Raids in Germany: Berlin bans two neo-Nazi groups

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On Wednesday morning, police searched 26 apartments of 39 members and rooms of the association “The Art Community – Germanic Faith Community for Essential Life” in twelve states, the Ministry of the Interior in Berlin announced. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (53) said that firearms, NBC protective suits, gold, cash and extremist writings were seized during the raids.

According to the ministry, the ban against the association, which often met in a hotel in Thuringia, had been prepared for more than a year. It was said that the findings of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (domestic secret service) were decisive here. The association, which the ministry estimates has around 150 members, is against the constitutional order and the idea of ​​international understanding.

700 troops on raids

The aim of the raids early on Wednesday morning was to “freeze club property” and to secure possible evidence such as medals, flags and busts attributed to National Socialism, a spokesman for the state criminal investigation department said during one of the searches. in Baden-Württemberg. According to the Federal Interior Minister, around 700 emergency services across Germany were involved in the raids, including federal police officers.

Faeser described the “Artgemeinschaft” as a “cult-like, deeply racist and anti-Semitic association.” The ban is “a new blow against right-wing extremism and against the intellectual arsonists who continue to spread Nazi ideologies to this day.” The minister said: “We continue to closely monitor right-wing extremism.”

The association tried to create new enemies of the constitution through a “disgusting indoctrination of children and young people,” the Interior Minister said. According to information from security circles, the anti-Semitic children’s books sold by the association include several titles from the National Socialist era. This includes the book “Pudelmopsdackelpinscher”.

“Manipulative indoctrinated parenting”

According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the ban also applies to all sub-organizations of the movement. This included so-called “associations”, “guilds”, “circles of friends” and an association called “Familienwerk”. Last Tuesday, Faeser had already banned the right-wing extremist group ‘Hammerskins Deutschland’. The minister said that the ‘species community’ was no less dangerous than the ‘Hammerskins’, especially because of the ‘manipulative, indoctrinating upbringing of their children’ and the dissemination of corresponding writings.

To justify the ban, her ministry stated that the association spread a worldview that violated human dignity under the guise of a pseudo-religious Germanic belief in gods. The central goal is the preservation and advancement of one’s own ‘species’, which can be equated with the National Socialist concept of ‘race’.

A 2020 publication by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution described the community as “currently the largest German neo-Nazi association with ethnic, racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Christian characteristics.” Members are encouraged to have as many children as possible.

The American Jewish Committee Berlin welcomed the ban. A statement said: “Since its founding in 1951, the association has played a central ideological and organizational hinge role between various neo-Nazi and right-wing extremist environments and organizations, extending into the field of right-wing terrorism. ” (SDA)

Source:Blick