Left-Extremist Endeavours

epeat their successful rally of the previous year in Leipzig (4,000
to 5,000 participants) by holding a central demonstration in Bremen
on 1 May 1999 under the motto "jobs go to Germans first".
In addition, the NPD held more than 50 smaller demonstrations
throughout the Federal Republic, which, however, met with little
response. The focus was on Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
and Brandenburg.
The Three-Pillar concept propagandized by the party leaders and
referring to the strategic elements of (1) "fight to win the street"
(i.e. demonstrations and public events), of (2) "fight to win the
minds" (i.e. argumentation to convince outsiders and indoctrination
of supporters) and of (3) "fight to win the parliaments" (i.e.
participation in elections), in practice often entailed adverse effects
caused by friction among the parties involved. While traditional,
mainly older, national-democrats continue to give priority
to the NPD as an election party and therefore tend to be rather
sceptical about extra-parliamentary actions and forms of struggle,
other NPD members - mostly younger supporters of neo-
Nazi ideology, see the NPD primarily as a Nationale Außerparlamentarische
Opposition" (NAPO - "National Extra-Parliamentary
Opposition") and, consequently, prefer the action-based extraparliamentary
"fight to win the street".
Considerable irritation was also caused by the national-Bolshevistic
orientation of the NPD. This ideological orientation, which is
propagandized, mainly in Eastern Germany, by the Party’s
deputy chairman Dr. Hans-Günther EISENECKER and individuals
such as Prof. Dr. Michael NIER, a former GDR university professor
for dialectical and historical materialism, sees the NPD in the
role of an anti-imperialist party in the tradition of the revolutionary
German labour movement. This even met with criticism by the
party leadership. In particular, there was clear rejection of the
appraisal of the former GDR as the "better Germany".
For quite some time, Party Chairman Udo VOIGT has succeeded
in achieving integration and in conciliating the various trends
within the Party. By now, however, the NPD seems to have come
to the limit of its integration potential, as a result of the multifarious
trends tolerated by it in the interest of member recruitment.
Visible signs of this developmental trend are heavy losses of
members in Saxony and split-offs in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
and Thuringia. Thus, following criticism of the new "socialism
course" of the NPD, a "Soziale Volkspartei" (SVP - "People's
Social Party") was founded in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
in early 1999. At some time it had a membership of about
50, but no longer engages in any activities. In Thuringia on 23
January, some 20 members of the Thuringian right-extremist
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