The Homeland Die Heimat | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Party Chairman | Peter Schreiber |
| Founder |
|
| Founded | 28 November 1964; 60 years ago (1964-11-28) |
| Merger of | |
| Headquarters | Carl-Arthur-Bühring-Haus, Seelenbinderstrasse 42, 12555Berlin |
| Newspaper | Deutsche Stimme |
| Youth wing | Junge Nationalisten[4] |
| Membership |  3,000 (2022est.)[5] |
| Ideology | Neo-Nazism[6][7][8][9][10][11] German ultranationalism[11] |
| Political position | Far-right[12] |
| European affiliation | Alliance for Peace and Freedom |
| European Parliament group | Non-Inscrits |
| Colours |
|
| Slogan | Die soziale Heimatpartei ('The Social Homeland Party') |
| Bundestag | 0 / 709 |
| Bundesrat | 0 / 69 |
| State Parliaments | 0 / 1,821 |
| European Parliament | 0 / 96 |
| Party flag | |
 | |
| Website | |
| die-heimat.de | |
National Democratic Party of Germany (German:Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands,NPD), officially calledThe Homeland (German:Die Heimat) since 2023, is afar-right,neo-Nazi andultranationalist political party in Germany. It was founded in 1964 as successor to theGerman Reich Party (German:Deutsche Reichspartei, DRP). Party statements also self-identified the party as Germany's "only significant patriotic force" (2012).[14] On 1 January 2011, the nationalistGerman People's Union 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".[15]
As aneo-Nazi organization,[16][17] it has been referred to as "the most significant neo-Nazi party to emerge after 1945".[18] The GermanFederal 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,[19][20] while theFederal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany's domestic security agency, classifies The Homeland as a "threat to the constitutional order" because of itsplatform and ideology, and it is under their observation.[21] An effort to outlaw the party failed in 2003, as the government had many informers and agents in the party, some in high position, who had written part of the material used against them.[22] Since its founding in 1964, the party has never managed to win enough votes on the federal level to cross Germany's 5% minimum threshold for representation in theBundestag; 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 ofSaxony andMecklenburg-Vorpommern between 2004 and 2011.[23] Since 2016, The Homeland has not been represented in state parliaments.Udo Voigt led the NPD from 1996 to 2011.[21] He was succeeded byHolger Apfel,[24] who in turn was replaced byUdo Pastörs in December 2013. In November 2014, Pastörs was ousted andFrank Franz became the party's leader. Voigt was elected the party's firstMember of the European Parliament in 2014. The party lost the seat in the2019 European Parliament election. In June 2023, the party renamed itself toDie Heimat after a party vote.[25][26]
On 23 January 2024, theFederal Constitutional Court excluded the party fromparty funding for six years, arguing that it continued to oppose the fundamental principles that are indispensable for the free democratic constitutional state and aimed to eliminate them.[27]
In the 1950s, despite the lack of completede-Nazification, early right-wing extremist parties inWest Germany failed to attract voters away from the moderate government that had presided over Germany's recovery.[28]
Adolf von Thadden, an artillery officer inWorld War II and Nazi Party member,[29] was active in far-right politics in the West Germany and was elected to the Bundestag in 1949. Thadden supportedWerner Naumann, an associate ofJoseph Goebbels, after his arrest and included him on theDeutsche Reichspartei's (DRP) list of candidates for the1953 election. However, the government removed Naumann as a candidate and the party only received around 1% of the vote. Thadden then worked withWilhelm Meinberg, a NaziReichstag member and recipient of theGolden Party Badge, and Heinrich Kunstmann, who joined the Nazi Party beforeAdolf Hitler. Both Meinberg and Kunstmann served as chairs of the DRP. Thadden replaced Kunstmann as chair in 1961 after continued electoral failures.[30] Thadden's DRP allied with theBHE andGerman Party (DP) for the 1951 Bremen elections as none of the parties were strong enough to win on their own. This alliance received 5.2% of the vote and gained 4 seats in thebürgerschaft.[31]
On 28 November 1964, around 600 people met in the banqueting hall of the Döhrener Maschpark inn inBonn at the invitation ofFriedrich Thielen. The National Democratic Party of Germany was formed at this meeting and 437 of those in attendance became members[32] although they were allowed to maintain their membership in other parties.[33] Thielen was selected to be chair of the party.[32] Thadden, who proposed the unification of Germany's far-right parties, was made deputy chair. The newspaper he co-owned,Deutsche Nachrichten became the NPD's newspaper.[34] The DRP, BHE, DP, andGerman National People's Party merged into the NPD. The NPD was organised in 196 of 248 federal election districts by April 1965. The party's first convention was held on 7–9 May 1965 in Hannover with 1,007 delegates and 2,000 non-delegates in attendance while. The party's membership of 7,500 was far smaller than theChristian Democratic Union (CDU)'s 390,000 andSocial Democratic Party's 700,000.[35] 8 of the NDP's 18 national committee members were former members of the NSDAP.[36]
