Third Way (Germany) Explained

The Third Path
Native Name:Der Dritte Weg
Foundation:
Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg
Ideology:
Strasserism
Antisemitism
Third Position
Position:Far-right[1]
Colours: Green
Headquarters:Bad Dürkheim, Germany
Anthem:Der III. Weg Marschiert![2]
Flag:Flag of The III. Path.svg
Membership: 700 (2022) [3]
Split:NPD, Free Network South
Country:Germany

The III. Path or The Third Path (German: Der III. Weg, German: Der Dritte Weg) is a far-right and neo-Nazi political party in Germany.[4] [5]

It was founded on 28 September 2013 by former NPD officials, and activists from the banned Free Network South. They have ties with Assad's government in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon,[6] the National Corps, Misanthropic Division, Right Sector and Svoboda in Ukraine,[7] [8] and the Nordic Resistance Movement in the Nordic countries.[9] Their founder and chairman until 2021 is Klaus Armstroff.[10] The party mostly operates in Thuringia, Bavaria and Brandenburg.[11] A group of people bearing Der Dritte Weg flags marched in through a town in Saxony on 1 May 2019, the day before the Jewish remembrance of the Holocaust, carrying a banner saying "Social justice instead of criminal foreigners". The Central Council of Jews said that the state government should ban such marches if it were serious about tackling right-wing extremism.[12] The party stood in the 2019 European elections, achieving 0.03% of the vote.

Name

The party is registered at the Federal Returning Office as "DER DRITTE WEG" short-form: "III. Weg".[13] According to the party's website, the official English translation of the name is "The Third Way", stylized as "THE THIRD WAY".[14] Despite this, the party's name is commonly translated as "The Third Path" or "The III. Path".[15] [16]

Structure

In Bavaria, the six “bases” in 2014 reflected the centers of the former comradeships.[17] In 2019, the party succeeded in expanding its structures, albeit only slightly.[18] Accordingly, only three of the planned four regional associations have been founded so far. The party has not yet succeeded in establishing structures in the north of Germany.[19] At the federal party conference in September 2019, Der III. Weg decided to amend its statutes to restructure the regional associations into state associations. The party had previously taken part in the local elections in Saxony in 2019, but was denied participation in the state elections in Saxony on September 1, 2019 by the state election committee for formal reasons. With the amendments to the statutes, the party underlined its intention to continue to contest elections in the future and thus fulfil or consolidate one of the requirements necessary to maintain party status.[20]

In 2019, the estimated number of members/followers/supporters nationwide increased to around 580.[21] As of 2021, the majority of the approximately 650 full and supporting members[22] were active in the federal states of Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony,[23] and since 2019 also in NRW in the greater Cologne-Düsseldorf area.[24]

Ideology

The party describes itself as national revolutionary and partially bases itself on the ideology of the left wing of the Nazi Party, namely the Strasser Brothers.[25] The III. Path has widely been described as a ultranationalist and neo-Nazi party.

Funding

According to the constitutional protection report of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the party is mainly financed by donations and contributions in 2019.[26]

10 point program

On its website, the party presents a 10-point election program, available in 12 European languages. [27]

