Far right in Germany
Encyclopedia
Following the fall of Nazi Germany
and the dissolution of the Nazi Party in 1945, the far right
in Germany
quickly re-organized itself.
The Deutsche Rechtspartei
was founded in 1946, succeeded by the Deutsche Reichspartei
in 1950. The Socialist Reich Party
was founded in 1949. The German Social Union (West Germany)
was another 1950s Neo-Nazi foundation.
The Free German Workers' Party
was founded in 1979 and outlawed in 1995. The Nationalist Front
was active during the 1980s. The Volkssozialistische Bewegung Deutschlands/Partei der Arbeit
was outlawed in 1982.
The National Offensive
existed 1990-1992.
The German People's Union
was founded in 1987, the German Alternative
in 1989, the German League for People and Homeland
in 1991
The currently most successful movement is the National Democratic Party of Germany
, notably winning 9.2% in the 2004 state election
in Saxony
, and winning 1.6% of the nation-wide vote in the 2005 federal elections
. In the 2006 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state election, the NPD received 7.3% of the vote and thus achieved state representation there, as well. The NPD had 5,300 registered party members in 2004. Over the course of 2006, the NPD processed roughly 1,000 party applications to put the membership total at 7,000. The DVU has 8,500 members.
The total number of potentially right extremist individuals in Germany was estimated by the Verfassungsschutz (Federal German intelligence) to 31,000 as of 2007, of which an estimated 10,000 were classified as potentially violent
(gewaltbereit). In 2011, the Verfassungsschutz reported a total of 25,000 right-wing extremists in Germany, including 5,600 neo-Nazis. In the same report, 15.905 crimes committed in 2010 were classified as far-right motivated, compared to 18.750 in 2009; these crimes included 762 acts of violence in 2010 compared to 891 in 2009. While the overall numbers have declined, the Verfassungsschutz says that both the number of neo-Nazis and the potential for violent acts have nevertheless increased, especially among the growing number of Autonome Nationalisten
("Independent Nationalists") who gradually replace the declining number of Nazi Skinheads.
s and migrant workers in Hoyerswerda
and Schwedt
, Eberswalde
, Eisenhüttenstadt
, Elsterwerda
in 1991; and in Rostock
-Lichtenhagen in 1992. Neo-Nazis were involved in the murders of three Turkish
girls in a 1992 arson attack in Mölln, in which nine other people were injured. A 1993 arson attack
by far-right skinheads on the house of a Turkish family in Solingen
resulted in the deaths of two women and three girls, as well as in severe injuries for seven other people. In the aftermath, anti-racist protests precipitated massive neo-Nazi counter-demonstrations and violent clashes between neo-Nazis and anti-fascists
.
German statistics show that in 1991, there were 849 hate crimes, and in 1992 there were 1,485 (with a significant concentration in the eastern Bundesländer
). After 1992, the numbers went down, although they have risen sharply in subsequent years. In four decades of the former East Germany, 17 people have been murdered by far right groups.
Beginning in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Neo-Nazis started holding demonstrations on the anniversary of the Bombing of Dresden in World War II
. The 2009 march was organized by Junge Landsmannschaft Ostdeutschland
, which is supported by the National Democratic Party of Germany
(NPD). Surrounded by policemen, 6,000 neo-Nazis were never let out of their meeting point. At the same time, some 15,000 people with white roses came out in the streets holding hands to demonstrate against Nazism, this making an alternative “memory day” of war victims.
Neo-Nazis painted graffiti on nine Polish-owned cars in Löcknitz
in 2008. In 2011 neo-Nazis were linked to 10 murders
German law forbids the production of pro-Nazi materials, although they have been smuggled into the country. Neo-Nazi rock bands
such as Landser
have been outlawed in Germany, yet bootleg
copies of their albums printed in the United States and other countries are still sold in the country. German neo-Nazi websites mostly depend on Internet servers in the US and Canada
. They often use symbols that are reminiscent of the swastika
, and adopt other symbols used by the Nazis, such as the sun cross
, wolf's hook
and black sun.
