The DVU, however, stayed away from party politics and instead organised protest marches against the German government's Ostpolitik, the rapprochement with Poland and Eastern Europe.

It formed a number of action committees:[7] Membership in the DVU fluctuated in the following years but stood at 12,000 by 1986, making it the largest registered far-right organisation in Germany at the time.

[6] On 5 March 1987, the association became a party with the help of a large number of former NPD officials, something Frey had started planning the year before.

[7][9] Frey's official reason for forming a party at the time was his disappointment with the German conservative-liberal Federal Government in regards to foreigners, security and policy towards East Germany.

[7] Frey had spent more money on the Bremen campaign than the major party in the state combined and benefited from targeting protest voters.

Despite this financial and political defeat, the DVU expanded its membership to 25,000 by 1989,[9] and won six seats in the Parliament of Bremen in 1991, becoming the third-largest party there.

[11] Frey attempted to form alliances with the other two major far-right and right-wing parties in Germany but was rebuffed by the REP as being too extremist and by the NPD as being too moderate and business-orientated.

[11] In 1998 the DVU achieved its greatest election success, winning 12.8 percent, 16 seats, in Saxony-Anhalt, and a quarter of all votes of the young voters aged 18 to 25.

The joint NPD-DVU slate, which ran under the NPD's ballot line, won 1.6 percent of the total votes nationally.

[13] Several state sections of the DVU objected to the merger and achieved a preliminary injunction from the Landgericht Munich based on irregularities during the referendum.

Several branches and individuals objected to the perceived links between the NPD and Nazism and instead joined with the smaller party the Republicans, who were considered more moderate.