Adolf von Thadden

Adolf von Thadden (7 July 1921 – 16 July 1996) was a German far-right politician who led the National Democratic Party.

Early life Adolf von Thadden was born at the noble estate of Gut Trieglaff, near Greifenberg, Pomerania, on 7 July 1921, to and his second wife. He was a member of the Junker Thadden family. His half-sister Elisabeth von Thadden was executed by the Nazis in 1944.

Thadden was educated at the gymnasium in Greifenberg He became member number 7,155,873 of the Nazi Party on 1 September 1939.

Thadden served as a lieutenant with the Wehrmacht in the Second World War, suffering a number of battle injuries during the conflict. A brigade adjutant in the artillery section, he was captured near the end of the war by Polish forces. Thadden later went to court to sue over rumours that he had collaborated with the Poles during his imprisonment. He was successful in his case. As a member of both, he served as a councilman in Göttingen from 1948 to 1958.

Having served as deputy to the Deutsche Reichspartei leader Wilhelm Meinberg, He specifically denied any accusations of neo-Nazism levelled at him, portraying himself as a supporter of conservative nationalism. due to his prominent opposition to the notion of any German guilt for the Second World War. He moved the party to the right, bringing in policies such as withdrawal from NATO, a return of Danzig to a united Germany, wide-ranging reform of the constitution and possibly a second Anschluss. Although a loyal supporter of his successor, Martin Mussgnug, Thadden eventually left the NPD in 1975 after Gerhard Frey, who had previously been a harsh critic of von Thadden, was appointed Federal Administrator of the party.

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. in 1981 and 1982.