For the first time since 1993 membership of radical right-wing organizations increased in 1997. The "European Year Against Racism" was marked in Germany by a steep increase in hate crimes, particularly those of a xenophobic and anti-Semitic nature. Physical attacks and acts of discrimination against asylum seekers and foreigners became a daily occurrence, especially in former East Germany. Revelations of neo-Nazi activities in the Bundeswehr (German army) aroused much public concern in 1997. Anti-Semitism -- which serves as a thematic as well as an ideological link between various extremist groups on the right -- increased in 1997. Eight hundred and twenty-five anti-Semitic incidents were officially registered, a rise of at least 15 percent. Most were related to anti-Semitic propaganda and Holocaust denial.

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

EXTREMIST MOVEMENTS AND HATE GROUPS

Extreme Right-Wing Political Parties

In 1997 membership in most extreme right-wing parties had stabilized. Toward the end of the year and during the first months of 1998, an election year, membership of political parties with extreme right-wing ideologies increased considerably.

On February 7, 1998, Rolf Schlierer was re-elected federal chairman of the Republikaner (REP), with Bundeswehr (German army) Captain Herbert Bastl in second place. Although classified as extreme right-wing by the Verfassungschutz (Office for the Defense of the Constitution), the REP was planning to run in the federal parliamentary elections scheduled for September 1998. The bi-monthly Der Republikaner has a circulation of approximately 22,000, but reaches, through the Internet, a much larger readership. Its ideology includes xenophobia and hostility toward asylum seekers and Jews. Denial of the Holocaust and of German war crimes are presented as scientific findings.

The Deutsche Volksunion (German People's Union-DVU), with a registered membership of 20,000, is one of Germany's largest extreme-right-wing parties. Chairman Gerhard Frey publishes and edits the party organs, Deutsche National Zeitung (DNZ) and Deutsche Wochenzeitung (DWZ), which have a combined worldwide circulation of about 70,000. The articles, which can be downloaded from the DVU's Internet website, focused in 1997 on the following subjects: the anti-Iraq conspiracy; denial of Wehrmacht crimes and of German war guilt in general; "the forgotten Holocaust" -- the mass murder of German civilians by the Allies; the re-creation of Greater Germany; the danger of asylum seekers to the German people and their land; and refusal to accept the European currency, embodied in the slogan: "No to the foreign `Euro'! German money for the Germans!"

These topics also appear in the books, videos and music cassettes distributed by Deutscher Buchdienst (German Book Service). In 1997 a new anti-Semitic book, KZ-Lügen. Antwort auf Goldhagen. (Concentration Camp Lies. Response to Goldhagen), by Helmut Stern, became a bestseller of the DVU FZ-Verlag publishing house.

In the elections to the Hamburg parliament of September 21, 1997, DVU (Hamburg), led by Heinrich Gerlach, narrowly missed getting a candidate into city hall by 190 votes, but succeeded in four out of seven district councils in Hamburg. The DVU election campaign was conducted under the motto: "Germany remains the land of the Germans." Six months later, in April 1998, they gained 12.9 percent of the vote in the elections in Sachsen-Anhalt.

The Nationaldemokratische Partei Deuchschlands (German National Democratic Party - NPD) increased its membership considerably in 1997, especially in the lander of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). In Saxonia, for example, membership in the last two years rose from 300 to 1,000. The official number of members nationwide is given as 4288. The NPD is chaired by Udo Voigt, who was charged by the Bayreuth prosecutor in 1997 with disparagement of the state and its symbols. Voigt had replaced Günther Deckert who was indicted for incitement and Holocaust denial. Although serving a prison sentence, Deckert remained vice-chairman of the party until August 17, 1997, when he was dismissed as a result of internal disputes. In 1997 radicalization of the NPD and its youth organization, the Junge Nationaldemokraten (JN), became manifest when members strengthened their contacts with activists of the militant, extremist Ukrainian UNSO (see Ukraine). NPD activists such as Voigt and the long-standing federal leader of the illegal Viking Youth, Wolfgang Nahrath, met with commanders of the UNSO. The Federal Office for the Defense of the Constitution (BvS) suspects that German right-wing extremists could use these contacts for military training.

Die Nationalen, founded in 1995 by the youth organization Das Nationale Spektrum, disbanded in 1997, and its former chairman, Frank Schwerdt, has become a leading functionary of the NPD. Its former organ, the five-year-old Berlin-Brandenburger Zeitung (BBZ) is now the most widely read publication among German neo-Nazis. Anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial are used to defend Germanic cultural values. Some contributors to the BBZ have neo-Nazi contacts. The BBZ has a site on the Internet.

