Action group of independent Germans

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The Action Group of Independent Germans (short name: AUD ) was a nationalist - neutralist political party in the Federal Republic of Germany , which at the end of the 1960s approached the political demands of the extra-parliamentary opposition and finally combined an approach to reform across society with environmental protection demands .

history

founding

The AUD was on 15th / 16th May 1965 in Homberg (Efze) founded and led "nationalists who usually markedly from the Nazi regime distanced liberals and pacifists" of the three extreme right-wing nationalist groups German Community (DG) , German Freedom Party (DFP) and parts of the " Association of German National Assembly " (VDNV) as well as the readership of the newspaper Neue Politik . The reason for founding the AUD was the unsuccessfulness of nationalist-neutralist parties in the Federal Republic of Germany until the early 1960s. The AUD tried to unite all nationalist-neutralist currents in a broad alliance. She rejected the ideology of the NPD because it seemed too backward-looking and too closely related to the NSDAP . In elections, the AUD was initially largely unsuccessful with this strategy.

The former FDP politician Hermann Schwann is considered to be the initiator of the establishment , who initially sought a much broader spectrum for the nationalist-neutralist collection movement, from the right-wing extremist NPD to the left German Peace Union . However, his attempts to recruit Thomas Dehler , Oswald Adolph Kohut , Willy Max Rademacher (all FDP) and Hubert Ney ( CDU ) failed.

Among the founders were August Haußleiter , co-founder of the CSU in Bavaria, and Wolf Schenke , former member of the Reich leadership of the Hitler Youth and publisher of the HJ training letter Will and Power . Schwann, who was previously in the VDNV, was the first chairman of the AUD until 1968. During the same period, the deputies were the previous chairmen of DG Haußleiter and DFP Oskar Lutz .

Although the AUD had no success in the 1965 federal elections (0.2% of the valid votes cast), Hermann Schwann, Wolf Schenke and Haußleiter in particular saw the beginning of a clear change in the political landscape as a whole in the emerging extra-parliamentary opposition and supported the Berlin regional association when approaching the APO. As early as 1968, Die Zeit classified the AUD as “right-wing democrats”. But when the gradually growing number of new members who joined the party through this course, supported by Haußleiter, who meanwhile represented the sick Schwann as party chairman, at a party congress in Kassel in 1969 the merger with the election initiative "Democratic Union" founded on the fringes of the APO decided, this went too far for most of the "nationalist" members, so that there was a large wave of withdrawals. The Democratic Union was not able to run for the 1969 federal election, instead 10 AUD members competed as individual applicants under the code Independent Democrats 69 , but only achieved results of up to 0.6%.

Haussleiter, who had been elected chairman of the AUD that same year, welcomed the new Ostpolitik of the SPD / FDP government under Brandt, and the remaining members finally adopted a completely new program in which they included a number of APO Taking up demands: real democracy, a co-operative “socialism of the future”, the policy of peaceful neutrality, which included “educating the population about the forms of nonviolent political resistance” instead of a conscription army, and finally, taking up the ideas of the emerging feminist movement, a "program for women".

When in 1972 the Club of Rome also provided the AUD with a scientific basis with its publication The Limits of Growth for consumer criticism, environmental protection in connection with a desired reorganization of society as a whole became the new focus, the head of the house in his newspaper, which has been known as The Independent Party newspaper since 1967 The AUD was, granted more and more space and for which he was also able to win over authors from the environmental and citizens' initiative movement ( Carl Amery , Herbert Gruhl , Roland Vogt ) for publications.

From its foundation in 1965 until the 1970s, the AUD was observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and listed in its reports under the heading of right-wing extremism. In 1969, the AUD had around 1,500 members, according to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. According to Richard Stöss , the AUD doubled its membership between 1976 and 1978 alone.

