Third Way (Germany)

Last updated

The Third Path
Der Dritte Weg
Chairman Matthias Fischer
Founded28 September 2013;10 years ago (2013-09-28)
Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg
Split from NPD, Free Network South
Headquarters Bad Dürkheim, Germany
MembershipIncrease2.svg 700 (2022) est. [1]
Ideology Pan-Germanism
German ultranationalism
Revolutionary nationalism
Neo-Nazism [2] [3]
Neo-fascism

Strasserism
Antisemitism
Third Position
Political position Far-right [4]
Colours  Green
AnthemDer III. Weg Marschiert! [5]
Party flag
Flag of The III. Path.svg
Website
der-dritte-weg.info

The III. Path or The Third Path (German : Der III. Weg, Der Dritte Weg) is a far-right and neo-Nazi political party in Germany. [6] [7]

Contents

It was founded on 28 September 2013 by former NPD officials, and activists from the banned Free Network South. They have ties with Assad's government in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, [8] the National Corps, Misanthropic Division, Right Sector and Svoboda in Ukraine, [9] [10] and the Nordic Resistance Movement in the Nordic countries. [11] Their founder and chairman is Klaus Armstroff. [12] The party mostly operates in Thuringia, Bavaria and Brandenburg. [13]

Video of Third Path demonstration on 15 October 2016 in Fürth

A group of people bearing Der Dritte Weg flags marched in through a town in Saxony on 1 May 2019, the day before the Jewish remembrance of the Holocaust, carrying a banner saying "Social justice instead of criminal foreigners". The Central Council of Jews said that the state government should ban such marches if it were serious about tackling right-wing extremism. [14] The party stood in the 2019 European elections, achieving 0.03% of the vote.

Name

The party is registered at the Federal Returning Office as "DER DRITTE WEG" short-form: "III. Weg". [15] According to the party's website, the official English translation of the name is "The Third Way", stylized as "THE THIRD WAY". [16] Despite this, the party's name is commonly translated as "The Third Path" or "The III. Path". [17] [18]

Ideology

The party describes itself as national revolutionary and partially bases itself on the ideology of the left wing of the Nazi Party, namely the Strasser Brothers. [19] The III. Path has widely been described as a ultranationalist and neo-Nazi party. [2] [3] [9] [18]

10 point program

On its website, the party presents a 10-point election program, available in 12 European languages. [16] [20]

Election results

Federal Parliament (Bundestag)

ElectionConstituencyParty listSeats+/–Status
Votes %Votes %
2021 5150.007,832 (#32)0.02
0 / 631
NewExtra-parliamentary

European Parliament

ElectionVotes %Seats+/–
2019 12,7560.03 (#40)
0 / 96
New

State elections

Year RP
2016 0.09% (1,944)

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Democratic Party of Germany (East Germany)</span> East German political party

The National-Democratic Party of Germany was an East German political party that served as a satellite party to the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) from 1948 to 1989, representing former members of the Nazi Party, the Wehrmacht and middle classes. It should not be confused with the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany, which was a party in West Germany and continues as a minor non-governmental party in the modern united Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Democratic Party of Germany</span> Far-right political party in Germany

The Homeland, previously known as the National Democratic Party of Germany, is a far-right Neo-Nazi and ultranationalist political party in Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Strasserism</span> Economic antisemite strand of Nazism

Strasserism is a strand of Nazism which adheres to revolutionary nationalism and economic antisemitism. It calls for a more radical, mass-action and worker-based movement than what was advocated by the leadership of the Nazi Party. Strasserism derived its name from Gregor and Otto Strasser, two brothers initially associated with this position. Otto Strasser originally led a faction within the Nazi Party, but was expelled from the party in 1930 and created the Black Front as a rival organization. He fled Germany in 1933 and returned after World War II. Strasserism allegedly had a considerable degree of support among the SA, which led to Strasserists being purged by Adolf Hitler during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934, with Gregor Strasser being murdered. In the 1980s, Strasserism again began to play an active role in politics after it found support among some leading members of the National Front party in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holger Apfel</span> German politician

Holger Apfel is a German politician who was the leader of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) from 2011 to 2013. He was a member of the Saxon Parliament between 2004 and 2014, serving as the chairman of the NPD parliamentary group and a member of the presidium of the parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deutsche Reichspartei</span> Far-right political party in West Germany

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, 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 a deputy to the assembly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Worch</span> German neo-Nazi

Christian Worch is a prominent German neo-Nazi activist and chairman of the far-right political party Die Rechte.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friedhelm Busse</span> German neo-Nazi

Friedhelm Busse was a German neo-Nazi politician and activist. In a career taking in some six decades Busse established himself as a leading voice of German neo-Nazism.

The German Alternative was a minor neo-nazi group set up in Germany by Michael Kühnen in 1989.

The far-right in Germany slowly reorganised itself after the fall of Nazi Germany and the dissolution of the Nazi Party in 1945. Denazification was carried out in Germany from 1945 to 1949 by the Allied forces of World War II, with an attempt of eliminating Nazism from the country. However, various far-right parties emerged in the post-war period, with varying success. Most parties only lasted a few years before either dissolving or being banned, and explicitly far-right parties have never gained seats in the Bundestag post-WWII.