Neo-Nazi groups that have been active in Germany and have attracted government attention include Volkssozialistische Bewegung Deutschlands/Partei der Arbeit
(banned in 1982), Action Front of National Socialists/National Activists
(banned in 1983), the Nationalist Front
(banned in 1992), the Free German Workers' Party
, German Alternative
and National Offensive
. German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble
condemned the Homeland-Faithful German Youth, accusing it of teaching children that anti-immigrant racism and anti-Semitism are acceptable. Homeland-Faithful German Youth claimed that it was centred primarily on "environment, community and homeland", but it has been argued to have links to the National Democratic Party (NPD)
.
Historian Walter Laqueur
writes that the far right
NPD cannot be classified as neo-Nazi. In 2004, NPD received 9.1% of the vote in the parliamentary elections for Saxony
, thus earning the right to seat state parliament
members. The other parties refused to enter discussions with the NPD. In the 2006 parliamentary elections for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
, the NPD received 7.3% of the vote and six seats in the state parliament
. On March 13, 2008, NPD leader Udo Voigt
was charged with incitement (Volksverhetzung), for distributing racially-charged pamphlets referring to German footballer Patrick Owoyomela, whose mother is Nigerian. In 2009, he was given a seven-month suspended sentence and ordered to donate 2,000 euros to UNICEF.
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and the dissolution of the Nazi Party in 1945, the far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
quickly re-organized itself.
The Deutsche Rechtspartei
Deutsche Rechtspartei
The German Right Party was a right-wing political party that emerged in the British zone of Allied-occupied Germany after the Second World War....
was founded in 1946, succeeded by the Deutsche Reichspartei
Deutsche Reichspartei
For the party that existed in Imperial Germany, see Free Conservative Party.The Deutsche Reichspartei was a nationalist political party in West Germany...
in 1950. The Socialist Reich Party
Socialist Reich Party
The Socialist Reich Party of Germany was a West German far-right political party founded in the aftermath of the World War II in 1949 as an openly Nazi orientated split-off from the national conservative German Right Party...
was founded in 1949. The German Social Union (West Germany)
German Social Union (West Germany)
German Social Union was a Neo-Nazi political party founded in Germany in the 1950s by Otto Strasser, who advocated a relatively more left-wing position in the far-right Nazi Party. It was intended to more closely combine German nationalism and socialism....
was another 1950s Neo-Nazi foundation.
The Free German Workers' Party
Free German Workers' Party
The Free German Workers' Party was a neo-nazi political association in Germany. It was outlawed by the Constitutional Court in 1995.The FAP was founded in 1979 but was largely insignificant until the banning of the Action Front of National Socialists/National Activists in 1983 when Michael Kühnen...
was founded in 1979 and outlawed in 1995. The Nationalist Front
Nationalist Front
Nationalistische Front was a minor German neo-Nazi group active during the 1980s.Founded in 1985 by Meinolf Schönborn the group, which had no more than 150 members, was characterized by its support for Strasserism rather than more usual forms of Nazism...
was active during the 1980s. The Volkssozialistische Bewegung Deutschlands/Partei der Arbeit
Volkssozialistische Bewegung Deutschlands/Partei der Arbeit
Volkssozialistische Bewegung Deutschlands/Partei der Arbeit was a German Neo-Nazi group led by Friedhelm Busse...
was outlawed in 1982.
The National Offensive
National Offensive
The National Offensive was a German neo-Nazi party, which existed from July 3, 1990 to December 22, 1992.It was founded by Michael Swierczek, the former chairman of the Free German Workers' Party in Bavaria, who became the chairman of the NO, and Carlo Bauer, the president of the NO, during the...
existed 1990-1992.
The German People's Union
German People's Union
The German People's Union is a nationalist political party in Germany. It was founded by publisher Gerhard Frey as an informal association in 1971 and established as a party in 1987. Financially, it is largely dependent on Frey....
was founded in 1987, the German Alternative
German Alternative
The German Alternative was a minor neo-Nazi group set up in Germany by Michael Kühnen in 1989.Its declared goal was the restoration of the German Reich and rejected the cession of German areas in Eastern Europe following World War II as well as all immigration to Germany claiming that there were...
in 1989, the German League for People and Homeland
German League for People and Homeland
The German League for People and Homeland is a right wing political organization in Germany.-History:The DVLH had its orginis in the power struggle within Die Republikaner between moderate leader Franz Schönhuber and his more extreme deputy Harald Neubauer, which culminated in Schönhuber being...
in 1991
The currently most successful movement is the National Democratic Party of Germany
National Democratic Party of Germany
The National Democratic Party of Germany – The People's Union , is a far right German nationalist party. It was founded in 1964 a successor to the German Reich Party . Party statements self-identify as Germany's "only significant patriotic force"...