Development and programming

The emergency program for Germany for the 1965 federal election pointed with its renunciation of formerly German areas on the other side of the Oder-Neisse border and the intended creation of a German-German confederation "in the direction of the foreign policy program of the SPD and FDP". In view of the economic crisis from 1966 onwards, the AUD gave itself “a stronger socio-political profile”, which was reflected in the program for Germany and on 6/7. May 1967 in Bochum was adopted against the background that the chairman Hermann Schwann lived in Bergisch Gladbach and the managing director Günter Demolsky in Wanne-Eickel and Bochum, who already held their offices in the German Freedom Party and tried to become the power center of the AUD To relocate North Rhine-Westphalia , which however did not succeed. Supporting measures such as torchlight parades and speeches such as in Bochum-Gehre in 1968 in the wake of the collapse of the colliery, which were supposed to address the "German miner" and the nationalization of the mines, but kept silent that the AUD wanted to abolish employee participation, brought this "German socialism" “The AUD, which Demolsky already represented in the Socialist Reich Party ( SRP), which was banned by the Federal Constitutional Court , the German Reich Party ( DRP) and the German Freedom Party founded by former DRP / SRP members , has no sympathy. The same applied to the AUD's left-wing course, which culminated in the rapprochement with the emerging extra-parliamentary opposition , largely driven by the Berlin regional association. The West Berlin AUD is also classified as part of the APO in the Berliner Extra-Dienst . A first small electoral success in the Senate elections in Berlin in 1967 (1.1%) reinforced this tendency, which, despite the emigration of a number of partly leading members, led to the decision in 1969 to join the Democratic Union, initiated by Peter Schilinski and Winfried Heidt, to participate.

There was programmatic agreement on the issue of nonviolence, the criticism of the Vietnam War , the demands for direct democracy, consumer criticism and the idea of ​​a third way between capitalism and communism, based on the economic reforms in the ČSSR under Dubček , which were followed by the invasion of 1968 Warsaw Pact troops were terminated. When a majority voted for the Democratic Union at the Kassel party congress in 1969 , this led to a split in the party, with entire state boards resigning as a whole, and to a wave of resignations, especially by members of the former German Freedom Party. Although the Democratic Union ultimately did not run for the 1969 Bundestag election, the AUD continued the course it had chosen under August Haußleiter , chairman elected for the sick Hermann Schwann , by developing a new program. The focus was on real democracy and future socialism , consisting of a predominantly cooperative economic model.

Stöss considers the AUD concept of socialism merely to be a criticism of "the market economy ... from the point of view of the abuse of power" and consequently denies it an " anti-capitalist " tendency as such. Whether this assessment against the background z. For example, the AUD demand for all residential property except the home to be cooperative is not too strictly aligned with the lack of fundamental (Marxist) questioning of the concept of property as such, remains open.

Furthermore, the program part neutrality-independence-peace was pacifistically concretized by the AUD there u. a. A "comprehensive education of the population about the possibilities of nonviolent political resistance, as well as intensive training in its forms and methods instead of outdated military training in a conscription army" demanded. The resolutions A Program for Women (1971), The Manifesto for the Protection of Life (1973), a Catalog of Measures for Environmental Protection and The Real Enemies of the Constitution , a criticism of the influence of the established parties at all levels of the state and in the public media, were also included . This overall program remained in place until the party was dissolved in 1980.

The AUD gained importance from the beginning of the 1970s with the growth of the new social movements . The AUD now increasingly sought proximity to the ecological movement . This brought in a number of younger members "who had been socialized in the left or social democratic spectrum". At the 1973 party congress in Kassel, the AUD declared itself a party for the protection of life. Outside of parliament, the AUD was the initiator of the Democratic Life Protection Movement in March 1974 . Her goal was to become the parliamentary arm of the environmental protection movement. However, this goal was missed in the federal election in 1976 , although the AUD managed to gain attention by the fact that almost 50% of all candidates were women and celebrities such as the Düsseldorf artist Joseph Beuys were running on the AUD list.

The breakthrough at the electoral level came with the state election in Bavaria in 1978 . The AUD formed an electoral alliance with Herbert Gruhl's newly founded GAZ (Green Action Future) , which for the first time gave itself the additional designation “The Greens”. The list came in at 1.8% nationwide. She achieved her best result in Freising, where she received 4.8% of the first and 3.7% of the second votes.

