The Republicans

The Republicans (REP), German ultranationalist political party, founded in West Germany in 1983. Although they reject the label, many observers regard the party as neo-fascist.

The Republicans’ founders were dissident members of the Christian Social Union who had protested that party’s role in arranging credit for communist East Germany. They were soon joined by members of the former Citizens’ Party outside Bavaria. The Republicans’ chairman from 1985 to 1994 was Franz Schönhuber, a former volunteer in the Nazi Waffen SS. The party called for lower business taxes, restrictions on foreign residents and an end to immigration, and an emphasis on law and order.

In its first national election in June 1989, the party shocked the political establishment, winning more than 7 percent of the votes for delegates to the European Parliament. Its biggest success came in state elections that year in Bavaria, where it won nearly 15 percent of the vote, and in Baden-Württemberg. However, it won only 2 percent in elections in the reunited Germany in December 1990, and its subsequent performance was mixed. In 1996 it won more than 9 percent of the vote in Baden-Württemberg but only 2 percent in national and European Parliament elections in 1998. At the beginning of the 21st century the party had approximately 15,000 members.