German People's Union

German People's Union Deutsche Volksunion
Leader	Matthias Faust
Founded	1971, party organized officially in 1987
Dissolved	1 January 2011
Merged into	National Democratic Party of Germany
Headquarters	Munich, Bavaria
Ideology	German nationalism Pan-Germanism Right-wing populism
Political position	Third Position
European affiliation	None
International affiliation	None
European Parliament group	None
Colours	Red, Black, Grey, Gold
Website
http://www.dvu.de
Politics of Germany Political parties Elections

The German People's Union (German: Deutsche Volksunion, DVU, also Liste D) was a nationalist political party in Germany. It was founded by publisher Gerhard Frey as an informal association in 1971 and established as a party in 1987. Financially, it was largely dependent on Frey. In 2011, it merged with the National Democratic Party of Germany.

The party has never reached the five-percent minimum in federal elections that is generally necessary to enter the Bundestag. The DVU has however gained seats in several state parliaments.

In 2004, the DVU entered a non-competition agreement with the National Democratic Party (NPD) for the state elections in Brandenburg and Saxony. Both parties passed the five-percent threshold in their respective states. The DVU reached 6.1 percent in the Brandenburg state elections, and the NPD won 9.2 percent in the Saxony state elections. After this relatively successful election, the parties formed an electoral alliance for the 2005 federal elections. The joint NPD-DVU slate, which ran under the NPD's ballot line, won 1.6 percent of the total votes nationally.

In 2009, party founder Frey did not run for reelection as chairman and was replaced by Matthias Faust. In 2010, a referendum of party members approved a merger of the DVU and the National Democratic Party of Germany. Several state sections of the DVU objected to the merger and achieved a preliminary injunction from the Landgericht Munich based on irregularities during the referendum. On May 26, 2012, these objections were withdrawn and the DVU declared defunct. Several branches and individuals objected to the (perceived) links between the NPD and nazism, and instead joined with the smaller party Die Republikaner (www.rep.de) who were considered more moderate. This was especially true in North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria, where Die Republikaner were traditionally strongest. Some other individuals formed a new party called Die Rechte (meaning "the Right").

External links

• DVU web site site defunct

(German)