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CRIME

Minister: neo-Nazi violence up in 2012

The number of far-right violent attacks rose again last year, it emerged on Sunday. German ministers warned against downplaying the threat from neo-Nazis, yet would not support a ban on the far-right NPD party.

Published: 24 March 2013 09:50 CET
Minister: neo-Nazi violence up in 2012
Photo: DPA

“There’s a potential for violence among neo-Nazis which we cannot underestimate,” German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told Der Tagesspiegel newspaper on Sunday.

“Our preliminary results [for 2012] show a rise of around four percent in politically motivated far-right crimes, up to around 17,600,” said Friedrich. Of those, the number of far-right violent crimes was up two percent on the previous year, he added.

“There’s a slight upward trend with politically motivated far-right crimes and violent acts,” he said.

The German government has in the past been accused of downplaying far-right violence. Official police statistics record 63 murders by far-right extremists since 1990, but research published last week by Der Tagesspiegel and Die Zeit newspapers suggests the number could be over double that, at 152.

The papers said far-right motivated violent crimes were often not recorded as such by courts and police. Friedrich said on Sunday he would re-address the issue of classifying what constituted far-right violence when he next met with the interior ministers of the German states.

However, despite the growing threat of far-right violence, the interior minister repeated his opposition to banning the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD).

Friedrich, along with the rest of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet, agreed this week that the ruling coalition would not support the latest motion to ban the far-right NPD, led by the German states in the Bundesrat upper house of parliament.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble also voiced opposition to a NPD ban on Sunday, and said the move would have the opposite from the desired effect.

“We run the risk of creating a problem which at the moment solves itself [without intervention],” Schäuble told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. In normal times in Germany, he said, right-wing extremists usually shot themselves in the foot.

Schäuble said he doubted whether a party in general could be classified as unconstitutional – the legal basis of the move to ban the NPD – and whether a ban could be successfully enforced.

DAPD/The Local/jlb

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CRIME

Nine face trial in Germany for alleged far-right coup plot

The first members of a far-right group that allegedly plotted to attack the German parliament and overthrow the government will go on trial in Stuttgart on Monday.

Published: 29 April 2024 08:32 CEST
Nine face trial in Germany for alleged far-right coup plot

Nine suspected participants in the coup plot will take the stand in the first set of proceedings to open in the sprawling court case, split among three courts in three cities.

The suspects are accused of having participated in the “military arm” of the organisation led by the minor aristocrat and businessman Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss.

The alleged plot is the most high-profile recent case of far-right violence, which officials say has grown to become the biggest extremist threat in Germany.

The organisation led by Reuss was an eclectic mix of characters and included, among others, a former special forces soldier, a former far-right MP, an astrologer, and a well-known chef.

Reuss, along with other suspected senior members of the group, will face trial in the second of the three cases, in Frankfurt in late May.

The group aimed to install him as head of state after its planned takeover.

Heinrich XIII arrested at his home following a raid in 2022.

Heinrich XIII arrested at his home following a raid in 2022. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Boris Roessler

The alleged plotters espoused a mix of “conspiracy myths” drawn from the global QAnon movement and the German Reichsbûrger (Citizens of the Reich) scene, according to prosecutors.

The Reichsbürger movement includes right-wing extremists and gun enthusiasts who reject the legitimacy of the modern German republic.

Its followers generally believe in the continued existence of the pre-World War I German Reich, or empire, under a monarchy, and several groups have declared their own states.

Such Reichsbürger groups were driven by “hatred of our democracy”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in Berlin on Sunday.

“We will continue our tough approach until we have fully exposed and dismantled militant ‘Reichsbürger’ structures,” she added.

READ ALSO: Who was involved in the alleged plot to overthrow German democracy?

‘Treasonous undertaking’

According to investigators, Reuss’s group shared a belief that Germany was run by members of a “deep state” and that the country could be liberated with the help of a secret international alliance.

The nine men to stand trial in Stuttgart are accused by prosecutors of preparing a “treasonous undertaking” as part of the Reichsbürger plot.

As part of the group, they are alleged to have aimed to “forcibly eliminate the existing state order” and replace it with their own institutions.

The members of the military arm were tasked with establishing, supplying and recruiting new members for “territorial defence companies”, according to prosecutors.

Among the accused are a special forces soldier, identified only as Andreas M. in line with privacy laws, who is said to have used his access to scout out army barracks.

Others were allegedly responsible for the group’s IT systems or were tasked with liaising with the fictitious underground “alliance”, which they thought would rally to the plotters’ aid when the coup was launched.

The nine include Alexander Q., who is accused by federal prosecutors of acting as the group’s propagandist, spreading conspiracy theories via the Telegram messaging app.

Two of the defendants, Markus L. and Ralf S., are accused of weapons offences in addition to the charge of treason.

Markus L. is also accused of attempted murder for allegedly turning an assault rifle on police and injuring two officers during a raid at his address in March 2023.

Police swooped in to arrest most of the group in raids across Germany in December 2022 and the charges were brought at the end of last year.

Three-part trial 

Proceedings in Stuttgart are set to continue until early 2025.

In all, 26 people are accused in the huge case against the extremist network, with trials also set to open in Munich and Frankfurt.

Reuss will stand trial in Frankfurt from May 21st, alongside another ringleader, an ex-army officer identified as Ruediger v.P., and a former MP for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Birgit Malsack-Winkemann.

The Reichsbürger group had allegedly organised a “council” to take charge after their planned putsch, with officials warning preparations were at an advanced stage.

The alleged plotters had resources amounting to 500,000 euros ($536,000) and a “massive arsenal of weapons”, according to federal prosecutors.

Long dismissed as malcontents and oddballs, believers in Reichsbuerger-type conspiracies have become increasingly radicalised in recent years and are seen as a growing security threat.

Earlier this month, police charged a new suspect in relation to another coup plot.

The plotters, frustrated with pandemic-era restrictions, planned to kidnap the German health minister, according to investigators.

Five other suspected co-conspirators in that plot went on trial in Koblenz last May.

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