The extremist National Democratic Party — which is described as a neo-Nazi party — announced plans today for a student section which will seek to establish branches in all West German universities. NDP officials said the goal was to spread the party’s ultra-nationalist ideas among West German students.
A political rally staged by the NDP in Bad Godesburg, a Bonn suburb, last night, caused a melee in which the party was severely heckled, with the most violent heckling coming from youths in the civic auditorium where the rally was held. Disorders developed initially when 200 persons, assembled outside the auditorium for a speech by NDP vice-chairman Adolf von Thadden, were told that the 960-seat hall was filled. An hour-long shoving match then developed between the spectators and policemen.
Many of the persons who got into the auditorium made it clear they had come to heckle rather than to listen, with the younger elements in the lead. Von Thadden’s speech reiterated the party’s demands that foreign workers and foreign troops be expelled from West Germany. He also said that the NDP favored severing relations with the United States, declaring that “Germany did not become a part of the east coast of the United States through the events of 1945,” the year the Nazi regime collapsed.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.