Total membership of Germany's three right extremist political parties, the
DVU, the NPD and the Republikaner, rose to 39,000 in 1998, compared to
34,800 in 1997. The DVU won a surprising victory in the April 1998 Sachsen-Anhalt
elections, with 13 percent of the overall vote. However, the results of
the September 1998 general elections demonstrated that citizens with extreme
right views do not necessarily vote for parties of the extreme right. In 1998
there were 991 anti-Semitically-motivated crimes, an increase of 1.5 percent
over the previous year. The skinhead music scene expanded considerably in
1998, with 100 bands (70 in 1997) appearing in 128 concerts. The number
of far-right Internet sites available in Germany has quintupled in five years.
The discussion of the place of the Holocaust in German historical consciousness
was stirred up once again by the controversy over the erection of a
Holocaust memorial in Berlin and the so-called Bubis-Walser debate. Despite
the stringency of the German Penal Code, Holocaust denial is a growing
phenomenon in Germany, spread mainly on the Internet.

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
At the end of December 1998 there were 74,289 registered members of the
Jewish community in Germany. As a consequence of the immigration of
Jews from the former Soviet Union, the Jewish community has doubled since
1989. The largest Jewish centers are Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich and Hamburg,
but Jewish communities are active in most other large cities. Of the 520,000
Jews living in Germany in 1933, some 180,000 perished in the Holocaust.
Today, most Jews in Germany are former refugees from Eastern Europe or
their offspring or recent arrivals from the former Soviet Union.
A number of publications serve the needs of Jews in Germany, most
notably Allgemeine Jüdische Wochenzeitung. The Zentralrat, the umbrella
organization of German Jewry, is planning to move from Frankfurt to Berlin,
the old-new capital of Germany. Most major international Jewish
organizations are represented in Germany, and in 1997 the American Jewish
Committee established an office in Berlin, followed by the European Jewish
Congress in 1999. A new Jewish museum in Berlin, designed by the architect
Daniel Libeskind, was opened to the public in early 1999. The official
opening will be in October 2000. On 10 June 1998 the Zentralrat presented
the Leo Baeck Prize to German President Roman Herzog.

POLITICAL PARTIES AND EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS
Political Parties of the Right
According to the Federal Office for the Defense of the Constitution (BfVS),
4,200 citizens joined extreme right-wing parties in 1998. The DVU (see
below) added 3,000 new names to its lists, which now total 18,000, regaining
its status as the largest extreme right party in Germany (lost in 1993). The
NPD (see below) increased its membership by 20 percent, from 4,300 to
5,500. Membership of the REP (see below) remained stable at 15,500. Thus,
the total membership of these three organizations in 1998 was 39,000,
compared to 34,800 in 1997.
On the eve of the September general elections, various surveys and
opinion polls were conducted in an attempt to assess extreme right wing
tendencies among different population groups. A survey of 14-25-year-olds
by the Forsa Institute (commissioned by Die Woche) carried out in June 1998
showed that 9 percent (17 percent in eastern Germany) would consider
voting for an extreme right-wing party, signifying an almost 100 percent
increase since 1995. In August, a survey published by the Institute for
Opinion Research revealed that extreme right electoral potential was much
higher amongst trade union members than amongst the rest of the
population. Another survey, by the Free University of Berlin (the German
Paul Lazarsfeld Society and the Otto Strammer Center), conducted in
May-June 1998 showed that citizens with extreme right views do not
necessarily vote for parties of the far right. According to the survey, 30
percent of those holding extremist views in the western part of Germany,
and 29 percent in eastern Germany would vote in the federal elections for
the SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany), while 22 percent in the west
and 17 percent in the east would vote for the CDU. Only 6 percent would
vote for the REP, NPD or DVU. The final results of the general elections in
September 1998, which established the SPD as the largest party in the
Bundestag and Gerhard Schröder as chancellor of the republic, confirmed
these tendencies (see General Analysis).
