Sebastian Schmidtke, head of the National Democratic Party’s Berlin branch, was convicted Wednesday in municipal court of incitement and displaying the symbols of anti-constitutional organizations—meaning he sold some banned Nazi paraphernalia.
According to AP, Schmidtke received a suspended eight-month prison sentence for selling CDs that glorified Nazism and incited violence.
A shop owned by Schmidtke sold music CDs with lyrics expressing hatred for Jews, foreigners and gays, encouraging violence against them, and using banned slogans glorifying Nazism.
Schmidtke, who may appeal the ruling, denies selling any CDs in his shop.
Meanwhile, all of Germany’s 16 state governments this week have begun to push for the country’s high court to ban the NPD.
NPD was founded in 1964, the successor to the German Reich Party (DRP), supposedly Germany’s “only significant patriotic force.” In 2011, the far-right German People’s Union (DV) merged with the NPD.
The party is described as neo-Nazi, possibly the most significant neo-Nazi party since 1945. The German Federal Agency for Civic Education, (BPB), has associates the NPD with a number of banned neo-nazi organizations. The German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz) classifies the NPD as a “threat to the constitutional order” because of its platform and philosophy.
An effort to outlaw the NPD failed in 2003.
The NPD has representatives in two state parliaments, but no seats at the federal level.
Just for the record, back in 1927, Hitler had even less than that, and then look what he managed in such a short period of time.
And now, because you couldn’t stop thinking about it since you clicked to this item, Monty Python’s “Mr. Hilter” sketch.