the country, leaving the DA to start theDeutsches Hessen,Nationaler Block,Volkstreue Liste, andDeutscher Weg.[4]
The group was banned in 1992 as were theNationalist Front andNational Offensive[5] following an arson attack on an asylum seekers refuge inMölln,Schleswig-Holstein.[6] At the time, it had 340 members[7] and affiliate organizations inRhineland-Palatinate,Brandenburg,Saxony,Berlin andBremen. InCottbus, it even had more members than theSocial Democratic Party of Germany. The decree banning it lists three attacks on hostel containing refugees for which DA members were arrested for participating in.[4]