The success of the extreme right Deutsche Volksunion (German
People's Union -- DVU), led by Dr. Gerhard Frey, in the April 1998 Sachsen-Anhalt
(eastern Germany) elections -- 13 percent of the overall vote (16
seats) -- surprised even their own leadership. As in 1991 in Bremen, where
the DVU received 6.2 percent of the vote and in Kiel, where in 1992 it
obtained 6.3 percent, its main strategy during the election campaign in
Sachsen-Anhalt was to mail 1.2 million letters (containing posters and other
printed propaganda materials) to potential voters. The propaganda, which
warned of the dangers of foreigners and asylum seekers to German society,
succeeded in creating an atmosphere of insecurity. A special edition of the
DVU organ Deutsche Wochenzeitung (DWZ) demanded priority for Germans
in employment and government budgets, limiting the rights of foreigners and
waging a war against crime and political corruption. As a result, the DVU
Page 38 was able to mobilize 177,000 voters, attracted by its xenophobic messages.
Some 105,000 of those who chose right-wing extremism, were first-time
voters or had previously abstained.
Despite its electoral success, a study by the Konrad Adenauer Institute,
which investigated the behavior of the DVU in the parliaments of Bremen
and Schleswig-Holstein from 1987 till 1996, described the party as extreme
right wing, and its parliamentary work as "incompetent and without a
political future." This portrayal was reinforced in early 1999 when the DVU
considered relinquishing its representation in the Sachsen-Anhalt parliament
because dissension among its representatives was paralyzing its work.
The party weeklies Deutsche National Zeitung (DNZ) and DWZ, with a
combined worldwide circulation of 60,000, spread neo-Nazi propaganda,
anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. Currently, new subscribers receive a free
copy of either KZ-Lügen (Lies about Concentration Camps) or Wer ist wer im
Judentum (Who's Who in Judaism).
Articles which have appeared recently on the DVU's Internet website
have focused on the following themes and slogans:
- the alleged conspiracy against Iraq;
- denial of Wehrmacht crimes and of German war guilt in general;
- "the forgotten Holocaust" -- the alleged mass murder of the German
civilian population by the Allies during the war;
- irredentism -- the re-creation of a Greater Germany;
- "Germany for the Germans";
- the potential danger of asylum seekers to German society, its economy
and security;
- "No to the Euro! German money for the Germans!"
These topics can also be found in the books, videos and audio cassettes
which are distributed by the DVU's Deutscher Buchdienst (distribution
service).
In August 1998, the Republikaner (REP) were declassified as a right-wing
extremist party since the Berlin Administrative Court of the BfVS saw
no proof of anti-constitutional activities. Now, they are no longer subject to
official surveillance in Berlin. A similar attempt to remove them from this
"black" list was rejected in 1994.
On 7 February 1998, Dr. Rolf Schlierer was re-elected federal chairman of
the REP, while Captain Herbert Bastl, a professional soldier, came in second.
Bastl is currently being investigated by the authorities because professional
soldiers are forbidden to participate in politics.
The bi-monthly Der Republikaner has a circulation of approximately
22,000 but, through the Internet, reaches a much greater readership. Its
ideology includes xenophobia as well as denial of the Holocaust and of
German war crimes, based on "scientific findings."
When the Republikaner's intention to establish their national center in a
building which once belonged to a Jewish family in Berlin-Pankow became
public, it met with resistance from the local SPD, the Party of Democratic
Socialism (PDS) and the Jewish community. However, the REP seem to have
succeeded in proving the legality of the rental contract between themselves
and the current owner.
The Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (German National
Democratic Party -- NPD) is presently chaired by Udo Voigt, now facing
criminal charges in Bayreuth for disparagement of the state and its symbols.
As noted, during the 1998 election year the upward trend in NPD mem-bership
continued, with the party opening its ranks to skinheads and neo-Nazis.