Thadden believed that 30% of the national voting public were undecided and that 15% could be swayed to support the NPD in the1965 federal election. He launched a national car convey for the campaign starting in Cologne. Thielen and other members of the party laid wreathes on the graves of Nazi war criminals atLandsberg Prison. High profile people joined the party, such as Olympic gold medalistFrank Schepke and rocket pioneerHermann Oberth. The NPD received 2% of the vote, below the 5% needed to gain seats and the 15% claimed in party propaganda.[37][38]
Thadden served as 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.[39] A rise in unemployment from 105,000 in August 1966, to 673,000 in February 1967, helped the NDP grow and earn 8 seats in theLandtag of Hesse[40] and became the third-largest party in theLandtag of Bavaria with 15 seats.[41]
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 tripartiteGrand Coalition among the centre-rightChristian Democratic Union (CDU), theChristian Social Union (the CDU's present-day sister party), and the centre-leftSocial Democratic Party (SPD). The coalition government had created a vacuum in the traditionalpolitical right wing, which the NPD tried to fill.[39] Additionally, the party benefited from hostility to thegrowing immigrant population and fears that the government would relinquish claims to the "lost territories" (pre-World War II German territory east of the Oder-Neisse River).[42] However, the growing popularity of theKiesinger cabinet and improvements in the economy, with unemployment falling to 576,000 in March 1967, harmed the NDP's electoral prospects.[43]
In late 1967, Thielen wanted somebody other than Thadden to lead the party in Lower Saxony, but Thadden ignored this and was elected chair on 5 February. The former chair, Lothar Kühne, andFritz Winkelmann [de] sued stating that Thadden was in violation of the NDP's bylaws. The court ruled in Kühne's favour on 8 March, and restored him as chair. On 10 March, Thielen had Thadden expelled from the party alongside seven other members, but the next day Thadden used his allies in the executive committee to expel Thielen[44][45] and Harbord Grone-Endebrock, an ally of Thadden, was made chair in Lower Saxony.[46] Thielen broke away to form the Nationale Volkspartei (NVP), but only a few hundred of the NPD's 25,000 members joined him.Franz Florian Winter [de], the chair of the Bavarian affiliate, resigned a few months later stating that the party was under the control of right-wing extremists.[44][47] At the NDP's 3rd national convention in November 1967, Thadden was elected chair by 93% of the delegates.[48]
The NDP received 4.3% of the vote in the1969 federal election, but failed to gain any seats.[49] When the grand coalition fell apart, around 75 percent of those who had voted for the NPD drifted back to the centre-right. During the 1970s, the NPD went into decline, suffering from an internal split over failing to get into theGerman Parliament. The issue ofimmigration 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.[39]
In the2004 state election in Saxony, the NPD won 9.2% of the overall vote. Afterthe 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 in the2014 state election. They also lost all representation in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the2016 state election.
The NPD maintained a non-competition agreement with theGerman 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.[50]
In the2005 federal elections, the NPD received 1.6 percent of the vote nationally. It garnered the highest percent of votes in the states ofSaxony (4.9 percent),Thuringia (3.7 percent),Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (3.5 percent) andBrandenburg (3.2 percent), all formerly part ofEast Germany. In most other states, the party won around 1 percent of the total votes cast. In the2006 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state election, the NPD received 7.3% of the vote and thus achieved state representation there, as well.[51]
The NPD had 5,300 registered party members in 2004.[52] 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 the party's membership is estimated at 7,000.[53]
In the2014 European elections, Udo Voigt was elected as the party's firstMember of the European Parliament.[54]
In September 2019, NPD politicianStefan Jagsch was elected as representative ofAltenstadt-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 centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), whose local council members had voted for Jagsch.[55][56]
In 2001, the federal government, theBundestag, and theBundesrat jointly attempted to have theFederal 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 theBasic 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 federalBundesamt 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.[57]
Horst Mahler, a former member of the far-left terrorist organizationRed Army Faction, defended the NPD in court. In May 2009, several state politicians published an extensive document[58] 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.
