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Video of Third Path demonstration on 15 October 2016 in Fürth
A group of people bearing Der Dritte Weg flags marched in through a town in Saxony on 1 May 2019, the day before the Jewish remembrance of the Holocaust, carrying a banner saying "Social justice instead of criminal foreigners". The Central Council of Jews said that the state government should ban such marches if it were serious about tackling right-wing extremism.[14] The party stood in the 2019 European elections, achieving 0.03% of the vote.
During the 2021 German federal election, the party had controversial posters which called for Hang the Greens. These posters were ordered to be taken down by the courts later on.[15][16][17]
In October 2024 party member Andreas Münzhuber slipped to his death while climbing Hitler's favourite mountain Untersberg.[18][19]
Name
The party is registered at the Federal Returning Office as "DER DRITTE WEG" short-form: "III. Weg".[20] According to the party's website, the official English translation of the name is "The Third Way", stylized as "THE THIRD WAY".[21] Despite this, the party's name is commonly translated as "The Third Path" or "The III. Path".[22][23]
Structure
In Bavaria, the six "bases" in 2014 reflected the centers of the former comradeships.[24] In 2019, the party succeeded in expanding its structures, albeit only slightly.[25] Accordingly, only three of the planned four regional associations have been founded so far. The party has not yet succeeded in establishing structures in the north of Germany.[26] At the federal party conference in September 2019, Der III. Weg decided to amend its statutes to restructure the regional associations into state associations. The party had previously taken part in the local elections in Saxony in 2019, but was denied participation in the state elections in Saxony on September 1, 2019, by the state election committee for formal reasons. With the amendments to the statutes, the party underlined its intention to continue to contest elections in the future and thus fulfil or consolidate one of the requirements necessary to maintain party status.[27]
In 2019, the estimated number of members/followers/supporters nationwide increased to around 580.[28] As of 2021, the majority of the approximately 650 full and supporting members[29] were active in the federal states of Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony,[30] and since 2019 also in NRW in the greater Cologne-Düsseldorf area.[31]
According to the constitutional protection report of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the party is mainly financed by donations and contributions in 2019.[33]
10 point program
On its website, the party presents a 10-point election program, available in 12 European languages.[21][34]
^Verfassungsschutzbericht Bayern 2014 (Archived June 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive) In: Bayerisches Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz, 2015 (PDF).
^Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz: . Hrsg.: Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz. S. 80.
^Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (Red.): Verfassungsschutzbericht 2017. Herausgegeben vom Bundesministerium des Innern, für Bau und Heimat, Stand July 2018, S. 78 (PDF; 4,5 MB). Retrieved 5 May 2019.
^Verfassungsschutzbericht 2016. (PDF) Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, retrieved 6 July 2017.
^Verfassungsschutzbericht des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen über das Jahr 2019, Stand June 2020, S. 108-110. (PDF) Ministerium des Innern des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, 9 June 2020, retrieved 9 June 2020.