This was highlighted in the nomination of the neo-Nazi Manfred
Roeder (see previous reports) as the NPD's parliamentary candidate in
Strahlsund. The growth in membership, however, was not reflected in a
larger vote for the party in the federal elections, but in a smaller one.
The NPD and the Junge Nationaldemokraten (Young National
Democrats -- JN; chairman, Holger Apfel) repeatedly call on their members
and sympathizers to protest and demonstrate against the Wehrmacht
exhibition (see below). They exploit the Internet to distribute propaganda
material and to communicate with militant activists of the neo-Nazi camp.
The party organ, the monthly Deutsche Stimme (DS), edited by K. H.
Sendbühler, has a circulation of approximately 8,000 per month. Since
January 1998 up to 100,000 copies of a leaflet, "DS-Extra," was being
distributed monthly free of charge. NPD cells throughout Germany publish
their own regional papers. With the admission of militant skinheads and neo-Nazis,
an increasingly aggressive tone has appeared in their publications.
Organizing and participating in nationalist and neo-Nazi demonstrations and
meetings (both national and international) seem only to strengthen the party
and its extremist positions. In addition to espousing xenophobia, anti-Semitism
and Holocaust denial, they openly glorify Nazi values, Hitler and
the institutions of the Third Reich.
During a NPD demonstration in the Sachsen-Anhalt capital of Magdeburg,
on 27 February 1999, against foreigners possessing German passports and
dual citizenship, racist slogans were reportedly uttered by leading party
members. Steffen Hupka, leader of the NPD Sachsen-Anhalt, declared
categorically before 1,100 participants: "All foreigners out ... Human beings
are not created by society and environment but by genes ... German genes
have to be protected." The demonstrators shouted "Ruhm und Ehre der
Waffen-SS" (Glory and honor to the Waffen-SS) after hearing anti-Semitic
remarks about the so-called Jewish death squads in postwar Germany.
Clashes between NPD demonstrators and anti-fascists in 1998 frequently
resulted in violence and arrests by the police.

The Polemic over Dual Citizenship
The coalition contract of the governing parties included a key point on the
enactment of a dual nationality law. The existing citizenship law in Germany,
dating from 1913, was enacted in order to resolve problems which arose as
a result of the first German unification (1871).
Today, out of a population of 82 million, more than seven million are
foreigners. The largest minority group, numbering over two million, are
Turks, some 1.5 million of whom would be entitled to German citizenship
under the proposed reforms. When the Schröder government announced its
intention to liberalize Germany's citizenship laws, the opposition center-right
Christian Social Union (CSU), led by Theo Waigel, announced it would
oppose the reforms. Together with the CDU, it launched a petition -- a
move criticized by the Social Democrats, immigrant groups and Jewish
organizations. During the months after the elections, millions of Germans
signed the petition against dual citizenship. The DVU applauded the
CDU/ CSU for their initiative and chided the big conservative parties for
stealing their ideas. "It looks like something taken from the pages of our
National Zeitung," DVU chairman Gerhard Frey said. The CDU slogan
accompanying the petition was "Yes to integration, No to dual citizenship,"
According to the CDU, total allegiance to Germany and the German
constitution are necessary preconditions for German citizenship, in order to
preclude divided loyalties. The unexpected gains of the CDU in the Hesse
election in February 1999 at the expense of the SPD was explained by their
active and persuasive campaign centering on the dangers of dual citizenship.

Extra-parliamentary Groups
At the end of 1998, according to the BfVS, there were 114 extreme right
organizations and groups, compared to 109 in 1997, with a total of 54,000
members, up about 11 percent from the previous year. The number of
militants prepared to use physical violence was given as 8,200, an increase
of 9 percent over 1997. The number of neo-Nazis remained stable -- 2,400
members organized in 41 groups. The BfVS further reported that
approximately 6,000 skinheads belonged to the militant right-wing scene in
Germany in 1998. The authorities warned against the increasing influence of
organized right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis on the skinhead subculture,
mainly through the dissemination of audios CDs.
