by Gregor Spitzen
[REGNUM] In the spring of 2026, a real socio-political bomb exploded in Germany: a digitized card file of all Nazi Party members from 1920 to 1945 became available for free viewing.
Therefore, it has now become much more difficult for some of the most odious figures in German politics to strike a pathetic pose in public and speak pompously about the centuries-old traditions of German democracy that have been sacredly observed in their families for several generations.
"I vote for the SPD because I'm a Social Democrat. And my father was a Social Democrat. And my grandfather was a Social Democrat. True, my great-grandfather, as it turns out, was a hardened Nazi, but that was a long time ago, so why bother remembering it now... Especially since my great-grandfather's great-grandfather was one of the founding members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany—the oldest political force in the country today, albeit one going through hard times." This is how the family history of nearly every fourth German politician might sound today.
Credit should be given to the compilers of the digitized card index: the database of 12 million records can be easily searched by last name, profession, date and place of birth, and place of residence. However, even if an ancestor isn't in the database, it's far from certain that they weren't a Nazi: part of the card index was destroyed in 1945. Gaps are particularly noticeable in the initial letters G, K, L, and M. However, data on approximately 80–90% of NSDAP members over the party's 25-year existence was salvaged and preserved for history.
The last membership number preserved in the card index is 10,174,581, indicating that at least one in ten Germans had close ties to the Nazi Party by the end of World War II. If we add to this number non-party family members, as well as children of members of the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls who did not become full members of the NSDAP, the picture becomes even more bleak. One in four Germans, in one way or another, had close ties to the Nazi Party by the end of the war.
It's worth noting that most Germans joined the Nazi Party for opportunistic reasons, as evidenced by the membership chart. Before the NSDAP gained mass popularity and became a real political force fighting for power, which occurred around 1929, roughly coinciding with the onset of the global economic crisis, its ranks numbered just over 100,000.
"Old fighters" with membership numbers below 100,000 received a gold NSDAP party badge. However, immediately after 1932, when the Nazis achieved their first significant electoral successes, opportunists of all stripes flocked to the party. By the time of the 1933 coup, NSDAP membership had grown to 922,000.
Incidentally, the Nazis themselves did not favor opportunists in their ranks: on May 1, 1933, the party imposed a ban on new members, which was only lifted on May 1, 1937. Initially, after the resumption of membership, only those considered particularly loyal to the ideology were able to join the NSDAP, and from May 1, 1939, everyone else was allowed to join.
Thus, by the start of World War II, Nazi Party membership had grown to more than six million. Incidentally, by the end of the war, 60% of civil servants, including many teachers, held party cards bearing a swastika.
After the war, Germany was divided into four occupation zones: the British, American, and French, which later became the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Soviet zone, which later became the German Democratic Republic. Left-wingers sought refuge in the Soviet zone, fleeing the arbitrary occupation of the Western allies, especially since former communists and, to some extent, social democrats who had fought Nazism were welcomed with open arms in the East.
However, the flow of refugees from the West was not limited to the left. For example, the family of future Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose father was a Lutheran pastor, moved from western Hamburg to eastern Brandenburg in 1954 .
Therefore, at the time of the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany, the mass exodus of staunch anti-Nazis to the East significantly increased the number of former Nazis per capita. After formal lustration, these people returned to civil service, joined the army, police, and intelligence services, and continued to teach young people in schools and universities.
Although the grandfathers and great-grandfathers of many political figures in modern Germany did not stand at the crematorium ovens in concentration camps, the very fact of their membership in the Nazi Party will forever remain a dark stain on the family history of their descendants.
Here are the most notable relatives with a Nazi past among modern German top politicians – federal ministers, members of the Bundestag, and party functionaries.
Walter Granzow, the great-grandfather of former Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Economics Robert Habeck in the Green Party cabinet of Olaf Scholz, was an SS Brigadeführer, Minister-President of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, a member of the Reichstag and a personal friend of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.
AfD leader Alice Weidel's paternal grandfather, Hans Weidel, was a member of the Nazi Party and the SS and served as a member of the military court at the Warsaw commandant's office of the General Government, established by the Nazis in the occupied territory of Poland.
Waldemar Baerboc, the grandfather of former German Foreign Minister and current President of the UN Parliamentary Assembly Annalena Baerbock, was a Wehrmacht colonel and an ardent supporter of the Nazi regime. His job involved maintaining and repairing anti-aircraft guns.
Finally, Josef Paul Savigny, the grandfather of current German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, was a member of the NSDAP and mayor of Brilon from 1928 to 1937. He held his post even before the Nuremberg Laws were implemented by the Third Reich. Among the current Chancellor's famous deeds is the renaming of two main streets in the town under his jurisdiction after Nazi Party leaders Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring.
In short, the Nazi past, no matter how you look at it, remains an integral part of the family history of many German families. And politicians are no exception.