The National Democratic Party [Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands or NPD] was founded in 1964 as an umbrella organization for 80 different radical right-wing groups. Between April 1964 and November 1966, it won seats in several state parliaments, and there were times when it boasted as many as 30,000 members. But party membership and vote counts dwindled after the NPD failed to win seats in the Bundestag in 1969. On June 17, 1978, the NPD staged a march to Frankfurt’s Römerberg Square. (At the time, June 17th was the Day of German Unity in the Federal Republic.) To protest the march, several thousand people gathered in downtown Frankfurt, where demonstrators clashed with the police. The NPD march prompted Frankfurt’s Jewish community, its Protestant and Catholic churches, the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB), and the city’s association of youth organizations [Stadtjugendring] to form a local alliance [Römerbergbündnis] against right-wing extremism. The protesters’ signs read: “Nazis out of Frankfurt” (middle) and “’33 be watchful!,” a reference to the year when Hitler came to power (right).