Dissolution in favor of the Greens

The success in the Bavarian state elections prompted the initiators of the electoral alliance to maintain this strategy for the 1979 European elections . The AUD contacted the Federal Association of Citizens' Initiatives Environmental Protection around Petra Kelly . Finally, at the Frankfurt Congress in March 1979, the political association “The Greens” was founded for the European elections. In addition to the AUD, the Green List Environmental Protection (GLU), the Green Action Future (GAZ) and the Green List Schleswig-Holstein (GLSH) as well as some individual candidates were involved. This conservative, bourgeoisie, listed as “ Other Political Association ” in the European elections , achieved its first success with 3.2%. In November 1979, preparations were made in Offenbach for the founding congress of the Greens , which was to take place in Karlsruhe in January 1980 . The AUD, originally from the national camp, assumed a mediating position between the right and left wings. This was made possible by their attitude critical of capitalism.

On April 27, 1980, a resolution was passed in favor of the Green Party, which had been founded in January . AUD founder August Haußleiter became party spokesman and initially published the party newspaper Die Grünen . Former AUD members became chairmen of the two southern German state associations of the GRÜNEN, so that they had a notable influence there, especially during the green founding years.

A minority of nationalist and right-wing extremist AUD members opposed the dissolution and founded the association Arbeitskreis Independent Deutscher eV , which has been using the old organization name since 1991 and has around 100 members.

elections

people

  • Joseph Beuys (1921–1986), action artist and art theorist, 1976 top candidate for the AUD in the federal elections in North Rhine-Westphalia ; received 600 votes in his constituency of Düsseldorf- Oberkassel, corresponding to 3% of all valid votes cast.
  • Dieter Burgmann (* 1939), Bavarian state chairman of the AUD and later federal spokesman for the Greens
  • Günter Demolsky (* 1920), accountant, former member of SRP, DRP and DFP, federal manager AUD
  • Walter Harless , co-founder of AUD, later district chairman of the Greens in Munich
  • Wolf-Dieter Hasenclever (* 1945), later chairman of the Greens parliamentary group in Baden-Württemberg (1980–1983) and, from 1979, chairman of the Greens in Baden-Württemberg, today the FDP
  • August Haußleiter (1905–1989), activist of National Socialism from the very beginning, later chairman of the AUD and later federal spokesman for the Greens
  • Herbert Rusche (* 1952), initially on the board of the AUD district association Offenbach , 1981–1983 state manager of the Greens Hessen , 1985–1987 Member of the Bundestag for the Greens, left the Greens in 2001, since 2009 member of the Pirate Party Germany
  • Schacht (1877-1970), former Reich bank president (1933-1939) and 1934-1937 Reichswirtschaftsminister 1965 co-founder of AUD
  • Hermann Schwann (1899–1977), in the DVP and from 1926 also in a steel helmet , in 1933 he joined the NSDAP , later a member of the FDP Bundestag
  • Baldur Springmann (1912–2003), during the Nazi era in many organizations of the National Socialist regime , in the 1970s Schleswig-Holstein state chairman of the AUD and during this time active in various environmental protection associations and in the anti-nuclear power movement; he was one of the founders of the Greens and later the ödp .