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 inEisenach. Authorities were also pursuing a gun case against Ralf Wohlleben, former deputy chairman of the party's branch inThuringia, though the latter case was reportedly unlikely to translate into a national-level challenge to the party's legal standing.[59] The likelihood of success of renewed banning attempts has been questioned, given theOffice for the Protection of the Constitution has over 130 informants in the party, some in high positions, raising the question of whether the party is effectively controlled by the government.[60]
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.[61] In March 2013 the Merkel government said it would not try to ban the NPD.[62]
German officials again tried to outlaw the NPD by submitting a request to the Federal Constitutional Court in 2016.[63]
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.[64] The Court also indirectly suggested that state grants or other financial contributions should not be given to such parties to further their unconstitutional cause.[64] This prompted calls by the public for the proposal of aconstitutional amendment which would forbid unconstitutional parties' financing to the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany. The proposal was criticized by the interior policy spokesman ofDie Linke,[65] who claimed that such a constitutional amendment could stand to serve as a politically dubious way to remove a political opponent. Constitutional law professorHans Herbert von Arnim [de] warned that such a constitutional amendment would apply to all extra-parliamentary parties, not just the NPD.[65]
The German legislative bodies then created the possibility of a funding freeze for parties after the second NPD ban procedure failed in 2017. In 2019, theBundestag,Bundesrat andfederal government jointly submitted a proposal to exclude the NPD from state funding. In January 2024 the Federal Constitutional Court allowed the freezing of state funding for six years, saying that the party "aimed to undermine or eliminate the country's democratic system".[66]
The GermanFederal Constitutional Court, in its verdict, considered the party's demand for a referendum on thereintroduction of capital punishment as anti-constitutional and incompatible with theliberal democratic basic order.[67]
At the 2010 NPD party conference at Bamberg it was announced that the party would ask its members to approve a merger with theGerman People's Union (DVU).[68] After the merger on 1 January 2011, the combined party briefly used the nameNPD – Die Volksunion (NPD - The People's Union).[15] Between 2004 and 2009 the two parties had agreed not to compete against each other in elections. However, on 27 January 2011, Munich'sLandgericht (regional court) in apreliminary injunction declared the mergernull and void.[69]
The Homeland has recently[when?] supported thegreen movement. This is one of many strategies the party has used to try to gain supporters. Historically the opposing party theGerman Greens have fully supported the green movement in Germany.[70] The German Greens group was a successful European ecological group that began in 1980. Kate Connolly who is a correspondent forThe 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.[70] TheArtaman 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 theNazis.[70] This farming movement affected theMecklenburg 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.[70]
The NPD'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.[70] Hans-Gunter Laimer, a farmer who ran for office 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.[70] The Homeland supporters of the green movement are in favor of local produce. However, they are againstGMOS,pesticides, andintensive livestock.[70] Organizations 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 organization 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 customers because left-leaning supporters worry buying local organic produce is supporting the far-right extremist.[70]
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".[70] 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.[70] The representative stated the goal of the NPD is to build bridges between citizens. The NPD is strategic in the way they are going about this in a subtle quite manner. The result the NPD is trying to achieve is to reinforce the division between the two political parties for when NPD no longer becomes associated with politics.[70]
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The party renamed itself toDie Heimat ("The Homeland") at the party congress inRiesa in early June 2023. 77% voted in favor of the name change.[25]
The Party didn't run in the2025 German federal election.