Under the motto "Unity will lead to victory," the umbrella organization
Nationaler Widerstand (Nationalist Resistance) represents the basic
concepts, goals and targets of the radical right and neo-Nazi action groups.
These include:
- Our nation is our race;
- No to a "multi-cultural" society;
- The re-establishment of an independent national state;
- An end to "globalization."
Posing as humanitarian groups that support prisoners and their families,
the following organizations are increasing their membership and influence
amongst the radical right, both nationally and internationally:
- Hilfsorganisation für nationale politische Gefangene und deren
Angehörige e. V. (Support Organization for National Political Prisoners
and Their Relatives -- HNG), with a 19 percent rise in membership in
1998, is now considered the largest neo-Nazi group in Germany;
- Internationales Hilfskomitee für nationale politische Verfolgte und
deren Angehörige e. V. (International Support Committee for National
Socialist Victims of Persecution -- IHV);
- Kameradschaftswerk für nationale Gefangene (Fellowship for
Nationalist Prisoners);
- Gefangenenhilfe der Nationalen e. V. (Support Organization for
Prisoners of Die Nationalen [see ASW 1997/ 8]);
- Nationalfreiheitliche Gefangenenhilfe (National Freedom Prisoner
Support).
Legal advisory publications by and for extreme right activists, publishers
and writers can be ordered or downloaded online from the Internet. The
following publications are designed to help bypass the law and avoid
prosecution:
- "Paragraph Volksverhetzung und ähnliche Strafen" (Paragraph on
Incitement and Similar Punishments);
- "Die Merkliste Veröffentlichung der Privatanschrift" (Instructions on the
Publication of Private Addresses);
- "Merkliste Hausdurchsuchungen" (Instructions concerning House
Searches);
- "Merkliste Versammlungsgesetz" (Instructions concerning the Prohibition
of Public Assemblies);
- "Merkliste für Strafgefangene" (Instructions for Prisoners);
- "Verbotsliste gegen Rechts" (Laws against the Right);
- "Strafliste gegen Rechts" (Fines against the Right).

Neo-Nazism in the Bundeswehr
An annual report compiled by the Bundestag representative for the
Bundeswehr (German armed forces), Claire Marienfeld, listed 320 incidents
connected to right-wing extremism, mostly propaganda offenses such as
using the Nazi salute. Although one strategy of German extremists is to enlist
in the army (see previous reports), this is opposed by some under the slogan
"No German blood for foreigners!" (a reference to the Bundeswehr's
involvement in international forces such as NATO). The extreme right were
active in the anti-NATO demonstrations during the 1999 war over Kosovo. It
should also be noted that propaganda widely circulated in neo-Nazi circles,
holds the Jews responsible for the NATO attacks on Yugoslavia.

RACIST AND ANTI-SEMITIC ACTIVITIES
The total number of extreme right-wing crimes in 1998 remained very high
despite a decrease of 376 criminal acts, to 7,414. A decline was not registered
in all Lander (states). For example, in Bavaria xenophobic violence increased
by more than 50 percent (33 people were injured, 21 more than in 1997),
although non-violent xenophobic crimes (insults, propaganda, etc.) decreased
in the same period; in Sachsen-Anhalt violent incidents increased drastically,
from 166 in 1997 to 290 in 1998. Brandenburg, on the other hand, experienced
a considerable decrease in extreme right hate crimes (including
crimes, motivated by xenophobia and anti-Semitism) in 1998, from 569 to
308. Nevertheless, it should be noted that in February 1999, exactly one year
after the desecration of the Jewish cemetery in Guben, Brandenburg, the
small town was again the focus of public attention when police arrested five
teenagers in connection with the death of an Algerian asylum-seeker.
