German Party Deutsche Partei | |
---|---|
Volksgruppeführer | Franz Karmasin |
Founded | October 8, 1938 |
Dissolved | 1945 |
Preceded by | Carpathian German Party |
Newspaper | Grenzebote, Deutsche Stimmen |
Youth wing | German Youth |
Paramilitary wing | Freiwillige Schutzstaffel |
Labour wing | Arbeitsfront der Volksdeutschen in der Slowakei |
Membership (1940) | 57,000 (claimed) |
Ideology | Nazism |
Slovak Landtag (1938) | 2 / 63
|
Party flag | |
The German Party ( German: Deutsche Partei, abbreviated DP) was a Nazi political party active amongst the German minority in Slovakia from 1938 to 1945. [1] [2]
The party was formed on October 8, 1938, as a successor to the Carpathian German Party (KdP). [3] [4] Franz Karmasin, a member of the Czechoslovak Chamber of Deputies, led the party, holding the title of Volksgruppeführer. [3] DP functioned as the referent in Slovakia for the German People's Group in Czecho-Slovakia (DVG), the successor organization of the Sudeten German Party founded on October 30, 1938. [3] The party published Grenzbote and Deutschen Stimmen from Bratislava. [2]
Organizationally, DP was modelled after the NSDAP in Germany, following the Führer principle. [4] [5] It used the swastika as its symbol and Horst-Wessel-Lied as its anthem. [4] The DP youth wing was known as 'German Youth' (Deutsche Jugend) and maintained a paramilitary wing called Freiwillige Schutzstaffel. [4] Politically DP strove to foster homogenous Carpathian German communities and to maintain a privileged position for the German community in Slovakia. [6] The party was closely aligned with German foreign policy. [6] The first article of the DP statutes from March 1, 1940, proclaimed that "the German Party [was] representative of the political will of the entire German population in Slovakia". [7] However, not all Germans in Slovakia were happy with the supposed unity party; DP faced resistance from followers of the pro-Hungarian Zipser German Party. [5]
On December 18, 1938, the German Party got two deputies elected to the Slovak Landtag on the unity list of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party – Party of Slovak National Unity (HSĽS-SSNJ); Karmasin and Josef Steinhübl. [2] [4] In March 1940 the DP politician Sigmund Keil became a member of the Landtag, replacing Gejza Rehák. [2] On November 20, 1941, a fourth DP politician became a Landtag member, as Dr. Adalbert Gabriel was appointed by presidential decree to represent the German community. [2]
By 1940 DP claimed to have 57,000 members organized in 120 local groups. [8] It folded in 1945. [2] [9]