Germany's far-right, populist, xenophobic movements on the rise

Widerstand West (Resistance West)
The militant and openly neo-Nazi group was founded in Aachen in 2001. Many of its younger members display elaborate tattoos. Members of the movement have also created several music groups, which perform blatantly anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, and anti-foreigner songs in concerts at different venues across Germany. The appeal of this music helps explain the relatively high number of young people attracted to the movement. In 2001, members of one of Widerstand West’s affiliated groups —Kamaradschaft Aachener Land (KAL; Fellowship of the Aachen Region) – were arrested for sending an envelope containing fake anthrax to the Jewish community center in Aachen, leading to the banning of KAL in 2012. Many KAL former members are now active in Pro Bewegung.

Pro Bewegung (Pro-movement)
This loose association of small nationalist parties and movements was founded in Cologne in 1996, and became famous for holding large, raucous protest demonstrations called “Pro-Köln” (Pro-Cologne) in the city. The party won seats in the Cologne city council in 2004, but lost them a few years later. The party is extremely anti-Muslim and anti-foreigner, and leads demonstrations and organize petitions against the construction of mosques and, more generally, against what it regards as  the “Islamization of Germany.” Most of the party members are former members of the NPD, DVU, Die Republikaner, or the failed racist movement Deutsche Liga für Volk und Heimat.

Der III. Weg (The Third Way)
The small party was founded in Heidelberg on 28 September 2013 by former officials and members of the NPD and Freies Netz Süd (Open Network South). The German federal authorities regard it as a right-wing extremist organization with violent tendencies. This party claims its ideology goes beyond the old Right-Left division to adopt a nationalist agenda which emphasizes anti-immigration, anti-EU themes.

Anti-Antifa (Anti-Antifascist movement)
The movement was founded in Hamburg in 1992, by neo-Nazi writer Chritian Worch. The groups has about 1,000 followers who engage in noisy public events, especially counter-demonstrations at events organized by leftist groups. The group followers often violently clash with anti-fascist groups at demonstrations.Nationalist German lawyers, who are members of the Das Deutsche Rechtsbüro – DRB (The German Bureau of Rights), provide free legal advice and counseling to Anti-Antifa members who face criminal charges, and offer tips for avoiding legal prosecution.

Ring nationaler Frauen (The Circle of National Women)
German women make up the majority of people who believe in right-wing ideologies, even though men are in the public eye more often. It is thus not surprising that the far-right, ultranationalist party Nationaldemokratische Partei (NPD), on 16 September 2006, founded a women chapter to give a voice to “nationalist-thinking women in the party.”

Groups on the decline
Die Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschland - NPD (The National Democratic Party of Germany)
This party, founded in 1964, has been considered the “establishment” party of the far-right. For twenty-five years, until the unification of Germany, it was active on the margins of German national politics – but saw some success in former East Germany after unification. The NPD could never translate its mid-1990s appeal to disgruntled former East Germans into a national-wide appeal, and has been in steep decline over the last decade and a half, with membership now estimated to be around 5,000 followers. In an attempt to attract younger members, the NPD adopted a more populist, confrontational style – but that has led Germany’s Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe to weigh banning the party altogether on grounds that it was flirting with neo-Nazi ideology. The court’s decision is due next month.

Die Republikaner (The Republicans)
The German Office for the Protection of the Constitution considers this party to be an insignificant actor on the far-right end of the spectrum because many of its 6,000 members have distanced themselves from NPD ideas or other far-right ideologies. The party was founded in Munich in 1983 by disaffected members of the Christian Social Union (CSU) – the Bavarian affiliate of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats – and has been promoting nationalist-populist ideas. The party has won seats on local councils in Bavaria, and its high electoral point was 1994, when it won 7.5 percent in the national election for the European Parliament – but it has been declining ever since. Because the party’s ideology lacks the overtly racist, xenophobic edge of some other groups on the right, it – and the NPD – have both been losing supporters to the more confrontational, in-your-face AfD.

Disbanded or banned
Deutsche Volksunion - DVU (German People’s Union)
DVU was established in 1971 and became a political party in 1987. For thirty-eight years – 1971-2009 – it was led by Gerhard Frey, the group’s founder. The group, and later the party, espoused xenophobic, anti-immigration, anti-Semitic, and neo-Nazi ideology. As a political party, the DVU e saw modest success in several local and regional elections, and once achieved double-digit percentages in Saxony-Anhalt’s state elections. As the group expanded, rifts developed, accompanied by growing dissatisfaction with Frey’s authoritarian style of leadership. After Frey’s 2009 resignation, an effort was made to merge the DVU with NPD, but the effort failed. In 2012 the DVU formally disbanded – as was the case with other extremist groups like Deutsche Reichspartei and the German Social Union — and DVU members joined other groups and organizations.

Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend- HDJ (The homeland-loyal German youth)
This club from the northern German city of Kiel was established in 1994, after the German government banned a similar organization, called Wiking-Jugend (WJ) (Viking Youth), which operated openly in Germany between 1952 and 1994. HDJ tried to inculcate children and teenagers with Nazi ideology through camps, nature hikes, martial arts groups, and intense group brainwashing sessions. The proclaimed goal was to create a neo-Nazi elite to lead Germany in the future. HDJ, and a few other youth-oriented groups, were banned on 31 March 2009, when then-Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble ordered the groups disbanded and banned their activities, based on German laws prohibiting pro-Nazi activities.