, notably winning 9.2% in the 2004 state election
Saxony state election, 2004
The Saxony state election of 2004, was conducted on September 19, 2004, to elect members to the Landtag of Saxony.-Outcome:* The most striking result of the election, gaining international attention, was the entrance into the Landtag of the nationalist NPD, which won 12 seats. Its strength was...
in Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
, and winning 1.6% of the nation-wide vote in the 2005 federal elections
German federal election, 2005
German federal elections took place on 18 September 2005 to elect the members of the 16th German Bundestag, the federal parliament of Germany. They became necessary after a motion of confidence in Chancellor Gerhard Schröder failed on 1 July...
. In the 2006 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state election, the NPD received 7.3% of the vote and thus achieved state representation there, as well. The NPD had 5,300 registered party members in 2004. Over the course of 2006, the NPD processed roughly 1,000 party applications to put the membership total at 7,000. The DVU has 8,500 members.
The total number of potentially right extremist individuals in Germany was estimated by the Verfassungsschutz (Federal German intelligence) to 31,000 as of 2007, of which an estimated 10,000 were classified as potentially violent
Violent crime
A violent crime or crime of violence is a crime in which the offender uses or threatens to use violent force upon the victim. This entails both crimes in which the violent act is the objective, such as murder, as well as crimes in which violence is the means to an end, such as robbery. Violent...
(gewaltbereit). In 2011, the Verfassungsschutz reported a total of 25,000 right-wing extremists in Germany, including 5,600 neo-Nazis. In the same report, 15.905 crimes committed in 2010 were classified as far-right motivated, compared to 18.750 in 2009; these crimes included 762 acts of violence in 2010 compared to 891 in 2009. While the overall numbers have declined, the Verfassungsschutz says that both the number of neo-Nazis and the potential for violent acts have nevertheless increased, especially among the growing number of Autonome Nationalisten
Autonome Nationalisten
Autonome Nationalisten are German, Dutch and to a lesser degree Flemish neo-Nazis who have adopted some of the far left's traditional dress , symbolism, and tactics . They began to appear in 2003-4 and are more violent than other members of the far right...
("Independent Nationalists") who gradually replace the declining number of Nazi Skinheads.
Activities
German neo-Nazis attacked accommodations for refugeeRefugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
s and migrant workers in Hoyerswerda
Hoyerswerda
Hoyerswerda is the largest city in the district of Bautzen in the German state of Saxony. It is located in Lusatia, a region where many people speak the Sorbian languages in addition to German.-Geography:...
and Schwedt
Schwedt
Schwedt is a city in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the largest city of the district Uckermark near the Oder river on the border with Poland.-Overview:...
, Eberswalde
Eberswalde
Eberswalde is a major town and the administrative seat of the district Barnim in the German Federal State of Brandenburg, about 50 km northeast of Berlin. Population 42144 , geographical location . The town is often called Waldstadt , because of the large forests around it, including the...
, Eisenhüttenstadt
Eisenhüttenstadt
Eisenhüttenstadt is a town in the Oder-Spree district of Brandenburg, Germany at the border with Poland. The town was founded in 1950 alongside a new steel mill as a socialist model city and has a population of 32,214...
, Elsterwerda
Elsterwerda
Elsterwerda is a town in the Elbe-Elster district, in southwestern Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated on the river Schwarze Elster, 48 km northwest of Dresden, and 11 km southeast of Bad Liebenwerda.-External links:...
in 1991; and in Rostock
Rostock
Rostock -Early history:In the 11th century Polabian Slavs founded a settlement at the Warnow river called Roztoc ; the name Rostock is derived from that designation. The Danish king Valdemar I set the town aflame in 1161.Afterwards the place was settled by German traders...