The Homeland is aneo-Nazi political party.[16][17] It calls itself a party of "grandparents and grandchildren" because the1960s generation in Germany, known for the leftiststudent movement, strongly opposes the NPD's policies. The NPD's economic program promotessocial security for Germans and control againstplutocracy. They discredit and reject the "liberal-capitalist system".[73]
The Homeland’sforeign policy outlook is characterized byultra-nationalism,revisionism, andisolationism. The party views the defense and restoration of national sovereignty as the guiding principle of its foreign policy and opposes international organizations, norms, and alliances that it believes infringe upon Germany’s national sovereignty.[74] The Homeland argues thatNATO fails to represent the interests and needs of European people. The party considers theEuropean Union to be little more than a reorganization of aSoviet-style government of Europe along financial lines.[75] Although highly critical of the EU, as long as Germany remains a part of it, The Homeland opposesTurkey's incorporation into the organization. Voigt envisions future collaboration and continued friendly relations with other nationalists andEuropean nationalist parties. The Homeland is stronglyanti-Zionist, frequently criticizing the policies and activities ofIsrael.[76]
The Homeland's platform asserts that Germany is larger than the present-day Federal Republic, and calls for a return ofGerman territory lost after World War II, a foreign policy position abandoned by the German government in 1990.[7]
In the early 21st century, long-standing efforts to ban the party were renewed.[77] The 2005 report of theFederal Office for the Protection of the Constitution contains the following description:
The party continues to pursue a "people's front" of the nationalists [consisting of] the 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 ofparliamentary democracy and thedemocratic 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 isracist,antisemitic,homophobic,revisionist, and intends to disparage the democratic and lawful order of the constitution.[78]
Josef Truxa, the chair of the NDP in Munich, denied on 18 June 1965, that the Nazis committed any crimes and that it was propaganda by Jews.[79]
In June 2012, several NPD members of Saxony's parliament attended the parliament's sittings wearing clothing fromThor 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's members remove and replace their attire; the NPD's members refused, resulting in the members being expelled from the parliament and banned from attending the next three parliamentary sittings.[80] The NPD members denied accusations that they wore the shirts as a deliberate provocation.[80]
In 2005, the Landtag of Saxony held aminute of silence for thevictims of Nazi Germany.Holger Apfel, leader of the NPD inSaxony and deputy leader of the party nationwide, boycotted the remembrance along with 11 other NPD politicians and staged a walkout from the Landtag chamber. He also gave a speech in which he demanded a moment of silence be held for the victims of thebombing of Dresden in 1945 and called theAllies of World War II "mass murderers", stating that "Today we in this parliament are taking up the political battle for historical truth, and against the servitude of guilt of the German people... The causes of the holocaust bombing of Dresden have nothing to do with either1 September 1939 or with30 January 1933." Apfel's speech caused politicians from other parties in the Landtag to walk out in protest.[81]
Udo Voigt voiced his support for Apfel's and reiterated the statement, which some controversially claimed was a violation of the German law which forbidsHolocaust denial. However, after a judicial review, it was decided that Voigt's description of the Allied bombing of Dresden as a "holocaust" was an exercise of free speech and "defamation of the dead" was not the purpose of his statement.[82]
In 2009, the NPD joined theJunge 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.[83][84]
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, musicianKonstantin Wecker tried to set up an in-schoolanti-fascist concert inHalberstadt, 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."[85] 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. TheSocial Democrats and theGreens were outraged by the decision, which theCentral Council of Jews in Germany criticized as "politically bankrupt".
The NPD was going to sponsor a march throughLeipzig on 21 June 2006, as the2006 World Cup was going on. The party wanted to show its support for theIranian national football team, which was playing inLeipzig, andIranian PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad. However, the NPD decided against the demonstration; only a counter-demonstration took place that day, in support ofIsrael.[86] During the World Cup, the party's web site stated that due to the prevalence of people of non-German descent on theGermany 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!"[87] 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 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 Germany 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 convicted ofVolksverhetzung (incitement to hatred). Voigt and Beier were sentenced to 7 months of probation, and Schwerdt was sentenced to 10 months of probation.[88]
In November 2008, shortly after the2008 United States presidential election, the NPD published a document entitled "Africa conquers the White House" which stated that the election ofBarack Obama as the firstAfrican-AmericanPresident of the United States was the result of "the American alliance ofJews andNegroes" and that Obama aimed to destroy theUnited 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."[89][90][91]
