A survey by the West German Ministry of Interior on the development of right-wing extremism and anti-Semitic tendencies in the Federal Republic in 1967 showed that the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party is attracting more extremists to its ranks, it was reported here today. The survey was the subject of a background paper prepared by the Institute of Jewish Affairs.
According to the survey, the NPD has a membership of 28,000 today, compared to 14,190 at the end of 1965. Most of its members come from those parts of Germany where the Nazis made their biggest gains in 1932. Membership in the party’s most extreme wing has been increasing steadily and there has been a corresponding decrease in its more moderate wing, the survey said. The average age of party members is 42. Young people appear to shun it. The survey noted that up to the end of 1965 the NPD had no access to the national press. Its activities today are widely reported owing to its successes in various state elections and the extreme right-wing, nationalistic pronouncements of its leader, Adolf Von Thadden.
(First returns from the Parliamentary election in Baden-Wuerttemberg today indicated that the NPD was winning around 20 percent of the total vote at the expense of the major Christian Democratic and Social Democratic parties.)
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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.
