Introduction

 

Organized political groups can be found in nearly every international state, from multiple party systems to those with a single party. Those with multiple party systems have a flavor which is unique to the country’s culture where they are found. The United States, with its enduring two-party system has major political parties with obvious policy differences and yet tend to be similar in structure.  Minor parties in the US are inclined toward the extremist point of view and still, at times, reflect different facets found within the major parties. Third parties if they evolve at all have their platforms and distinctives swallowed up by one of the two major parties.

Parliamentary systems located in other parts of the world usually have a number of parties that represent the various views of the citizenry.  These party perspectives include conservatives, liberals, socialists, and where legal, communist and various types of xenophobic parties.  The extremist parties are usually kept from political viability either through low voter turnout or not obtaining a legislated minimum number of votes.  Nevertheless, these radical parties do include a large number of constituents and at times are able to form coalitions that could command a substantial portion of the electorate.  There are a number of countries in the world where this situation is demonstrated.

Germany, a federal republic with a parliamentary government has parties elected by universal suffrage. The Parliament[1] operates by majority rule, with the Chancellor and the government drawn from the majority party or a coalition of parties. Additionally, Germany has a five per cent rule which requires a political party to win at least five per cent of the electorate before it can enter the legislature.[2] 

In May 1949 when the western occupation zones were reorganizing into the new Federal Republic of Germany, they wanted to avoid the problems of the proportional representation system of the Weimar Republic.  The unlimited number of parties which could gain parliamentary seats contributed to the political instability of the republic and allowed the Nazis to rise to power.  To diminish this possibility in the Bundestag, and to curb the number of splinter parties which are always produced, the law designates that a party must obtain at least five per cent of the vote on the second ballot or three seats in the districts.  Each of the Länder has similar laws which apply to their legislative elections.[3] This phenomenon of splinter political groups should not be interpreted as a new development in German history the country has a long history of extreme political activity.

One outcome of the revolutions throughout Europe in 1848 and specifically in Germany was the transformation of “loosely organized political groups” into viable political parties. “At the end of the revolution. . . the five principal political tendencies [were] democracy, liberalism, political Catholicism, conservatism, and workers movement(s).” Conservative strongholds were found in Prussia and in Bavaria.[4]  Within these various political tendencies were found parties such as the Wochenblatt party, the German Democrats, and the Progressive Party.  By the imperial period there were a number of political parties which had solidified their position on various issues. One of these was the Christian Social Workers Party (Christlichsoziale Arbeiterpartei) [CSAP] founded by the Protestant pastor Adolf Stöcker on a social reform platform.  It was later renamed the Christian Social Party (Christlichsoziale Partei) [CSP].  Stöcker’s organization was “monarchical and aristocratic” wanting a “Christian state which not only taught the virtues of obedience but inspired its rulers to take the weaker and poorer classes under their wing.”  Stöcker put patriotism before Liberalism and wanted the party to tap into mass support by compromising with the principles of free trade.[5]  The Christian Social Party was also anti-Semitic, with anti-Semitism having the connotation of antagonism toward capitalism, religious Jewry, agnosticism, and marginal Christianity.

Germany at the end of the twentieth century had some 58 registered political parties, which ranged from the extreme right to the extreme left, from the Monarchists to the Communists.[6] Since the beginning of the Federal Republic of Germany a number of right-wing parties and organizations, extensively led by former Nazis or people with close ties to former Nazis, have appeared and disappeared from the political scene. Many of these parties and organizations have limited membership but very vociferous figuratively and literally.[7]  Their views consist predominantly of political estrangement, xenophobia, extreme national pride, racism, and an apologetic view of Germany’s Nazi past.[8]  

One party which fit this pattern and began as a registered club in the early 1970s, was the Deutsche Volksunion (German People’s Union), founded by Gerhard Frey.  The DVU’s party platform focused on patriotism, the exclusiveness of the German culture in Germany, support for the German military, and xenophobia.  In order to avoid the charge of racism and anti-Semitism, right-wing parties had substituted “culture” for “race” and “xenophobia” for “anti-Semitism.”[9] The DVU’s xenophobia is the thinnest of veils for the party’s clear anti-Semitic drumbeat.  By including other races and religions, it had merely opened the jaws of the DVU’s prejudice even wider.