A new development on the extreme right was the decision made by various groups to unite, in order to strengthen their electoral chances. Examples of these unions are: Wählerbund Deutschland, (Electors' Alliance Germany) and Bündnis Rechts für Deutschland (Right Alliance For Germany).

The link between political parties of the extreme right and neo-Nazi activists was demonstrated in 1997 when a collection called Unterdrückung und Verfolgung deutscher Patrioten - Gesinnungsdiktatur in Deutschland (Oppression and Persecution of German Patriots - Dictatorship of Political Convictions) appeared on the market. Among the authors of this collection, edited by Rolf-Josef Eibicht and published by Hutten-Verlag, were representatives of the whole right-wing extremist spectrum in Germany, such as former NPD activist and Witiko-Bund member Rolf Kosiek; leading German neo-Nazi Jürgen Rieger; convicted neo-Nazi Manfred Roeder; member of parliament Heinrich Lummer; editor of the Holocaust denial forum Sleipnir, Andreas Röhler; publisher of the Holocaust denial forum Staatsbriefe, Hans-Dietrich Sanders; and NPD chairman Udo Voigt.

Extra-parliamentary Groups

The ban on major neo-Nazi and ultra-right-wing groups over the last five years has had a noticeable influence on the extreme right as a whole. Re-organizing into smaller units, disseminating prohibited material through electronic communication systems and the Internet, and printing and distributing neo-Nazi propaganda material including music CDs and videos abroad, have become the tactics used (not always successfully) to avoid clashes with the law. Others include forming independent groups with no formal membership, coordinating on a federal basis through known local leaders and creating a technological infrastructure for an effective exchange of information. The well-organized Kameradschaften (comradeships), such as Kameradschaft Eberswalde, Kameradschaft Treptow and Kameradschaft Oberhavel, are examples of these efforts. The Kameradschaften and other such groups steadily increased their membership. Thirteen Kameradschaften were active in Berlin alone.

Legal advice to neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists involved in court proceedings or to those interested in circumventing the law is given by lawyers specializing in this field. A main source of updated information concerning the legal situation in Germany, with special emphasis on Holocaust denial, are websites on the Internet, such as Deutsches Rechtsbüro, operated by ultra-right-wing circles, and the Thule network of electronic mailboxes.

In the guise of humanitarian groups that support prisoners and their families, neo-Nazi organizations continued in 1997 to increase their membership and their influence on the radical right scene both nationally and internationally. These included the Hilfsorganisation für nationale politische Gefangene und deren Angehörige e.V. (Support Organization for National Political Prisoners and Their Relatives - HNG) and the Internationales Hilfskomitee für nationale politische Verfolgte und deren Angehörige e.V. (International Support Committee for National Socialist Victims of Persecution - IHV).

The Deutsche Liga für Volk und Heimat (German League for People and Homeland -- DLVH), which was founded on the date of German reunification, October 3, 1991, was dissolved as a party in October 1996 in order to become an association, thus enabling members to join other right-wing parties, especially the NPD and the REP. Nation und Europa. Deutsche Monatshefte, the mouthpiece of the DLVH continued to be edited by Peter Dehoust, Harald Neubauer and Adolf von Thadden. Since October 1995, Franz Schönhuber, former head of the REP, has run a monthly column in Nation und Europa, called "My View." Contributors have included French FN leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. The publisher of Nation und Europe, Buchdienst Nation Europa, distributed ultra-right-wing books and anti-Semitic publications and videos.

Hate Crimes

Contrary to the trend of the last five years, when a decrease in xenophobic crimes was noted, there was an increase of about 30 percent in 1997 in reported crimes of the extreme right against foreigners, Jews, members of minorities and "strangers." In some lander a record rise was recorded. In Berlin alone, violent crimes by right-wing extremists increased by 82 percent. Severe unemployment in Germany -- some 5 million -- appears to be one factor contributing to this rise.

Physical attacks and acts of discrimination against asylum seekers and foreigners became almost a daily occurrence in some of the new lander. Criminologists warned that at least one-third of young people in former East Germany identified with the extreme right. In 1997, 45 percent of all violent incidents motivated by right-wing extremism occurred in the eastern part of Germany, where only 17 percent of the population live. In fact, right-wing extremism have become almost the norm there for Germans under 30. In at least 25 towns and cities, mainly in eastern Germany, so-called "liberated zones" (no-entry zones) have been created, barring foreigners, leftists, homosexuals, dropouts or anyone considered "un-German" from clubs, pubs, discos and even whole streets. They are accused of "diminishing" the Germanic character of Germany.

