Driven to Extremes

MATTHIAS RIETSCHEL/AP

Holger Apfel, faction leader of the far-right NPD

Uwe Leichsenring seems like a typical bürger from small-town Germany. He lives with his wife and child in the tiny village of Königstein in the former East German state of Saxony, where he owns three driving schools and is a member of the town council. Leichsenring, 37, was celebrating last week after being elected to Saxony's state parliament. But he's not your typical candidate. He's a leader of the National Democratic Party (NPD), an extreme-right-wing movement that the German government has tried unsuccessfully to ban because of its neo-Nazi leanings. Leichsenring acknowledges that his campaign was partly based on the slogan...

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