National Socialist Workers Party of Denmark
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Danmarks Nationalsocialistiske Arbejderparti (National Socialist Workers Party of Denmark), or DNSAP, was the largest Danish Nazi party before and during the Second World War.
The party was founded on 16 November 1930, after the success of the Nazis in the German Reichstag elections of that year. The party mimicked the German nazi party in Germany, including the use of the swastika and Hitler salute, the naming of their fighting force as SA, and even the singing of a translated version of the Horst Wessel Song. The party was clearly antisemitic.
The party was initially led by Cay Lembcke, although they attracted no more than a few hundred members under his leadership and failed to gain even minor support in the elections of 1932.
Lembcke was replaced in 1933 by Frits Clausen, who concentrated the activities in his home territory of North Schleswig, where the bulk of support for the DNSAP was to come from. At the 1939 elections, the party won three seats in the Folketing (parliament), corresponding to 1.8% of the popular vote.
The recruitment for Waffen SS and Frikorps Danmark (Free Corps Denmark) was organized by DNSAP.
DNSAP supported Hitler's invasion and subsequent occupation of Denmark on April 9, 1940. A transition to Nazi government in Denmark was considered by the German administrator, Cecil von Renthe-Fink, in the end of 1940, but due to the policy of co-operation with the legitimate Danish government, it was deemed better to wait until Germany had won the war, although DNSAP did receive some financial and political support from Germany.
After the end of the Second World War, the party was officially dissolved in May 1945, and lost almost all of its popular support. However, a few individuals continued their work under the old party name. The current Danmarks Nationalsocialistiske Bevægelse traces its origins back to the DNSAP.
