Adolf von Thadden
Adolf von Thadden | |
---|---|
Member of the Bundesrat | |
In office 7 September 1953 – 15 September 1957 | |
Constituency | Lower Saxony |
Personal details | |
Born | |
Relatives | Elisabeth von Thadden (half-sister) |
Occupation | Politician, landowner |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Nazi Germany |
Branch/service | Wehrmacht |
Years of service | 1939–1945 |
Rank | Lieutenant |
Battles/wars | World War II |
Adolf von Thadden (7 July 1921 – 16 July 1996) was a German far-right politician. Born into a leading Pomeranian landowning family, he was the half-brother of Elisabeth von Thadden, a prominent critic of the Nazis who was executed by the Nazi government in September 1944.[1]
Early life
Thadden was born at the noble estate of Gut Trieglaff, near Greifenberg, Pomerania on 7 July 1921. He was a member of the Thadden family, one of Pomerania's oldest Junker families and his father was a prominent local magistrate.[2] He was educated at the gymnasium in Greifenberg[3] and subsequently studied agriculture and economics.[2] On 1 September 1939, he became a member of the Nazi Party.[4]
Thadden served as a lieutenant with the
Thadden escaped captivity in November 1946 and fled to the
Political career
After the war, Thadden entered politics as a member of the
In the 1950s he was befriended by
Having served as deputy to the Deutsche Reichspartei leader Wilhelm Meinberg,[2] Thadden became chairman of the party in 1961,[3] and in this position was one of the signatories of the European Declaration at Venice which set up the National Party of Europe (NPE). Thadden was personally close to the British Union Movement leader Oswald Mosley, on whose initiative the NPE was founded, and was attracted to Mosley's concept of Europe a Nation.[7] He specifically denied any accusations of neo-Nazism levelled at him, portraying himself as a supporter of conservative nationalism.[3] However, he was frequently labelled a neo-Nazi[8] due to his prominent opposition to the notion of any German guilt for the Second World War.[3][need quotation to verify]
NPD
Thadden played a leading role in 1964 formation of the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) by merging his Reichspartei with a number of other rightist groups, including a revived German National People's Party.[3] He was initially overlooked as leader of the amalgamated group in favour of Friedrich Thielen of the German Party.[2] Thadden regularly clashed with the more moderate Thielen, and both men became involved in several lawsuits against each other, each aiming at gaining control of the NPD and ousting his rival from membership.[2]
Thadden was eventually elected NPD chairman in 1967.[3][need quotation to verify][9] He moved the party to the right, bringing in policies such as withdrawal from
Thadden left active politics in 1974 and worked for a construction-firm, although he remained as chief editor of the Deutsche Wochenzeitung into the 1980s.[2] He maintained an interest in publishing for several years and was reported as acting on behalf of the Gesellschaft für freie Publizistik , a far-right journalism organisation linked to the NPD[12][13] in 1981 and 1982.[2][need quotation to verify]
Death
Thadden died on 16 July 1996, in
References
- ^ Echoes from an Unhappy Past, Time, 26 September 1969, retrieved 24 June 2009
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Philip Rees, Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890, Simon & Schuster, 1990, p. 387
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Louis L. Snyder, Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, Wordsworth, 1998, p. 344
- ^ Bergmann, W. (e.a.) (2009) Handbuch des Antisemitismus. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, p. 822
- ^ R. Eatwell, Fascism: A History, London: Pimlico, 2003, p. 281
- ^ Gottfried Wagner, Wer nicht mit dem Wolf heult – Autobiographische Aufzeichnungen eines Wagner-Urenkels (Cologne, 1997), p. 69 (quotation translated from the German)
- ^ Graham Macklin, Very Deeply Dyed in Black, IB Tauris, 2007, p. 90
- ^
Compare:
Bialystok, Franklin (2000). "'The Jewish Emptiness': Confronting the Holocaust in the late 1960s and Early 1970s". Delayed Impact: The Holocaust and the Canadian Jewish Community. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 159. ISBN 9780773520653. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
Le Devoir quoted Le Monde, which stated that "everybody considers von Thadden's party to be neo-Nazi except that very party alone." La Presse reported that eighteen members of the party's executive were former Nazi leaders. Similar views were expressed in the English-language press.
- ^
Facts. 18–22. Anti-defamation League of B'nai B'rith (published 1968): 455. 30 August 1968 https://books.google.com/books?id=zdc3AQAAIAAJ. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
On November 12, 1967, an overwhelming majority of the NPD national convention in Hanover elected Adolf von Thadden national chairman.
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(help) - ^ P. Ignazi, Extreme Right Parties in Western Europe, Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 67
- ^ C.P. Blamires, World Fascism – A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2006, p. 658
- ^ "Verfassungsschutzbericht 2006" (PDF) (in German). Berlin: Bundesministerium des Innern. 2006. p. 142. Archived from the original on 9 August 2007. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
Die mit etwa 500 Mitgliedern weiterhin größte rechtsextremistische Kulturvereinigung Gesellschaft für freie Publizistik e. V. (GfP) hat unter Leitung von Andreas MOLAU, dem stellvertretenden Chefredakteur der NPD-Zeitung Deutsche Stimme und zeitweiligen Berater der NPD-Fraktion im Sächsischen Landtag, ihren im Jahr 2005 eingeschlagenen Kurs der Annäherung an die NPD beibehalten.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^
Sager, Tomas; Peters, Jürgen (30 October 2008). "Die PRO-Aktivitaten im Kontext der extremen Rechten". In ISBN 9783531911199. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
Harald Neubauer [...] ist Mitherausgeber der extrem rechten Monatszeitschrift „Nation & Europa" und Vorstandsmitglied der NPD-nahen „Gesellschaft für freie Publizistik".
- ^ Neo-Nazi leader 'was MI6 agent', John Hooper, The Guardian, 13 August 2002, retrieved 24 June 2009