In September 2009, another incident involving the NPD and a football player of the Germany national team was reported. In a television show of a regional channel, NPD spokesman Beier called midfielderMesut Özil a "Plaste-Deutscher" ("Plastic German" or "ID Card German"), meaning someone who is not born German, but becomes German by naturalization, particularly for certain benefits. TheGerman Football Association announced that they would immediately file a lawsuit against the NPD and their spokesman, if requested by Özil.[92]
During theGaza War in 2009, the NPD planned a "Holocaust" vigil forGaza in support of thePalestinians. Charlotte Knobloch, the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said "joint hatred of everything Jewish is unifying neo-Nazis andIslamists." Knobloch claimed German-Palestinian protestors "unashamedly admitted" that they would vote for the NPD during the next election.[93]
In 2009, the NPD hunganti-Polish posters withslogan"Polen-Invasion Stoppen" ("Stop the Polish invasion") inDresden andGörlitz. Mayor of Görlitz and thenChancellor of Germany,Angela Merkel, condemned the posters.[94][95]
In April 2009, the party was fined 2.5 millioneuros for filing incorrect financial statements, resulting, according to German broadcasterDeutsche Welle, in "serious financial trouble" for its administration.[96]
On 23 September 2009, four days before thefederal elections, German police raided the Berlin headquarters of the NPD to investigate claims that letters sent from the NPD to politicians from immigrant backgroundsincited 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."[97][98][99][100]
On 24 June 2024, it was announced that two parliamentary groups consisting of members of theAfD andDie Heimat had been formed in theBrandenburg town ofLauchhammer and the district ofOberspreewald-Lausitz. In Lauchhammer, the joint parliamentary group will be represented in the town council under the name "AfDplus", while the "Heimat & Zukunft" parliamentary group has been formed in the district council of Oberspreewald-Lausitz. Thomas Gürtler fromDie Heimat will play a leading role in both bodies. This development is seen as the first official coalition between the AfD and the far-right partyDie Heimat. The formation of the parliamentary groups was supported by statements made by AfD chairmanTino Chrupalla, who emphasised that there would be no "firewalls" to other parties at local level.[101]
| Leader | Tenure | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Friedrich Thielen | 1964–1967 |
| 2 | Adolf von Thadden | 1967–1971 |
| 3 | Martin Mussgnug | 1971–1990 |
| 4 | Günter Deckert | 1991–1996 |
| 5 | Udo Voigt | 1996–2011 |
| 6 | Holger Apfel | 2011–2013 |
| 7 | Udo Pastörs | 2013–2014 |
| 8 | Frank Franz | 2014–2024 |
| 9 | Peter Schreiber | 2024-present |
Junge Nationalisten (short:JN; until 13 January 2018Junge Nationaldemokraten) is the official youth organization of the party, founded in 1967. According to The Homeland's statutes, the JN are an "integral part" of the party.[102]
The JN are committed to the basic program of the party, 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 calledThe Activist.[103] 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 Homeland 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".[104] The JN describe themselves as anti-imperialist. Among other things, they call for the withdrawal of German troops from Afghanistan,[105] describe Israel as the "enemy of all peoples", and refer to it as becoming a parasitic state.[106]
The JN maintains active contacts with a network of neo-Nazi organizations across Europe, like theNordic Resistance Movement whoseFinnish independence day march it has attended, along withNational Corps of Ukraine,Bulgarian National Union,Serbian Action and others.[107][108]
In mid-September 2006,the Homeland founded a nationwide women's organisation, theRing Nationaler Frauen (RNF). The party sub-organisation withinthe Homeland aims to act as a voice for female party members and provide a contact point for women who share nationalist views but are not affiliated with any political party.[109] Since late May 2017,Antje Mentzel has served as the national chairperson of this organization.
The Homeland runs its own "security service" (Ordungsdienst). The group is led by Manfred Börm.[110]
The Homeland has had various newspapers throughout its history. The official press organ was initially theDeutsche Nachrichten. After a merger with theDeutsche Wochen-Zeitung (DWZ), bought by publisher andDVU chairmanGerhard Frey in 1986, it was renamed Deutsche Wochen-Zeitung -Deutscher Anzeiger. In 1999, it was merged with theNational-Zeitung, also published by Frey. TheNational-Zeitung was discontinued in 2019.[111]
The party's current press organ isDeutsche Stimme, which has been published since 1976 and currently has a monthly circulation of 10,000. There are also regional and local publications such asSachsen-Stimme andZündstoff-Nachrichten.
The NPD's party assets were only small. At the end of 2005, property worth around 700,000 euros was offset by a loan, guarantee and credit burden of around one million euros.[112]
The Homeland holds a 100 per cent stake inDeutsche Stimme Verlags GmbH inRiesa. The publishing house, originally based in Bavaria, publishes the party newspaperDeutsche Stimme as its main product.
The party is dependent on donations due to its low financial reserves. Its income from contributions amounts to only half a million euros and it receives around one million euros from donations and contributions from elected representatives.[112] In 2005, the NPD received seven donations totalling more than 10,000 euros, mainly from its own Members of Parliament.