Racism in German history is inextricably linked to the Herero and Namaqua genocide in colonial times. Racism reached its peak during the Nazi regime which eventually led to a program of systematic state-sponsored murder known as The Holocaust. According to reports by the European Commission, milder forms of racism are still present in parts of German society. Currently the racism has been mainly directed towards Asian and African countries by both the state and through the citizens which includes being impolite and trying to interfere in internal matters of African countries by the diplomats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Autonome Nationalisten</span> European nationalist militant groups

Autonome Nationalisten are German, British, Dutch, and to a lesser degree Flemish, nationalists, who have adopted some of the far-left and antifa's organizational concepts, demonstration tactics, symbolism, and elements of clothing, including Che Guevara T-shirts and keffiyehs. Similar groups have also appeared in some central and eastern European countries, beginning with Poland, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Romania and Greece and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Socialist Underground</span> German neo-Nazi militant organization, 2001-2010

The National Socialist Underground, or NSU, was a German neo-Nazi militant organization active between 2001 and 2010, and uncovered in November 2011. Regarded as a terror cell, the NSU is mostly associated with Uwe Mundlos, Uwe Böhnhardt and Beate Zschäpe, who lived together under false identities. Between 100 and 150 further associates were identified who supported the core trio in their decade-long underground life and provided them with money, false identities and weapons. Unlike other terror groups, the NSU had not claimed responsibility for their actions. The group's existence was discovered only after the deaths of Böhnhardt and Mundlos, and the subsequent arrest of Zschäpe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German Party (1947)</span> Political party in Germany

The German Party was a national-conservative political party in West Germany active during the post-war years. The party's ideology appealed to sentiments of German nationalism and nostalgia for the German Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gottfried Küssel</span> Austrian far-right political activist (born 1958)

Gottfried Küssel is an Austrian far-right political activist who also gained some notoriety in Germany. He has been a leading figure in neo-Nazism and Holocaust denial since the 1970s.

Helmut Roewer is a German lawyer and author. He served between 1994 and 2000 as president of the regional office for protection of the constitution in Thuringia. This is a state-level security agency. Controversy in respect of his time in office has persisted, although he himself robustly rejects most of the criticisms of his decisions made at that time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Right (Germany)</span> Far right polical party in Germany

The Right – Party for Referendum, Sovereignty and Homeland Protection is a far-right political party in Germany.

<i>Der Flügel</i> Far-right faction of the Alternative for Germany

Der Flügel is a far-right faction within Germany's Alternative for Germany, a right-wing populist opposition party. The group was led by Björn Höcke and Andreas Kalbitz. Approximately 20 percent of AfD members are organized also in the "Flügel". Following the request by the AfD executive board to dissolve Der Flügel by the end of April 2020, the group's online presence went offline. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) has no reliable knowledge of an actual dissolution. Within the party, Der Flügel now calls itself the "social-patriotic faction".

Schild und Schwert is a Neo-Nazi rock music festival held in Germany to celebrate the birthday of Adolf Hitler. The festival is organized by the ultra-nationalist political group the National Democratic Party (NPD). The event is held in Ostritz in Eastern Saxony. The festival is attended by far-right extremists from Germany and neighboring countries.

References

  1. https://www.verfassungsschutz.de/SharedDocs/publikationen/EN/reports-on-the-protection-of-the-constitution/2023-06-brief-summary-2022-report-on-the-protection-of-the-constitution.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=4
  2. 1 2 Rödl, Jakob (4 March 2014). ""Der III. Weg" –Jim eine rechtsextreme Kleinstpartei aus dem Neonazi-Spektrum".
  3. 1 2 Germany, Süddeutsche de GmbH, Munich. "Aktuelle Nachrichten, Hintergründe und Kommentare - SZ.de". Süddeutsche.de.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. Hill, Jenny (23 June 2019). "German politician's murder raises spectre of far-right attacks". BBC News. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
  5. BW, Verfassungsschutz (24 June 2021). ""Alte Lieder der jungen Revolution" – zwei neonazistische Liederbücher von 2020". www.verfassungsschutz-bw.de (in German). Retrieved 20 September 2023.
  6. Thaler, Claudia (21 September 2021). "Rechtsextreme Partei muss Antigrünenplakate abnehmen". Die Zeit . Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  7. Maksan, Oliver (22 September 2021). "Wie Neonazis vor Gericht verlieren und politisch doch gewinnen". Neue Zürcher Zeitung . Retrieved 24 September 2021. Dabei spielte es dann keine Rolle mehr, dass die deutsche Neonazi-Partei in dieser Woche eine juristische Niederlage nach der anderen kassierte.
  8. "German neo-Nazi party builds alliance with Assad and Hezbollah". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 16 May 2017.
  9. 1 2 "German neo-Nazis march with Ukrainian nationalists in UPA march". 15 October 2018.
  10. "Kommunalwahlen 2019: NPD, rechte Tarnlisten und Einzelbewerber" [Local elections 2019: NPD, right-wing camouflage lists and individual applicants]. LSA Rechtsaussen (in German). 23 May 2019. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  11. "Geplante Rede von Julian Bender in Schweden". 3 October 2017.
  12. "Abgeordnetenwatch.de | Revision von klaus-armstroff vom Di., 07/12/2016 - 23:00". Archived from the original on 31 January 2020. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  13. [ dead link ]
  14. "Germany says half of extreme right 'prone to violence'". BBC News. 3 May 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  15. "VERZEICHNIS der Parteien und politischen Vereinigungen, die gemäß § 6 Absatz 3 Parteiengesetz bei der Bundeswahlleiterin Parteiunterlagen hinterlegt haben" (PDF).
  16. 1 2 "Ten Point Program - THE THIRD WAY".
  17. "Who are Germany's far-right 'Third Path'? – DW – 10/25/2021". dw.com. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  18. 1 2 "Concern over German ultra-nationalist party". InfoMigrants. 17 May 2019. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  19. "Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz - Rechtsextremistische Parteien". 14 June 2015. Archived from the original on 14 June 2015. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  20. "10 Punkte Programm der Partei DER DRITTE WEG".