The extremist and strife-beset National Democratic Party (NPD) — which is considered a neo-Nazi group — was unable to open a scheduled special convention here today because police barred delegates from entering the Nuremberg city hall.
Nuremberg city officials said police had been ordered to bar use of the hall despite an earlier agreement to rent the building to the NPD for the Congress. The NPD leaders were told that the decision had been taken after requests for such action from the Christian Democratic Party and the Free Democratic Party, as well as the Nuremberg Jewish community.
The NPD immediately obtained a court order against the city but police ignored the order and barred the 1,500 delegates from using the hall. The city then appealed to a higher court against the order and an appeal ruling is now pending. The higher court must decide whether the city is bound to honor its agreement with the NPD. Police remained stationed today at the city hall entrance.
Meanwhile, still another NPD official quit his post and the party. He was the party chairman in Sylt who said he had quit because there was no longer any constitutional basis in the NPD. Fritz Thielen, who lost leadership in the NPD to a faction headed by Adolf von Thadden, composed primarily of former Nazis, resigned from the party yesterday and announced formation of a new party in Bremen. He said it was named the National Peoples Party and he expressed the hope that some 5,000 NPD members would switch to it.
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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.