In 1997 both the Evangelic and Catholic churches increasingly became the target of right-wing assaults in the form of arson attacks, the smearing of Nazi symbols and slogans on church walls and threats to priests and pastors. One of the groups responsible for vandalizing Christian sites was Aktion Sauberes Deutschland (Action Committee Clean Germany). Such acts can be attributed to the involvement of many clergymen in the revival of the notion of "church asylum," whereby asylum seekers evade arrest by finding shelter in churches.

Right-Wing Extremists in the German Army

Since the Bundeswehr's involvement in international operations, some right-wing extremists have refused to join the army, under the slogan "No German blood for foreigners!" opting instead for national service (an alternative program to military service), formerly favored by intellectuals, leftists and pacifists. But the majority of conservative and right-wing youth do enlist. It has long been known that encouraging members and sympathizers to join the army is part of the strategy of the extreme right (see ASW 1996/7). In 1997 a pamphlet entitled "We demand a free, proud, strong, German army!" circulated among the population near army camps and was distributed through the Internet by a committee calling itself Rechts um (Right Turn), supported by several right-wing organizations.

Extreme right-wing activists enlist in order to disseminate their propaganda material, to recruit voters and to receive military training. The authorities are investigating various cases of bomb laboratories and weapon arsenals, which mark an escalation of the militarization of the extreme right in Germany.

Revelations of neo-Nazi activities in the Bundeswehr aroused public concern in 1997. Investigations showed that in 1997, 178 radical right-wing incidents were reported in the Bundeswehr. According to a survey conducted by the University of Konstanz, in cooperation with the Bundeswehr, 55 percent of military academy students considered themselves politically right of center.

In late October German national television news screened video footage of young German soldiers behaving like Nazi storm-troopers. The home video, recorded in 1994, showed soldiers giving the Nazi salute, making anti-Semitic remarks and simulating acts of violence. It was the second time that national television had screened shocking images of neo-Nazi activity in the Bundeswehr. Following these revelations, officials denied the existence of neo-Nazi sympathies in certain sections of the army and the fact that neo-Nazi activities were often tolerated and even promoted by officers. They talked of "isolated cases," and Defense Minister Volker Rühe rejected charges that the video showed subversion of the Bundeswehr by extreme rightists. Nevertheless SOKOREX (Special Commission on Right-Wing Extremism) investigated the matter and it soon became public knowledge that the phenomenon of right-wing extremism, anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism in the Bundeswehr had existed for some time.

The controversy heightened when it was revealed that in 1995 the convicted neo-Nazi terrorist Manfred Roeder, a leading activist of the extreme right for more than 20 years, had been invited to lecture on "the migration of Russo-Germans to the region of Königsberg," during an officers' training course at the élite military academy in Hamburg. Well-known figures, such as Günther Grass, asked Defense Minister Rühe to resign. It later became known that the German military had supplied Roeder's organization, which claims to support people of German heritage in central Europe and Russia, with old trucks and jeeps.

International Meetings of Neo-Nazis

The anniversary of Rudolf Hess' death has traditionally linked neo-Nazi groups in different countries. On the tenth anniversary of Hess' death, the Rudolf Hess Action Committee 1997 called for "Hess action weeks" from August 9 to 23. The major event, the annual Hess parade, was held in various parts of Germany and outside it on August 16.

Eighty Germans participated in the annual European meeting of extreme rightists in Diksmuide, Belgium, on August 30. Thirteen were arrested by the Belgian police.

More than 500 neo-Nazis, mostly members of the JN, held their fourth European Youth Congress in Furth-im-Wald on October 18. Groups from Austria, the Netherlands, the UK, Spain, Italy, Romania, Greece and Croatia met under the slogan "Destroy the EU dictatorship of international big business."

ANTI-SEMITIC ACTIVITIES

Propaganda and Holocaust Denial

In 1997 the Federal Criminal Office (BKA) investigated the publishers and distributors of a 20-page pamphlet which had circulated in Germany widely and in various forms (including CDs). Entitled "The Genocide of the German People," and printed in Dresden, the symbol of German suffering during the war, the pamphlet was extremely anti-Semitic. MP Siegfried Vergin, of the SPD, asked whether universities were not a vehicle for anti-Semitic incitement, as many of the 65 signatures on the pamphlet belonged to academics.