-Lichtenhagen in 1992. Neo-Nazis were involved in the murders of three Turkish
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
girls in a 1992 arson attack in Mölln, in which nine other people were injured. A 1993 arson attack
Solingen arson attack of 1993
The Solingen arson attack of 1993 was one of the most severe instances of anti-foreigner violence in modern Germany. On the night of May 28 to May 29, 1993, four young German men belonging to the far right skinhead scene, with neo-Nazi ties, set fire to the house of a large Turkish family in...
by far-right skinheads on the house of a Turkish family in Solingen
Solingen
Solingen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the northern edge of the region called Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr area, and with a 2009 population of 161,366 is the second largest city in the Bergisches Land...
resulted in the deaths of two women and three girls, as well as in severe injuries for seven other people. In the aftermath, anti-racist protests precipitated massive neo-Nazi counter-demonstrations and violent clashes between neo-Nazis and anti-fascists
Anti-fascism
Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals, such as that of the resistance movements during World War II. The related term antifa derives from Antifaschismus, which is German for anti-fascism; it refers to individuals and groups on the left of the political...
.
German statistics show that in 1991, there were 849 hate crimes, and in 1992 there were 1,485 (with a significant concentration in the eastern Bundesländer
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
). After 1992, the numbers went down, although they have risen sharply in subsequent years. In four decades of the former East Germany, 17 people have been murdered by far right groups.
Beginning in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Neo-Nazis started holding demonstrations on the anniversary of the Bombing of Dresden in World War II
Bombing of Dresden in World War II
The Bombing of Dresden was a military bombing by the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force and as part of the Allied forces between 13 February and 15 February 1945 in the Second World War...
. The 2009 march was organized by Junge Landsmannschaft Ostdeutschland
Junge Landsmannschaft Ostdeutschland
Junge Landsmannschaft Ostdeutschland is a nationalist and revanchist, German youth organization, that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has described as “partially far-right”. Most of its activities take place in the eastern parts of Germany...
, which is supported by the National Democratic Party of Germany
National Democratic Party of Germany
The National Democratic Party of Germany – The People's Union , is a far right German nationalist party. It was founded in 1964 a successor to the German Reich Party . Party statements self-identify as Germany's "only significant patriotic force"...
(NPD). Surrounded by policemen, 6,000 neo-Nazis were never let out of their meeting point. At the same time, some 15,000 people with white roses came out in the streets holding hands to demonstrate against Nazism, this making an alternative “memory day” of war victims.
Neo-Nazis painted graffiti on nine Polish-owned cars in Löcknitz
Löcknitz
Löcknitz is a municipality in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, located 12 km west of the German-Polish border and 25 km west of Szczecin .- Cross-border contacts :...
in 2008. In 2011 neo-Nazis were linked to 10 murders
Legal issues
Rock Against Communism
Rock Against Communism started out as series of white power rock concerts in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s, and is also a name for the subsequent music genre. Despite its name, RAC song lyrics rarely focus on the specific topic of anti-communism...
such as Landser
Landser (band)
Landser was a neo-Nazi rock band from Germany. Landser is an old-fashioned German colloquialism for a low-ranking soldier. The band, which is outlawed in Germany, was previously called Endlösung , and was founded by members of the neo-Nazi group Die Vandalen - Ariogermanische Kampfgemeinschaft ,...
have been outlawed in Germany, yet bootleg
Bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...
copies of their albums printed in the United States and other countries are still sold in the country. German neo-Nazi websites mostly depend on Internet servers in the US and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. They often use symbols that are reminiscent of the swastika
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
, and adopt other symbols used by the Nazis, such as the sun cross
Sun cross
The sun cross, also known as the wheel cross, Odin's cross, or Woden's cross, a cross inside a circle, is a common symbol in artifacts of the Americas and Prehistoric Europe, particularly during the Neolithic to Bronze Age periods.-Stone Age:...
, wolf's hook
Wolfsangel
The Wolfsangel is a symbol. It is also known as the Wolf's Hook or Doppelhaken. The upright variant is also known as "thunderbolt" and the horizontal variant as "werewolf"....
and black sun.
