West German Interior Ministry Describes Npd As ‘dangerous Neo-nazi Movement’

The Ministry of Interior described the extreme right-wing National Democratic Party (NPD) yesterday as a “dangerous neo-Nazi movement” whose program “endangers West Germany’s interests and security.” The Ministry was pressing the Government to ask the Constitutional High Court in Karlsruhe to ban the NPD as anti-democratic and unconstitutional. It recently completed an exhaustive study of the party’s activities and came to the conclusion that there was sufficient evidence to warrant a ban. Interior Minister Ernst Benda said the data would be submitted to the Government shortly. In a statement issued yesterday, the Minister said “the political and psychological damage the behavior of the party has so far caused abroad is considerable in the eyes of the Federal Government.”

The West Berlin trade union movement said today that it would take steps to prevent the (NPD) from holding its congress in West Berlin on April 25 unless the Allied occupation powers–U.S., Britain and France–act before then to ban the party. The powers have been asked twice by the West Berlin City Council to take such action. The unionists’ warning that they would find their own “ways and means” to keep the NPD congress out of West Berlin was contained in a letter to the Allied commander from Walter Sickert, chairman of the movement. He said he hoped the Allies would comply with the request of the Berlin City Council. Legal authorities meanwhile were trying to decide whether the NPD can be punished for racial incitement. At one of the party’s last meetings in West Berlin, a sign reading “Aryans Only” was posted outside the meeting place.

In another development today, the parliament of Lower Saxony joined the city councils of Hamburg, Bremen and West Berlin in demanding abolition of the statute of limitations on war crime prosecutions which is scheduled to go into effect at the end of this year. The final decision rests with the Bundestag (lower house) and the government. A delegation of visiting Knesset members arrived in Hamburg to meet with local leaders, among them Mayor Herbert Weichmann who is Jewish. The Knesset delegation, headed by David Hacohen, chairman of the Israeli parliament’s foreign affairs and security committee, met in Bonn last week with Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger and Foreign Minister Willy Brandt and with leaders of the Bundestag (lower house). One of the items of discussion was the statute of limitations on war crimes prosecutions.