Those investigating right-wing extremism in Germany demonstrate continuity and draw a straight line from Wilhelm Marr, progenitor of the phrase anti-Semitism, through figures such as Otto Böckel, Max Liebermann von Sonnenberg, Oswald Zimmerman and Adolf Stöcker to National Socialism, and from there to present day right-wing, anti-Semitic extremist parties.  It is common to see Stöcker portrayed as a proto-Nazi, and his party as one of the forerunners of the Nazi party.  Typically, Stöcker is blamed for giving Hitler a platform and a cause to launch his crusade against the Jews.[10]  Thus, the line being drawn continues through the Nazi era politics and into a number of right-wing parties which could be defined as neo-Nazi or extremist parties.  The strongest of these right-wing extremist parties was the Deutsche Volksunion.[11]  

A surface comparison between the DVU and the CSP/CSWP shows a number of apparent similarities. Both parties are portrayed as strongly nationalistic and supporting a strong centralized government. In addition, the party leaders had unquenchable thirst concerning the “imagined others” found in their midst.  Stöcker railed against the Jews and those who would not support the Kaiser and the empire. He felt that non-Christians should not be put in charge over German Christians.  Similarly, the DVU’s platform and literature portray it as a party with a great love for German culture and history that wants Germany to be a leader in the world.  Yet in its letters, newspapers, and pamphlets the DVU betrays itself as nationalistic, xenophobic, and anti-Semitic.  The German government described the DVU as a neo-Nazi organization which is undemocratic, anti-Semitic in its policies and aims, and is apologetic of the Third Reich.[12]  This is where the difference becomes significant between the CSP/CSWP and the DVU.  With Stöcker there was a possibility of a kind of redemption.  If a non-Christian German, and in some cases even unchristian non-Germans, converted to Christianity and were Germanized, they would have the same rights as any other German. Frey and the DVU cannot conceive of a political formula which transforms a non-German into a German citizen.

Often Stöcker, Hitler, and Frey are placed on a continuum, with the only real difference between Frey and Stöcker, and their respective parties, being semantics.  They are both seen as working within the confines of a parliamentary system and being autocratic and anti-Semitic. The Christian Social Party and German People’s Union are assumed to be Nazi style parties which bracket the Nazi period. This assumption is false: although Stöcker’s party was anti-Semitic, its anti-Semitism was of a different substance than that of the DVU and the Nazis. That does not make it better, just different.

When considering this assumption, that the DVU and the Christian Social Party are of the same persuasion, and that the DVU is an extension of Stöcker’s political views, it is necessary to investigate the Deutsche Volksunion’s history and political distinctiveness and compare them to the Christian Social party.  When analyzing Gerhard Frey’s German People’s Union, it will be apparent that Nazi ideology had a greater impact on the DVU than Stöcker’s Christian Social Party of Germany’s imperial period.

While researching the history of the DVU, CSP/CSWP, Gerhard Frey, Adolf Stöcker or comparison between them, nothing was found in English, however, there were a number of works in German. This includes works on Adolf Stöcker and his party such as Grit Koch’s Adolf Stöcker, 1835-1909: ein Leben zwischen Politik und Kirche, which dealt with the life of Stöcker in the ministry from chaplain in the military to service as court chaplain for the Kaiser.  It also considers the tension in his life between the church and politics as well as Christianity and the drives of the anti-Semitic forces at work in Germany in the latter half of the 19th century.  Protestantismus und Politik: Werk und Wirkung Adolf Stöcker by Günter Brakelmann is another work which views this tension between the church and politics.  Two other books are Kirche am Abgrund: Adolf Stöcker und seine antijüdische Bewegung by Hans Engelmann and Hofprediger Adolf Stöcker und die chrislich-soziale Bewegung by Walter Frank.  These books contemplate the political and anti-Semitic side of Stöcker; however, they deal with the religious factors in his life. Frank’s book, published during the Third Reich, contributed information and facts to P.J. Pulzer work, The Rise and Fall of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria. 

Additionally, there were books on Gerhard Frey and the DVU that include DVU im Aufwärtstrend-Gefahr für die Demokratie? Fakten, Analysen, Gegenstrategien by Britta Obszerninks and Matthias Schmidt which deals with facts, analysis and opposition strategy of the DVU and the danger it presents to democracy.  A similar book to this is Der Multimillionär und die DVU: Daten, fakten, Hintergründe, by Annette Link, focusing on Frey, his life, his control over the party and the party itself. Another German publication which deals with the DVU and Frey is Braune Gefahr: DVU, NPD, REP, Geschichte und Zukuft that is edited by Jens Mecklenburg.  Although Mecklenburg’s book deals with the DVU it also discusses the NPD and REP.