Election results

State elections

See also

Notes and References

  1. News: Hill . Jenny . 23 June 2019 . German politician's murder raises spectre of far-right attacks . BBC News . 15 September 2021.
  2. Web site: BW . Verfassungsschutz . 2021-06-24 . "Alte Lieder der jungen Revolution" – zwei neonazistische Liederbücher von 2020 . 2023-09-20 . www.verfassungsschutz-bw.de . de.
  3. https://www.verfassungsschutz.de/SharedDocs/publikationen/EN/reports-on-the-protection-of-the-constitution/2023-06-brief-summary-2022-report-on-the-protection-of-the-constitution.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=4
  4. News: Thaler. Claudia. 21 September 2021. Rechtsextreme Partei muss Antigrünenplakate abnehmen. Die Zeit. 24 September 2021.
  5. News: Maksan. Oliver. 22 September 2021. Wie Neonazis vor Gericht verlieren und politisch doch gewinnen. Neue Zürcher Zeitung. 24 September 2021. Dabei spielte es dann keine Rolle mehr, dass die deutsche Neonazi-Partei in dieser Woche eine juristische Niederlage nach der anderen kassierte..
  6. Web site: German neo-Nazi party builds alliance with Assad and Hezbollah. The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 16 May 2017 .
  7. Web site: German neo-Nazis march with Ukrainian nationalists in UPA march. 15 October 2018.
  8. Web site: 23 May 2019 . Kommunalwahlen 2019: NPD, rechte Tarnlisten und Einzelbewerber . Local elections 2019: NPD, right-wing camouflage lists and individual applicants . 2022-07-18 . LSA Rechtsaussen . de-DE.
  9. Web site: Geplante Rede von Julian Bender in Schweden. 3 October 2017.
  10. Web site: Abgeordnetenwatch.de | Revision von klaus-armstroff vom Di., 07/12/2016 - 23:00 . 8 December 2017 . 31 January 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200131232651/https://www.abgeordnetenwatch.de/profile/klaus-armstroff/archive/138017 . dead .
  11. https://www.bnr.de/artikel/hintergrund/iii-weg-will-expandierenexpandieren
  12. News: BBC News. Germany says half of extreme right 'prone to violence'. 3 May 2019. 4 May 2019.
  13. Web site: VERZEICHNIS der Parteien und politischen Vereinigungen, die gemäß § 6 Absatz 3 Parteiengesetz bei der Bundeswahlleiterin Parteiunterlagen hinterlegt haben .
  14. Web site: Ten Point Program - THE THIRD WAY .
  15. Web site: Who are Germany's far-right 'Third Path'? – DW – 10/25/2021 . 2023-09-13 . dw.com . en.
  16. Web site: 2019-05-17 . Concern over German ultra-nationalist party . 2023-09-13 . InfoMigrants . en.
  17. Verfassungsschutzbericht Bayern 2014 (Memento from June 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive) In: Bayerisches Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz, 2015 (PDF).
  18. Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz: . Hrsg.: Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz. S. 80.
  19. Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (Red.): Verfassungsschutzbericht 2017. Herausgegeben vom Bundesministerium des Innern, für Bau und Heimat, Stand Juli 2018, S. 78 (PDF; 4,5 MB). Abgerufen am 5. Mai 2019.
  20. Verfassungsschutzbericht 2019, S. 81
  21. Verfassungsschutzbericht des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen über das Jahr 2019, Stand Juni 2020, S. 108-110. (PDF) Ministerium des Innern des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, 9. Juni 2020, abgerufen am 9. Juni 2020.
  22. https://www.verfassungsschutz.de/SharedDocs/publikationen/DE/verfassungsschutzberichte/2022-06-07-verfassungsschutzbericht-2021.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=4 Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
  23. Verfassungsschutzbericht 2016. (PDF) Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, abgerufen am 6. Juli 2017.
  24. Verfassungsschutzbericht des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen über das Jahr 2019, Stand Juni 2020, S. 108-110. (PDF) Ministerium des Innern des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, 9. Juni 2020, abgerufen am 9. Juni 2020.
  25. Web site: 2015-06-14 . Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz - Rechtsextremistische Parteien . 2023-09-13 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150614095319/http://www.verfassungsschutz.de/de/arbeitsfelder/af-rechtsextremismus/zahlen-und-fakten-rechtsextremismus/zuf-re-2013-parteien.html . 14 June 2015 .
  26. https://www.im.nrw/system/files/media/document/file/VS_Bericht_NRW_2019.pdf Constitutional Protection Report of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia for 2019, as of June 2020, p. 108-110 (PDF) Ministry of the Interior of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
  27. Web site: 10 Punkte Programm der Partei DER DRITTE WEG .