National Democratic Party of Germany

National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), right-wing German nationalist party that called for German unification during the Cold War and advocated law and order as well as an end to German “guilt” for World War II. The party’s founders included many former supporters of the Nazis.

In the 1950s, right-wing parties in West Germany failed to attract voters away from the moderate government that had presided over Germany’s recovery. In November 1964, however, right-wing splinter groups united to form the NDP. West German discontent with a lagging economy and with the leadership of Chancellor Ludwig Erhard contributed to the NPD’s success in the federal republic’s 1967 state elections. Its following was not large enough to upset the established political balance in the state parliaments, but the party’s existence threatened West Germany’s relations with eastern European countries.

Although the NPD frequently won seats in the state elections, it consistently failed to gain representatives to the national assembly, the Bundestag. After German unification the party continued to be identified with neo-Nazism and was accused of anti-Semitism. In the early 21st century, long-standing efforts to ban the party were renewed.