Holocaust denial increased in Germany in 1997. Germar Rudolf (Scheerer), a refugee from German justice in Spain, continued to disseminate his writings, which have been translated into several languages. On his own website, as well as via Australian, US and Canadian servers, Rudolf offers dozens of publications denying the Holocaust, defaming the Jewish people and inciting to anti-Semitism. His pseudo-scientific report, denying the existence of the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, Das Rudolf Gutachten, is distributed, on CD, by the Belgian extreme right Stiftung Vrij Historisch Onderzoek (Foundation for Free Historical Research), headed by Holocaust denier Siegfried Verbeke. Verbeke recently began distributing the quarterly Vierteljahreshefte für freie Geschichtsforschung, a forum for Holocaust denial in German on his website. He also takes order for books and pamphlets that are illegal in Germany, such as: Der Auschwitz Mythos, by Wilhelm Stäglich; Jahrhundertbetrug, by Arthur Butz; Wahrheit für Deutschland, by Udo Walendy; Die Auschwitz-Lüge, by Thies Christophersen; Freispruch für Hitler?, by Gerd Honsik; and Der Holocaust auf dem Prüfstand, by Jürgen Graf (see also Belgium).

The number of anti-Semitic and racist websites on the Internet almost doubled within a year, reaching 600 in 1997, according to the inter-Parliamentary Council Against Anti-Semitism (IPCAA). Holocaust denial is a prominent theme in the material disseminated. Sites are linked internationally and are easily accessible. Many publications which circulate on a regular basis have an online edition or at least a website defining goals and providing links to other sites. New on the Internet, for example, are Zentralorgan, the organ of the radical Nationale Opposition; Nordische Zeitung, representing the Germanic ideology of Die Artgemeinschaft e.V.; Deutschland, organ of Vereinigung Gesamtdeutsche Politik (VGP); National Journal, printed in England, which combats "anti-German politics"; and Storchennest, concerning family values.

Extreme right-wing information services, appearing as reliable media services, appear throughout the web. Daily updated sites offer, free of charge, the latest news from neo-Nazis and extreme right-wingers. PHI Nachrichtenagentur im Internet, for example, operates from a server in Germany but has its headquarters in Kaunas, Lithuania.

An important means of distributing neo-Nazi propaganda is through music. For many youngsters, skinhead music represents an introduction to right-wing extremism. Neo-Nazi bands and their music appear on attractively designed websites. Seventy-nine concerts of extreme right-wing bands were held in Germany in 1997, more than twice as many as in 1995. The texts of the songs have beome more violent, inciting against foreigners, "strangers," and Jews. Tens of thousands of CDs with anti-Semitic content were seized in 1997 and the owners arrested. The main producers in Germany of racist and anti-Semitic music are Rock-O-Rama, Dorfmusik, Exkalibur-Records, Fröhlich-Tonträger, Funny Sound, Walzwerk and Schädel-Records.

ATTITUDES TOWARD THE HOLOCAUST AND THE NAZI ERA

RESPONSES TO RACISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM

In addition, dozens of extremist publications have been banned, as well as events that were considered to endanger the constitutional order. In Lübeck, for example, a demonstration planned by the NPD under the slogan "Church asylum contrary to law and order," and another by their youth organization, with the motto "Work for Germans first," were banned. A parade of right-wing extremists scheduled to take place on the eve of Kristallnacht in Munich was also prohibited. In view of the increase of violence and xenophobia, Brandenburg Interior Minister Alwin Ziel created a special mobile task force to combat manifestations such as those.

The struggle against hate on the Internet was intensified in 1997 in the wake of EU legislation to be adopted by all member states by the end of 1998. After having intervened to close the anti-Semitic website of Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel on a German-based server in 1996, the German authorities began to scrutinize the websites that provide links to addresses that distribute illegal material. Thus, investigations are under way against Ernst Ellert (pseudonym), editor of the Internet publication Der Aufbruch (Awakening), who offers links to sites such as Stormfront, which distributes radical neo-Nazi propaganda. In this context, the telecommunication law (TKG), designed to control child abuse, racism and anti-Semitism on the Internet, came into force in August 1997.

The media institute Berlin Brandenburg is to decide whether to prevent the operator of Radio Germania, Mike Penkert, from renewing his broadcasts, banned in 1996. Penkert is the leader of the neo-Nazi Kameradschaft Beusselkiez.