literature

  • Silke Mende: "Not right, nothing left, but in front". A story of the founding Greens. Munich 2011.
  • Günter Olzog , H.-J. Liese: The political parties in the Federal Republic of Germany. Munich 1980.
  • Manfred Rowold: In the shadow of power. On the opposition role of the non-established parties in the Federal Republic. Düsseldorf 1974.
  • Richard Stöss: Conservative Revolution Against Basic Consensus. From nationalism to environmental protection. The German Community / Action Group of Independent Germans in the party system of the Federal Republic. Opladen 1980.
  • Richard Stöss: The Action Group of Independent Germans . In: Richard Stöss (Ed.): Party Handbook. The parties of the Federal Republic of Germany 1945–1980. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1983.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Manfred Rowold: In the shadow of power. On the opposition role of the non-established parties in the Federal Republic. Düsseldorf 1974, p. 281
  2. ↑ see: West Berlin apo groups about their location [1]
  3. ↑ Die Zeit No. 16/1968, Revolution - with and without violence
  4. ↑ Der Spiegel No. 14/1969 in its article Du wie Dubcek describes it as follows: The AUD, "in whose ranks meanwhile radical-academic-socialist comrades have pushed the formerly predominant nationalist-neutralist comrades into the background ..."
  5. ↑ Richard Stöss: Conservative Revolution against the basic consensus. From nationalism to environmental protection. Opladen 1980, p. 226 f.
  6. ↑ Party program of the AUD, Munich no year (green cover is identical in content to red cover if the resolution “The true constitutional enemies” from 1974 was included there), p. 29 on nonviolent political resistance, p. 41 on the program for the woman
  7. ↑ Until 1979 it appeared with the same content with two heads: The Independent and German Community
  8. ↑ Richard Stöss: Conservative Revolution against the basic consensus. From nationalism to environmental protection. Opladen 1980, p. 330
  9. ↑ Richard Stöss: Conservative Revolution against the basic consensus. From nationalism to environmental protection. Opladen 1980, p. 206.
  10. ↑ Manfred Rowold: In the shadow of power. On the opposition role of the non-established parties in the Federal Republic. Düsseldorf 1974, p. 288.
  11. ^ Richard Stöss: Party handbook . tape 1 . Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1980, ISBN 3-531-11838-2 , pp. 326 .
  12. ^ Richard Stöss: From nationalism to environmental protection Opladen 1980, p. 209.
  13. ↑ Ernst-Ludwig Freisewinkel: ... and then comes Zeche Wohlfahrt. From the end of a mine , WDR television 1968, from minute 34
  14. ↑ Richard Stöss: Conservative Revolution against the basic consensus. From nationalism to environmental protection. Opladen 1980, p. 235 ff
  15. ↑ Berliner Extra Dienst, 23. – 26. October 1968
  16. ↑ So also the deputy chairman Oskar Lutz (1967) and Wolf Schenke, who in 1968 stopped working for the AUD.
  17. ↑ D for Dubcek . In: Der Spiegel . No. 41 , 1969, p. 41 ( online ). Quote: " The emissaries of the hapless splinter party (AUD share of the vote in 1965: 0.2%), in whose ranks now radical democratic-socialist comrades have pushed the formerly predominant nationalist-neutralist comrades into the background ... "
  18. ↑ Richard Stöss: Conservative Revolution against the basic consensus. From nationalism to environmental protection. Opladen 1980, p. 226 f.
  19. ↑ Richard Stöss: Conservative Revolution against the basic consensus. From nationalism to environmental protection. Opladen 1980, p. 260
  20. ↑ Richard Stöss: Conservative Revolution against the basic consensus. From nationalism to environmental protection. Opladen 1980, p. 259.
  21. ↑ AUD program, Munich no year, p. 20.
  22. ↑ AUD program, Munich no year, p. 29.
  23. ↑ Richard Stöss: Conservative Revolution against the basic consensus. From nationalism to environmental protection. Opladen 1980, p. 329 (available on the Internet at: Download Springer (7544 kB) - Springer)
  24. ↑ cit. according to: Silke Mende: The formation of the "founding Greens " in the Federal Republic of the 1970s and early 1980s, in: La Clé des Langues , Lyon, ENS de LYON / DGESCO (ISSN 2107-7029), January 2009, p. 4.
  25. ↑ see also Silke Mende: “Not right, nothing left, but in front”. A story of the founding Greens. Munich 2011.
  26. ↑ Gießener Anzeiger No. 69 of March 22, 1976: "AUD sees itself as the sixth political force in Germany - 50% of the candidates are women ... With this, the AUD wants to prove how serious it is with its demand for equal rights. “ See also election poster
  27. ↑ The special feature of the Bavarian electoral law was used to be able to give oneself an additional designation, so that the ballot paper read "Action Group Independent Germans - The Greens".
  28. ↑ http://www.apabiz.de/archiv/material/Profile/AUD-2.htm
  29. ↑ Party handbook by Stöss (1986 [1983]: 314, FN 12)