Frits Clausen: The Failed Danish Fuhrer

As leader of Denmark's National Socialist Workers' Party (DNSAP), Frits Clausen became the most prominent Danish National Socialist between 1934 and 1945. The party became the largest of the Danish Nazi parties and the only such party to be elected to parliament in the 1939 and 1943 elections. As a result of a lack of political success, Clausen's role in the party diminished, and in 1944 he was replaced by a so-called "leadership council". By this time, however, he had effectively left the DNSAP and joined the Waffen-SS. Clausen was arrested in May 1945; he died in prison in 1947 before his case had gone to court. This article shows how he failed to equip his party with an appropriately Danish version of National Socialist ideology, and how he ultimately ended up serving German ideological interests during occupation.