Neo-Nazi groups that have been active in Germany and have attracted government attention include Volkssozialistische Bewegung Deutschlands/Partei der Arbeit
Volkssozialistische Bewegung Deutschlands/Partei der Arbeit
Volkssozialistische Bewegung Deutschlands/Partei der Arbeit was a German Neo-Nazi group led by Friedhelm Busse...
(banned in 1982), Action Front of National Socialists/National Activists
Action Front of National Socialists/National Activists
The Action Front of National Socialists/National Activists was a German neo-Nazi organization....
(banned in 1983), the Nationalist Front
Nationalist Front
Nationalistische Front was a minor German neo-Nazi group active during the 1980s.Founded in 1985 by Meinolf Schönborn the group, which had no more than 150 members, was characterized by its support for Strasserism rather than more usual forms of Nazism...
(banned in 1992), the Free German Workers' Party
Free German Workers' Party
The Free German Workers' Party was a neo-nazi political association in Germany. It was outlawed by the Constitutional Court in 1995.The FAP was founded in 1979 but was largely insignificant until the banning of the Action Front of National Socialists/National Activists in 1983 when Michael Kühnen...
, German Alternative
German Alternative
The German Alternative was a minor neo-Nazi group set up in Germany by Michael Kühnen in 1989.Its declared goal was the restoration of the German Reich and rejected the cession of German areas in Eastern Europe following World War II as well as all immigration to Germany claiming that there were...
and National Offensive
National Offensive
The National Offensive was a German neo-Nazi party, which existed from July 3, 1990 to December 22, 1992.It was founded by Michael Swierczek, the former chairman of the Free German Workers' Party in Bavaria, who became the chairman of the NO, and Carlo Bauer, the president of the NO, during the...
. German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble
Wolfgang Schäuble
Wolfgang Schäuble is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union , currently serving as the Federal Minister of Finance in the Second Cabinet Merkel....
condemned the Homeland-Faithful German Youth, accusing it of teaching children that anti-immigrant racism and anti-Semitism are acceptable. Homeland-Faithful German Youth claimed that it was centred primarily on "environment, community and homeland", but it has been argued to have links to the National Democratic Party (NPD)
National Democratic Party of Germany
The National Democratic Party of Germany – The People's Union , is a far right German nationalist party. It was founded in 1964 a successor to the German Reich Party . Party statements self-identify as Germany's "only significant patriotic force"...
.
Historian Walter Laqueur
Walter Laqueur
Walter Zeev Laqueur is an American historian and political commentator. He was born in Breslau, Germany , to a Jewish family. In 1938, Laqueur left Germany for the British Mandate of Palestine. His parents, who were unable to leave, became victims of the Holocaust...
writes that the far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
NPD cannot be classified as neo-Nazi. In 2004, NPD received 9.1% of the vote in the parliamentary elections for Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
, thus earning the right to seat state parliament
Landtag of Saxony
The Landtag of Saxony, also referred to as the Parliament of Saxony or the Saxon Parliament, is the German state of Saxony's legislature...
members. The other parties refused to enter discussions with the NPD. In the 2006 parliamentary elections for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is a federal state in northern Germany. The capital city is Schwerin...
, the NPD received 7.3% of the vote and six seats in the state parliament
Landtag of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
The Landtag of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is the state diet of the German federal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern . It convenes in Schwerin and currently consists of 71 members of five Parties...
. On March 13, 2008, NPD leader Udo Voigt
Udo Voigt
Udo Voigt is a German politician and former leader of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany since 1996. He is a former aviation engineer and captain in the German army.- Political career :...
was charged with incitement (Volksverhetzung), for distributing racially-charged pamphlets referring to German footballer Patrick Owoyomela, whose mother is Nigerian. In 2009, he was given a seven-month suspended sentence and ordered to donate 2,000 euros to UNICEF.
See also
- Neo-NazismNeo-NazismNeo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or some variant thereof.The term neo-Nazism can also refer to the ideology of these movements....
- Strafgesetzbuch § 86aStrafgesetzbuch § 86aThe German Strafgesetzbuch in § 86a outlaws "use of symbols of unconstitutional organisations". This concerns Nazi symbolism in particular and is part of the denazification efforts following the fall of the Third Reich....