West Germany’s neo-Nazi National Democratic Party was in absolute chaos today, on the eve of crucial provincial elections in which it had hoped to amass further successes. The national chairman and national deputy chairman had each other expelled from the party; a former leading Nazi was elected as national chairman; and the former incumbent in that leading position threatened to seek a court injunction
The leaders in the fight were Fritz Thielen, until now national chairman, and Adolf von Thadden, for the last two years the deputy national chairman. The sequence of the events was as follows:
1) Thielen expelled from the national executive von Thadden; Otto Hess, a former SS (Nazi elite guard) colonel and another of the group’s top national leaders; and six other national executive members.
2) The Lower Saxony branch of the party, at Bremen, Thielen’s home city, expelled Thielen from the Lower Saxony executive. It reinstated von Thadden and the seven others purged by Thielen.
3) The national executive met yesterday at Frankfurt, supported von Thanked, and elected Wilhelm Guttman as successor to the national chairmanship. Guttman was a high-ranking member of the Nazi Party during the Hitler regime and a leader in the S. A., the Hitler storm troops.
4) Thielen announced today he would seek an injunction against the election of Guttman, on the grounds that the Frankfurt meeting has been held “illegally” and not in accord with the NADP constitution.
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