Violent acts against foreigners and members of ethnic minorities have
become daily occurrences in many Lander. Special police units (see below
and previous reports) have helped somewhat to control violence in the
streets. Since 1990 at least 16 people have been killed by right-wing
extremists, motivated by xenophobia and/ or anti-Semitism.
Although xenophobia appears to be more widespread in eastern than in
western Germany, there are no differences between these populations in
respect to anti-Semitic tendencies. A representative poll examining German
opinions on Jews, commissioned by Die Woche and published at the end of
December 1998 by the Forsa Institute, showed that one in five Germans is a
latent anti-Semite. In response, Ignatz Bubis, president of the Central Council
of Jews in Germany, stated: "The figures have been the same for the past 20
years. It's a phenomenon based on prejudices that you cannot erase" (Jewish
Chronicle, 1 January 1999).
In 1998 there were 991 anti-Semitically-motivated crimes, an increase of
1.5 percent. In Berlin alone, the number of anti-Semitic incidents increased
by 20 percent. Most of the incidents were propaganda and defamation
offenses, but desecration of Jewish cemeteries and sites (synagogues,
museums and memorials) continued in 1998 at the same level as in previous
years. Noteworthy examples were the vandalization of the memorial to
deported Jews in Berlin, on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Reichsprogromnacht,
and the release of a pig painted with a Star of David and the
name Ignatz Bubis, in October 1998, on the famous Berlin Alexanderplatz.
The most serious violent anti-Semitic incidents were the two arson attacks
(in September and December), which destroyed the grave of Heinz Galinski,
an important leader of the Jewish community in Germany after World War
II. In another violent incident in August, a rabbi was attacked on the streets
of Berlin.

Propaganda
Right-wing extremists continue to adopt new tactics to propagate their ideas
(see previous reports), including the use of organizations and events
apparently unconnected to the extreme right, as a cover for their activities.
On 15 June, for example, Christian Worch who had just completed a two-year
prison term for National Socialist activities, led a demonstration in
Lüneburg, described as "an initiative of the citizens of Lüneburg who are
seeking employment." The demonstrators chanted slogans such as: "Work for
Germans first," and "Euro-craziness makes Germany poor."
Attempts by the extreme right to disseminate their ideas by sponsoring
youth activities and sports clubs were not very successful. When DVU
chairman Gerhard Frey offered to sponsor a trip for young football players
to Canada and Texas, the parents unanimously rejected the offer. Nevertheless,
right-wing extremists seem to have some success recruiting among
football fans. Amongst the fans of Hertha BSC (Berlin) for example, anti-Semitic
insults are common.
The skinhead music scene expanded considerably in 1998, with 100
bands (70 in 1997) appearing in 128 concerts. The number of firms
distributing skinhead music increased by about 70 percent. A similar increase
was noted for fanzines (skinhead publications) and neo-Nazi bands and
their music. Main producers in Germany of racist and anti-Semitic music
include: Rock-O-Rama, Dorfmusik, Exkalibur Records, Fröhlich-Tonträger,
Funny Sounds, Walzwerk and Schädel Records. As in 1997, thousands of CDs
calling, inter alia, for violence against political leaders and political
institutions, were seized in police raids. For example, a CD of the group
Bonzenjäger included songs with neo-Nazi lyrics which called for killing
Chancellor Kohl and his cabinet ministers. This CD was distributed by Selm
and Arconi in Switzerland. Other extremist and racist music comes from
Scandinavia. An expressly anti-Semitic video was also circulating, distributed
by NS-Records in Fredersberg, Denmark.

Internet. Mike Penkert, prohibited in 1996 by the Berlin-Brandenburg Media
Institute from operating his neo-Nazi Radio Germania, resumed broadcasting
in May from his Internet page, from the "R[ eichs]-Hauptstadt" (name of Berlin
under the Nazi regime).
According to the BfVS, the number of far-right Internet sites available in
Germany has quintupled in five years, to some 200, making the Internet the
most important propaganda medium for right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis.