In late 2006, it was revealed that the GermanBundestag administration demanded the return of approximately 870,000 euros inparty financing from the party due to the issuance of fraudulent donation receipts in the Thuringia state association after 1996. These irregularities led to higher party financing, with false donations accounting for six percent of the total in 1997 and ten percent in 1998. Consequently, the Bundestag administration deemed the financial reports for these years to be significantly incorrect, leading to the complete recovery of the funding for those years.[113][114] As a result of this financial crisis, the party dismissed ten of its twelve employees at the federal headquarters. Additionally, reports indicated that much of The Homeland's real estate assets were heavily mortgaged, potentially rendering them unusable as collateral for future party financing payments.[115]
Voigt has held meetings with various proponents ofwhite nationalism, includingDavid Duke, aUSwhite nationalist, author, politician, and activist.[116] Between 1989 and 1992, theInternational Third Position began to ally itself with the NPD in Germany andForza Nuova inItaly.[117]
They have been in contact withYouth Defence, the Irish anti-abortion group, since 1996.[118]Justin Barrett, former leader of Youth Defence and former president of theNational Party of Ireland, has spoken at their events in Passau in 2000.[119][120][121]
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The Homeland has also links with the Romanianneo-Legionary groupNoua Dreaptă.[122]
The party has links with theAlliance for Peace and Freedom a European political alliance since 2015.
The party also has connections withfar-right parties and politicians inCroatia. In 2017, according to Dražen Keleminec, president of the marginal far-rightAutochthonous 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 presidentDonald Trump. During the march, the party's members, dressed in black uniforms, waved NPD and American flags while shouting theUstasha saluteZa dom spremni. The following day, theU.S. embassy inZagreb reacted by publishing a statement in which they strongly condemned the march and rejected any attempts to connect the United States with Ustasha ideology.[123]
In 2018, Croatian far-right MPŽeljko Glasnović took part in the NPD party congress in the town ofBüdingen, and expressed his support for the party.[124]
| Election year | Constituency | Party list | Seats won | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | +/– | Votes | % | +/– | ||
| 1965 | 587,216 | 1.8 |  1.8 | 664,193 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 0 / 518 |
| 1969 | 1,189,375 | 3.6 | 1.8 | 1,422,010 | 4.3 | 2.3 | 0 / 518 |
| 1972 | 194,389 | 0.5 | 3.1 | 207,465 | 0.6 | 3.7 | 0 / 518 |
| 1976 | 136,023 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 122,661 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0 / 518 |
| 1980 | 68,096 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0 / 497 | |||
| 1983 | 57,112 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 91,095 | 0.2 |  0.0 | 0 / 498 |
| 1987 | 182,880 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 227,054 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0 / 497 |
| 1990 | 190,105 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 145,776 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0 / 662 |
| 1998 | 45,043 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 126,571 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0 / 669 |
| 2002 | 103,209 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 215,232 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0 / 603 |
| 2005 | 857,777 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 748,568 | 1.6 | 1.2 | 0 / 614 |
| 2009 | 768,442 | 1.8 | 0.0 | 635,525 | 1.5 | 0.1 | 0 / 620 |
| 2013 | 634,842 | 1.5 | 0.3 | 560,828 | 1.3 | 0.2 | 0 / 630 |
| 2017 | 45,239 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 176,715 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 0 / 709 |
| 2021 | 1,089 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 64,608 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0 / 709 |
| 2025 | 216020 | 0.83 | 0.53 | ||||
| Election | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | EP Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | 198,633 | 0.80 (#7) | 0 / 81 | New | – |
