Deutsche Reichspartei

The Deutsche Reichspartei (DRP), also known as the German Empire Party or German Imperial Party, was a nationalist, far-right, and later neo-Nazi political party in West Germany. It was founded in 1950 from the German Right Party (German: Deutsche Rechtspartei), which had been set up in Lower Saxony in 1946 and had five members in the first Bundestag, and from which it took the name. Its biggest success and only major breakthrough came in the 1959 Rhineland-Palatinate regional election when it sent deputies to the assembly.[5]

"German Empire Party" and "German Imperial Party" redirect here. For others uses, see DRP.
This article is about the post-war party. For the party that existed in Imperial Germany, also known as the German Reich Party, see Free Conservative Party.
Deutsche Reichspartei
Deutsche Reichspartei
AbbreviationDRP
LeaderHeinrich Kunstmann
Adolf von Thadden
Alexander Andrae
Founded21/22 January 1950[1]
Dissolved1965
Merger ofGerman Right Party[2]
National Democratic Party[3]
Socialist Reich Party[4]
Merged intoNational Democratic Party of Germany[5][6]
NewspaperReichsruf
IdeologyNeo-Nazism
Political positionFar-right
European affiliationNational Party of Europe
Colors  Brown

Prior to its 1952 turn towards explicit neo-Nazism, the DRP advocated German nationalism, pan-Germanism and support of a new Reich, and pan-European nationalism. An anti-communist, antisemitic, and anti-socialist party, its criticism of capitalism was reflected in economic antisemitic terms rather than socialism, in addition to racial antisemitism. When the openly neo-Nazi-oriented Socialist Reich Party (SRP) was declared unconstitutional and disbanded by the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, many of its members joined the DRP.[7] With its lack of success, the party was symbolically liquidated and followed by the establishment of the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD).[5]

Formation

The DRP was established in 1950 when the majority of the Deutsche Rechtspartei (German Reich Party) members of the Bundestag decided to establish a more formal party network under the DRP name.[2] The new party absorbed the National Democrats, a splinter group from Hesse.[3] The party took its name from an earlier group of the same name that had existed during the German Empire period.[5] The initial three deputy chairmen, Wilhelm Meinberg, Otto Hess, and Heinrich Kunstmann, had all been members of the Nazi Party.[5] From 1951, the group published its own newspaper, which was titled Reichsruf (Call of the Reich).[8]

Development

The party moved towards explicit neo-Nazism in 1952, when the Socialist Reich Party (SRP) was declared unconstitutional and disbanded by the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. Much of its membership then joined the DRP.[7] The membership of Hans-Ulrich Rudel in 1953 was seen as marking out the party as the new force of neo-Nazism and he enjoyed close ties to Savitri Devi and Nazi mysticism.[9]

Stability under chancellor Konrad Adenauer of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany and the growth experienced during the Wirtschaftswunder meant that the DRP struggled for support, averaging around only 1% of the national votes in the federal elections of 1953, 1957, and 1961.[5] The party's only major breakthrough came in 1959 in the regional election for Rhineland-Palatinate, where it won 5.1% of the vote and thus was able to send deputies to the assembly.[5]

In 1962, the party took part in an international conference of far-right groups hosted in Venice by Oswald Mosley and signed up as members of his National Party of Europe.[10] This initiative did not take off as Mosley had hoped, as few of the member parties, including the DRP, were interested in changing their name to National Party of Europe, as he had hoped they would.[11] One of the party's last acts in 1964 saw it sponsor a tour of Germany by controversial American historian David Hoggan.[12]

Dissolution

The lack of national success saw the leaders of the DRP seek to extend their influence further, and they made contact with the leaders of other rightist parties, such as the German Party and its successor (following that organisation's merger with the All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights), the Gesamtdeutsche Partei seeking close ties.[13] It was soon decided that a more formal union with other rightist groups was desirable. They held their final party conference in Bonn in 1964 in which they voted to form a new union of "national democratic forces".[5] The party was symbolically liquidated, with the Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (National Democratic Party of Germany, NPD) established immediately afterwards.[5]

See also

References
  1. "Deutsche Reichspartei (DRP)". 6 July 2015. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
  2. Cas Mudde, The Ideology of the Extreme Right, Manchester University Press, 2000, pp. 25–26
  3. Karl Dietrich Bracher, The German Dictatorship, Penguin Books, 1971, p. 581
  4. Siehe Bericht des bayrischen Verfassungsschutzes, Rechtsextremismus: "Mitteilungen". Archived from the original on 2008-05-16. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
  5. Luciano Cheles, Ronnie Ferguson & Michalina Vaughan, Neo-Fascism in Europe, Longman, 1991, p. 71
  6. Horst W. Schmollinger, Richard Stöss, Die Parteien und die Presse der Parteien und Gewerkschaften in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1945–1974, Westdeutscher Verlag 1975, S. 187
  7. Martin A. Lee, The Beast Reawakens, Warner Books, 1998, p. 115
  8. Bracher, The German Dictatorship of Fascists, p. 583
  9. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Black Sun, New York University Press, 2003, pp. 101–102
  10. Goodrick-Clarke, Black Sun, p. 30
  11. Richard Thurlow, Fascism in Britain: A History, 1918-1985, Basil Blackwell, 1987, p. 247
  12. Bracher, The German Dictatorship, p. 588
  13. Mudde, The Ideology of the Extreme Right, p. 26
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