Many of them use American servers because they would be liable to
prosecution under German law.
Most far-right parties, groups and activists have their own homepage with
links to fraternal groups worldwide. Demonstrations and other activities are
organized through electronic communications, and almost any banned
publication may be located and downloaded. Extreme right-wing
information services, which may be mistaken for reliable media services, are
reaching a larger audience. The serious and pseudo-scientific appearance of
many of the sites may be confusing, and sometimes even dangerous, as
schoolchildren or students who use the web to obtain information and
material for history reports are not always able to distinguish between facts
and fiction or political propaganda. The PHI Nachrichtenagentur, an
extreme right-wing press agency, operating solely on the Internet, issues
daily releases. The PHI distributes its material from a server in Germany but
is located in Kaunas, Lithuania.
Members of extreme right and neo-Nazi organizations systematically
abuse Internet discussions and chat groups of the mainstream parties such
as the CDU and FDP, to spread xenophobic and anti-Semitic propaganda, as
well as slogans of the NPD, the REP and the DVU.
In February 1999 German investigators succeeded for the first time in
tracing the source of an extreme-right Internet site accessible through a US
server, and arrested a 17-year-old youth. The suspect allegedly ran an
Internet homepage called Aryan Storm, which contained racist material and
advice on bomb-making. Police confiscated large quantities of explosives in
his cellar.

ATTITUDES TOWARD THE HOLOCAUST AND NAZI ERA
The discussion of the place of the Holocaust in German historical consciousness
was stirred up once again in 1998 by both the controversy over the
erection of a Holocaust memorial in Berlin and the so-called Bubis-Walser
debate, which followed the speech by German author Martin Walser upon
receiving Germany's most prestigious literary prize at the Frankfurt Book Fair
in October 1998 (see General Analysis). At the turn of the century, Germany
is reinvestigating its past, a process intensified by the political Wende (about-face)
and the beginning of the Berlin Republic.
In May 1998 a law was passed by the German parliament which
rehabilitates about 500,000 Germans who were convicted of treason by the
Nazis on political or racial grounds. Historians are studying the role of some
1,000 sociologists, geographers and historians who were employed during
the Third Reich by the VFG (German Research Council), to prepare maps
with numbers of inhabitants and data on the population in the occupied
territories. The Gestapo utilized their statistics on the Jewish population in
the Polish regions occupied by Germany as a result of the Hitler-Stalin pact
of 1939. Among their proposals was the expulsion of millions of Jews,
branded "dangerous elements."

Holocaust Commemoration
In early February 1999 German Defense Minister Rudolf Sharping, with 160
German soldiers, paid tribute to the victims of the Holocaust at the former
Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Sharping, accompanied by the
Polish Defense Minister Janusz Onyszkievicz, laid a wreath at the Wall of
Death and at a monument to the victims of fascism in Birkenau. It was the
first time since the end of Word War II that German soldiers had visited
Auschwitz. Sharping told reporters that the visit was intended to promote the
moral education of the troops and increase their awareness and sense of
responsibility. He added: "My visit is also intended to convey a second signal
-- a signal for the external world. The federal government takes
responsibility for all periods of German history -- the bad as well as the
good."
Other events in 1998 connected with the war and the Holocaust included
the 54th anniversary of the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on 20 July
1944, with a ceremony at the Benlerblock where the officers involved in the
plot were executed. Speaking at the event, deputy mayor of Berlin Christine
Bergmann stated that memories of the German resistance must be kept alive,
especially in light of the fact that German youth was increasingly susceptible
to extreme right and xenophobic messages. On 9 September 1998, a plaque
was unveiled on Rosenstrasse in central Berlin to commemorate the courage
of German women who, in early 1943, successfully demanded the release of
their Jewish husbands from imprisonment. On 10 September, Steven
Spielberg was granted the Order of the Republic by President Roman Herzog
in Berlin in recognition of the Spielberg Foundation.
