German People's Union

German People's Union
Deutsche Volksunion
Leader Matthias Faust
Founded 1971, party organized officially in 1987
Dissolved 1 January 2011
Merged into National Democratic Party of Germany
Headquarters Munich, Bavaria
Ideology German nationalism
Pan-Germanism
Right-wing populism
Third Position
Political position Far-right
European affiliation None
International affiliation None
European Parliament group None
Colours Red, Black, Grey, Gold
Website
http://www.dvu.de

The German People's Union (German: Deutsche Volksunion, DVU, also Liste D) was a right-wing political party in Germany.[1] It was founded by publisher Gerhard Frey as an informal association in 1971 and established as a party in 1987. Financially, it was largely dependent on Frey. In 2011, it merged with the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD).

The party never reached the five-percent minimum in federal elections that is generally necessary to enter the Bundestag. The DVU won seats in several state parliaments.

In 2004, the DVU entered a non-competition agreement with the far-right NPD for the state elections in Brandenburg and Saxony. Both parties passed the five-percent threshold in their respective states. The DVU reached 6.1 percent in the Brandenburg state elections, and the NPD won 9.2 percent in the Saxony state elections. After this relatively successful election, the parties formed an electoral alliance for the 2005 federal elections. The joint NPD-DVU slate, which ran under the NPD's ballot line, won 1.6 percent of the total votes nationally.

In 2009, party founder Frey did not run for reelection as chairman and was replaced by Matthias Faust. In 2010, a referendum of party members approved a merger of the DVU and the NPD.[2] Several state sections of the DVU objected to the merger and achieved a preliminary injunction from the Landgericht Munich based on irregularities during the referendum.[3] On May 26, 2012, these objections were withdrawn and the DVU was declared defunct. Several branches and individuals objected to the perceived links between the NPD and Nazism, and instead joined with the smaller party the Republicans, who were considered more moderate. This was especially true in North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria, where the Republicans were traditionally strongest. Some other individuals formed a new party called Die Rechte (meaning "the Right").

References

  1. ↑ Lewis, Rand C.: The Neo-Nazis and German Unification
  2. ↑ http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,727700,00.html. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ↑ http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/fusion-von-npd-und-dvu-ist-unwirksam/3773068.html

Further reading

(German)


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/30/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.