I haven't been following the Freie Wähler a lot either, until I recently saw that they were polling quite well.

This is what the German wiki says:

Wählergruppe - Wikipedia		Wählergruppe - Wikipedia
Eine Wählergruppe (andere Bezeichnungen: Wählergemeinschaft, Wählervereinigung, Parteifreie, Rathauspartei) ist eine Vereinigung, die zu Wahlen antritt, ohne den Status einer politischen Partei zu haben. Es handelt sich hierbei um einen Zusammenschluss engagierter Bürger zur Kandidatur bei Wahlen. Oft entstehen Wählergruppen aus Bürgerinitiativen. Sehr oft - aber nicht zwingend notwendig - sind Wählergruppen örtlich organisiert in Form eines eingetragenen Vereins (e.V.).		A Wählergruppe [voter's collective is what I'd translate it as - Nanne] is an association which participates in elections, without having the status of a political party. In such a case, engaged citizens form a pool to arrange their candidature for elections. Voter's collectives often form out of citizen's initiatives and are usually - but not necessarily - organised locally in the form of a registered association.

The 'Free Voters Bavaria' have been active locally since 1978, and first participated in statewide elections in 1998. They are very successful locally, to the point where they are actually the second party of Bavaria in terms of local representation by now.

It seems the answer is 'no'. Just a localist party gone statewide. Of course, they are getting the votes from the CSU...

No, they've been around for some decades in certain states. It's not a real party, but independent candidates running on a more or less similar platform. They've never been in any parliament (IIRC) and have now become the third largest faction, probably because the FDP is too socially liberal for many disgruntled conservatives.

"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Sun Tzu