| 1989 | Did not contest | 0 / 81 | 0 | ||
| 1994 | 77,227 | 0.22 (#19) | 0 / 99 | 0 | |
| 1999 | 107,662 | 0.40 (#10) | 0 / 99 | 0 | |
| 2004 | 241,743 | 0.94 (#11) | 0 / 99 | 0 | |
| 2009 | Did not contest | 0 / 81 | 0 | ||
| 2014 | 301,139 | 1.03 (#11) | 1 / 99 | 1 | NI |
| 2019[125] | 101,323 | 0.27 (#16) | 0 / 99 | 1 | – |
| 2024 | 41,006 | 0.10 (#27) | 0 / 99 | 0 | |
| State | Seats / Total | % | Position/Gov. | Year | Lead Candidate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baden-Württemberg | 12 / 127 | 9.82 (#3) | Opposition | 1968 | Wilhelm Gutmann |
| Bavaria | 15 / 204 | 7.42 (#3) | Opposition | 1966 | Siegfried Pöhlmann |
| Berlin[i] | 0 / 149 | 2.56 (#8) | No seats | 2006 | Udo Voigt |
| Brandenburg[i] | 0 / 88 | 2.56 (#6) | No seats | 2009 | Klaus Beier |
| Bremen | 8 / 100 | 8.8 (#4) | Opposition | 1967 | Otto-Theodor Brouwer |
| Hamburg | 0 / 120 | 3.9 (#4) | No seats | 1966 | unknown |
| Hesse | 8 / 96 | 7.9 (#4) | Opposition | 1966 | Heinrich Fassbender |
| Lower Saxony | 10 / 149 | 7.0 (#3) | Opposition | 1967 | Adolf von Thadden |
| Mecklenburg-Vorpommern[i] | 6 / 71 | 7.3 (#5) | Opposition | 2006 | Udo Pastörs |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 0 / 200 | 1.08 (#4) | No seats | 1970 | unknown |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | 4 / 100 | 6.9 (#4) | Opposition | 1967 | Fritz May |
| Saarland | 0 / 51 | 4.0 (#5) | No seats | 2004 | Peter Marx |
| Saxony[i] | 12 / 124 | 9.2 (#4) | Opposition | 2004 | Holger Apfel |
| Saxony-Anhalt[i] | 0 / 105 | 4.6 (#5) | No seats | 2011 | Matthias Heyder |
| Schleswig-Holstein | 4 / 73 | 5.85 (#4) | Opposition | 1967 | Karl-Ernst Lober |
| Thuringia[i] | 0 / 90 | 4.3 (#6) | No seats | 2009 | Frank Schwerdt |
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.
Das neonazistische Spektrum hat seinen Einfluss innerhalb der NPD ausgebaut.
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" [Neo-Nazis in the NPD on the rise].Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). 19 May 2009. Archived fromthe original on 18 December 2009. Retrieved8 November 2023.
Das neonazistische Spektrum hat seinen Einfluss innerhalb der NPD ausgebaut.[The neo-Nazi spectrum has expanded its influence within the NPD.]*"Verfassungsschutzbericht 2010". German Ministry of the Interior. p. 67."Die ethnisch homogene „Volksgemeinschaft“ stellt für sie das Kernelement dar. ("The ethnically homogeneous 'national community' represents the core element for them.")
Auch zeigte sich die NPD nun bereit, mit radikalen Kräften aus dem parteiungebundenen Spektrum zusammenzuarbeiten. Formal gilt nach wie vor ein Unvereinbarkeitsbeschluss der NPD-Mitgliedschaft mit der Mitgliedschaft in verbotenen Gruppierungen. Faktisch jedoch setzt sich die NPD mit ihrer Strategie bewusst über die offizielle Verlautbarung hinweg. Die NPD wolle in Zukunft mit denjenigen zusammenzuarbeiten, die dazu bereit seien, 'als politische Soldaten zu denken und zu handeln', so die neue Strategie.
Die Kooperation zwischen der NPD und den Freien Nationalisten (Angehörige von neonazistischen Kameradschaften) prägt das Auftreten der Partei im niedersächsischen Landtagswahlkampf. Bekannte Neonazis treten für die NPD als Direktkandidaten an, z.B. Dennis BÜHRIG in Bergen, Klaus HELLMUND in Celle, Mathias BEHRENS in Soltau oder Dieter RIEFLING in Hildesheim.
Mit rund 7.000 Mitgliedern verzeichnete die NPD im Vergleich zum Vorjahr (7.200) einen leichten Rückgang, bleibt jedoch mitgliederstärkste Partei im rechtsextremistischen Spektrum.
Justin Barrett was an honorary guest at our event in Passau. I invited him. He sat with the delegates," said Mr Holger Apfel, the deputy leader of the NPD. "We have been in contact with his group since 1996. We are friendly with his Youth Defence organisation.
A leading far-right politician in Germany has described the anti-abortion group Youth Defence as "an important part of our international network". Youth Defence is the backbone of the No to Nice Campaign, whose chief spokesman is Mr Justin Barrett.
Mr Barrett, who earlier this week declined to confirm or deny to The Irish Times his attendance at the meeting in the Bavarian city of Passau in May 2000, yesterday admitted he attended the conference, as well as an estimated two other events linked to the NPD.
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