German National Movement in Liechtenstein

Nazi groups had existed in Liechtenstein since 1933, primarily because of the rise of Nazi Germany in and the introduction of anti-Jewish laws in the country Liechtenstein experienced a large rise Jewish emigrants to the country.[3][4]

The VDBL itself formed after the Anschluss of Austria in 1938, advocating for the integration of Liechtenstein into the Greater German Reich. The organization disseminated its ideology through its newspaper, Der Umbruch.[5]

A slogan associated with the party was Liechtenstein den Liechtensteinern! (Liechtenstein for the Liechtensteiners!). This implied a radical populism that would threaten the allegiance of the people of Liechtenstein to ruling Prince of Liechtenstein Franz Josef II.

The party offered Patriotic Union leader Otto Schaedler leadership of the party primarily due to his contacts with Nazi Germany, but he refused and distanced himself from the party.[6]

In March 1939, the VDBL staged an amateurish coup attempt, first trying to provoke a German intervention by burning swastikas, followed by declaring an Anschluß with Germany. The leaders were almost immediately arrested and the hoped-for German invasion failed to materialise.[1][7]

In the wake of World War II the governing Progressive Citizens' Party and opposition Patriotic Union formed a coalition, assigning a roughly equal number of seats each, in order to prevent the VBDL from acquiring any seats in the Landtag.[8][9]

The inability of the party to participate in the 1939 elections (after a pact between the main parties to keep the election date a secret), combined with the drastic decrease in Nazi sympathies following the outbreak of World War II led to a temporary demise of the party. However, in June 1940 it was reconstituted under the leadership of Alfons Goop. During 1941 and 1942, the party was involved in vehement anti-Semitic agitation, urging a solution to the country's presumed "Jewish Question," accusing Jewish families in Liechtenstein of spying for the Allies. Until 1943, the party attempted to recruit Liechtensteiners into the Waffen-SS and gain public sympathy for the Nazi cause, which infuriated Switzerland.[10]

By early 1943, the VDBL had become an embarrassment to Germany. Its recruitment for the Waffen-SS compromised Liechtenstein's neutrality, infuriating the Swiss government. The German Ministry of Foreign Affairs in March 1943 forced the VDBL to hold talks with the Patriotic Union (VU), in Friedrichshafen under auspices of the Waffen-SS, in order to reach a fusion of both parties, which shared an anti-Bolshevik and anti-clerical programme. Severely disappointed, Goop resigned as party leader and it was taken over by Theo Schädler. In the end the VU only consented to some "cultural cooperation." When Germany's war fortunes declined, in July 1943 Der Umbruch was forbidden by the authorities.

In 1946, party leaders were prosecuted for the 1939 coup attempt.[11] In 1947, Goop was condemned for high treason and sentenced to a thirty-month imprisonment.[1]