The executive council of the all-German trade union movement, which includes 6,000,000 members, voted unanimously here today that no member of a trade union can hold membership in the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party. Through that action, the executive committee endorsed the ban on NPD membership by trade unionists already adopted by a number of individual unions throughout West Germany.
Meanwhile, a serious split that may disrupt the NPD developed today between Friedrich Thielen, national chairman of the party, and Adolf von Thadden, the organization’s deputy chairman. Von Thadden had been elected chairman of the party in Lower Saxony. Thielen appealed to the court at Bremen, charging that von Thadden could not act as head of the Lower Saxony group because he has “not been properly elected.”
In Lower Saxony, von Thadden had scored more party votes for the chairmanship than a candidate backed by Thielen. Today, the Bremen court upheld Thielen’s complaint, thus unseating von Thadden.
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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.
