But no national referendum has been held since Hitler manipulated results

Leading figures in the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party are calling for a 'Dexit' - Deutschland out of the EU - vote in the wake of the Brexit victory in the UK.

Branding Brussels a 'bureaucracy monster' the party which trounced Angela Merkel's conservatives in vital regional polls in the spring, AfD heavyweights say it will have bigger fish to fry after the general election in the autumn of next year.

'Next year the AfD will enter the German parliament and Dexit will be top on our agenda', said Franz Wiese, European policy spokesman for the party and an MP in the regional parliament in Brandenburg near Berlin.

Glum: Angela Merkel's conservatives were trounced in vital regional polls in the spring, and now AfD heavyweights are calling for a 'Dexit' from the EU - an exit of Deutschland

Demand: Georg Pazderski of Alternative fuer Deutschland said 'Germans must decide on staying in the EU. The AfD is the only party which speaks out clearly in favour of them deciding'

Tense: David Cameron arrived in Brussels today for a summit meeting - but will not be allowed to attend tomorrow. Meanwhile German far-right parties called for a referendum on an EU exit by Germany

He was joined by the Thuringian AfD Group Chairman Björn Höcke also demanding a free vote for all Germans on the issue saying: 'I know the German people want to be free of EU slavery.'

And Georg Pazderski of the Berlin AfD, said: 'Germans must decide on staying in the EU. The AfD is the only party which speaks out clearly in favour of them deciding.'

Frauke Petry, the firebrand party leader who caused a storm earlier this year when she called for German police to be authorised to open fire on illegal immigrants trying to come to Germany, has not entered the referendum debate.

But she was nevertheless delighted at Brexit, stating through a spokesman : 'This is the chance for a new Europe, one which maintains partnerships and respected national sovereignties.

'The Great Britain decision to leave the EU is a signal to the Brussels Politburo and its bureaucratic attachments. If the EU does not finally leave its wrong path, and the quasi-socialist experiment of deeper political integration, more European Nations will reclaim their sovereignty the way British are.

Brexit joy: Frauke Petry, the firebrand party leader who caused a storm earlier this year when she called for German police to be authorised to open fire on illegal immigrants trying to come to Germany, said: 'This is the chance for a new Europe, one which maintains partnerships and respected national sovereignties.'

Ms Petry added: 'The Great Britain decision to leave the EU is a signal to the Brussels Politburo and its bureaucratic attachments'

Bjorn Hoecke is demanding a free vote for all Germans on the issue saying: 'I know the German people want to be free of EU slavery' while Franz Wiese, right, is supporting calls for a referendum in Germany, saying 'Dexit will be top on our agenda'

NATIONALISTS IN GREECE ALSO DEMAND EU REFERENDUM A year ago the Greek people voted against the austerity measures that the Greek government did not want to pass, but the result was ignored by ruling party Syriza. A recent opinion poll found 71 per cent of those who took part had an unfavourable view of the EU - far higher than in the UK. Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party is calling for a second referendum. Spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris said: 'Finally, the European countries have realised that the EU and the way it works right now is our destruction, both financially and socially. 'The EU, at least when it comes to Greece, causes a bunch of problems. They don't allow us to develop our agricultural production, they don't allow any trade links between us and Russia, they don't allow our economy to get better, and, of course, via the memorandums, there is a clearance sale going on in Greece. 'So, we should re-examine the terms the agreement with the EU follows. Golden Dawn has officially asked for a second referendum about us remaining in the Eurozone or not. After all, Euro is one of the main reasons we have reached to this point. 'If we come to power, we will definitely apply the 'NO' vote and we will indict the arrangements that the government passed as laws without keeping its voters' opinion in mind. 'Also, we will call for a second referendum about our stay in the Eurozone.' Advertisement

'The result would be more exits. At the very least the Brussels bureaucracy must be radically reduced and the centralist regulation craze ended.

'The time is ripe for a new Europe, a Europe of fatherlands, where we peacefully trade with each other, maintain partnerships and respect the will of the national sovereignties.

'One can only warn the German government not to fill the missing British net contribution with German tax money and thus continue the political fallacy.'

Germany's postwar constitution allows for referendums in only two circumstances - if the constitution itself, or if the territories of the states making up the republic, are to be changed.

There was a succesful one in 1951 combining Baden and Württemberg into a single state, and one in 1996 seeking to link Berlin and Brandenburg into a similar entity, which was rejected.

On average there are 200 local referendums each year on matters of policing, enviornment, sanitation, building projects and education.

But the experience of the Nazi manipulation of plebiscites made the postwar constitution writers shy away from them being used at the national level.

'Germany is one of the few EU countries with no experience of national referendums,' said Ralph Kampwirth of the Initiative & Referendum Institute Europe.

'In the Weimar Republic there were two national referendums (in 1926 and 1929); during the Nazi reign, three plebiscites were held, with biased questions and blatant manipulation of results.

Prisoners look out from behind a barbed wire enclosure at the Dachau concentration camp in Germany in this 1945 file photo. The Nazis abused plebiscites to claim prisoners supported the camps

Concentration camp prisoners march through a village while on a death march from the German towns of Dachau to Wolfratshausen, April 1945. Hitler abused referendums by claimed that prisoners at Dachau supported them

'A referendum does not mandate an organized political opposition —it simply requires a yes or no answer - one reason why both Napoleon and Hitler were enamored of them.'

Hitler used them to ratify withdrawal from the League of Nations and the Nazis falsely claimed 2,154 of 2,242 inmates at the hideous Dachau concentration camp were for it.

In 1934 came his illegal melding of the offices of President and Chancellor. He received a thumping majority, but of course had no political opposition by then.

The wording was extremely leading. 'The office of the President of the Reich is unified with the office of the Chancellor. Consequently all former powers of the President of the Reich are demised to the Führer and Chancellor of the Reich Adolf Hitler. He himself nominates his substitute. Do you, German man and German woman, approve of this regulation provided by this Law?'

Against this backdrop others believe the party, if it does achieve more than five percent of the vote next year and enters the Bundestag, may settle instead for far-reaching reforms in Brussels.

Swansong: David Cameron arrived in Brussels today for a summit and evening dinner, but will be required to leave before tomorrow when leaders discuss Brexit

The leadership under Frau Petry says it wants an end to the political aspect of the European project, to turn it back to essentially the trading bloc it started out as, and to achieve a 'common European policy' on refugees which will mean Germany takes no more in.

But referendum or not, the political elites in Germany are horrified at what happened in the UK - and equally horrified by a poll by the respected Emnid research group on Friday whic h showed 29 percent of Germans - one in three- wanting a Dexit vote to take place, if only to find out the 'EU's whereabouts.'

And while one-in-three maybe manageable, a full 67 percent of respondents called for 'radical reforms' of the organization.

Alexander Gauland, deputy leader of the party, did not blame Britain for quitting the EU club, but Mrs. Merkel, stating; 'Mrs Merkel has expelled the British with her open borders in Europe.' His AfD colleague Beatrix von Storch said she cried with joy' at the Brexit vote.

Gauland rejected an immediate AfD campaign to pull Germany out of the EU because of infighting at the top of the party, a recent one percent plunge in its popularity ratings triggered by one of the leadership's anti-semitic views and the fact that the constitution itself would need to be changed in order to allow a vote to go ahead.

But that doesn't mean it will not become an election issue next year; akll political commentators say it most definitely will.