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Neo-Nazi exhumed to find forbidden swastika flag

German officials in Passau have exhumed the corpse of a former Nazi Waffen-SS soldier in order to confiscate a forbidden Third Reich era flag placed over his coffin during his burial last weekend.

Published: 31 July 2008 11:11 CEST

Neo-Nazi exhumed to find forbidden swastika flag

A file photo of the late Friedhelm Busse at an NPD rally in 2001. Photo: DPA

“It concerns a so-called Imperial War Flag from the years between 1935 and 1945 – with a very large swastika in the middle,” head public prosecutor Helmut Walch told news agency DPA, confirming a report earlier this week by German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung.

A police officer observed during the ceremony how neo-Nazi NPD party member Thomas Wulff laid the banned flag over the casket. By Monday the the public prosecutor’s office in the German state of Bavaria had retrieved the flag from the grave and said they are now investigating the incident.

Should they decide to press charges, Wulff faces fines and up to three years in prison for the use of symbols considered illegal by the German constitution.

The former SS soldier’s burial was attended by some 90 neo-Nazis, including party leader Udo Voigt, who spoke at the event. Eleven party members were temporarily arrested after the funeral for getting rowdy.

According to newsmagazine Der Spiegel, the man they were honouring, 79-year-old Friedhelm Busse, volunteered for the Waffen-SS in 1944 and later served in an anti-tank unit. He remained active as a neo-Nazi after the war, joining both the NPD and leading the Free German Workers’ Party (FAP), which was forbidden in 1995.

He was once sentenced to 28 months in jail for incitement for allegedly saying: “When Germany is free of Jews, then we won’t need Auschwitz any more.”

Germany, Czech Republic accuse Russia of cyberattacks

The accusations come at a time of strained relations between Moscow and the West following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the European Union’s support for Kyiv.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said a newly concluded government investigation found that a cyberattack targeting members of the Social Democratic Party had been carried out by a group known as APT28.

APT28 “is steered by the military intelligence service of Russia”, Baerbock told reporters during a visit to Australia.

“In other words, it was a state-sponsored Russian cyberattack on Germany and this is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences.”

APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, has been accused of dozens of cyberattacks in countries around the world. Russia denies being behind such actions.

The hacking attack on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD party was made public last year. Hackers exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook to compromise e-mail accounts, according to Berlin.

Berlin on Friday summoned the acting charge d’affaires of the Russian embassy over the incident.

The Russian embassy in Germany said its envoy “categorically rejected the accusations that Russian state structures were involved in the given incident… as unsubstantiated and groundless”.

Arms, aerospace targeted: Berlin

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the cyber campaign was orchestrated by Russia’s military intelligence service GRU and began in 2022. It also targeted German companies in the armaments and aerospace sectors, she said.

Such cyberattacks are “a threat to our democracy, national security and our free societies”, she told a joint news conference in Prague with her Czech counterpart Vit Rakusan.

“We are calling on Russia again to stop these activities,” Faeser added.

Czech government officials said some of its state institutions had also been the target of cyberattacks blamed on APT28, again by exploiting a weakness in Microsoft Outlook in 2023.

Czech Interior Minister Rakusan said his country’s infrastructure had recently experienced “higher dozens” of such attacks.

“The Czech Republic is a target. In the long term, it has been perceived by the Russian Federation as an enemy state,” he told reporters.

EU, NATO condemnation

The German and Czech findings triggered strong condemnation from the European Union.

“The malicious cyber campaign shows Russia’s continuous pattern of irresponsible behaviour in cyberspace, by targeting democratic institutions, government entities and critical infrastructure providers across the European Union and beyond,” EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said.

The EU would “make use of the full spectrum of measures to prevent, deter and respond to Russia’s malicious behaviour in cyberspace”, he added.

State institutions, agencies and entities in other member states including in Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Sweden had been targeted by APT28 in the past, the statement added.

The latest accusations come a day after NATO expressed “deep concern” over Russia’s “hybrid actions” including disinformation, sabotage and cyber interference.

The row also comes as millions of Europeans prepare to go to the polls for the European Parliament elections in June, and concerns about foreign meddling are running high.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky told AFP that “pointing a finger publicly at a specific attacker is an important tool to protect national interests”.

One of the most high-profile incidents so far blamed on Fancy Bear was a cyberattack in 2015 that paralysed the computer network of the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag. It forced the entire institution offline for days while it was fixed.

In 2020, the EU imposed sanctions on individuals and entities linked to the APT28 group over the incident.

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