The exhibition "War of Annihilation: Crimes of the Wehrmacht," moved
to Dresden at the beginning of 1998. One year later the anger of those
defending the "honor" of Hitler's army was still manifest during a
demonstration and counter-demonstration at the Wehrmachtsausstellung in
Kiel, where police arrested 59 demonstrators. At least 900 extreme right-wing
demonstrators had answered the call of the NPD youth organization in
northern Germany to protest the exhibition in Kiel on the 66th anniversary
of Hitler's accession to power. Among them were leading neo-Nazi figures
such as Christian Worch of the Freien Kameradschaften and Friedhelm
Busse, chairman of the banned Freiheitliche Deutsche Arbeiterpartei
(see ASW 1996/ 7). Protected by 1,600 policemen, the demonstrators chanted
Nazi slogans as they paraded under the Reichskriegsflagge.
Clashes amongst demonstrators have occurred frequently since the
exhibition began touring Germany in 1995. On 10 March 1999, a bomb
explosion caused considerable damage to the exhibition in Saarbrücken.
Some 700,000 visitors have seen the exhibition, which has toured over 30
cities in Germany and has been invited to 80 more. The organizers, the
Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung, have received requests to send the
exhibition to the US, Canada, Israel, France, Italy, Japan, China, the Netherlands,
Russia and Australia. In Germany and Austria responses have been
mostly positive. According to the organizers, the exhibition has "integrated
the Holocaust into the history of the war."

Jewish Assets and Nazi Gold
Before taking office Schröder promised that the government, together
with industrialists, would work out a plan to settle wage claims from World
War II-era slave laborers. After reunification, Bonn had agreed to establish a
compensation fund for Nazi victims in the former Eastern bloc who had been
barred from reparations during the Cold War. Estimates on the number of
slave laborers used by the Nazis run as high as 9 million, many of them from
Eastern Europe. Recently, for example, a lawsuit was filed against the
German pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG for collaboration in Nazi medical
experiments. For decades Bayer had denied involvement; now it has
admitted to using slave labor drafted from concentration camps. It should be
noted that since the opening of the archives in the former Eastern bloc,
historians have been seeking evidence of collaboration between German
corporations and the Third Reich. Their findings have prompted a flood of
US class action lawsuits against many of Germany's leading companies.
Banks have been accused of profiting from confiscated assets and trading
in looted gold of concentration camp victims. An independent study
commissioned by the banks, revealing that the Dresdner Bank had traded in
gold looted from Holocaust victims, prompted Holocaust survivors in the
United States to file an $18 billion lawsuit against both the Dresdner Bank
and the Deutsche Bank. The Deutsche Bank acknowledged its wartime role
in 1995, the company's 125th anniversary. The Allianz insurance company,
Bertelmann AG, Degussa, the Deutsche Bank and General Motors have all
commissioned historians to investigate their past.
Seventeen German industrial companies have agreed to join a fund to
compensate slave laborers and survivors of the Holocaust, Schröder told US
President Bill Clinton during his visit in the US in February 1999. Among
those participating in the fund are the heads of the Allianz insurance
company, the Dresdner Bank, the Deutsche Bank, Volkswagen, BMW,
Siemens, Krupp, Degussa and BASF. The committee will be chaired by
Schröder's chief of staff, Bodo Hombach.

Holocaust Denial
Holocaust denial, called "the Auschwitz Lie" (Auschwitzlüge) in the German
Legal Code, is, when disseminated publicly, a punishable offense under the
German Penal Code (Strafgesetzbuch). Denial of the Holocaust is considered
an "insult to the survivors of the Holocaust" (paragraph 185 of the Penal
Code). According to paragraph 194, "the Auschwitz Lie" can be prosecuted
by the authorities, ex officio (that is, without charges having being filed),
when committed publicly -- disseminated in print, at public gatherings or in
the electronic media. This same paragraph allows action to be taken against
the denial of National Socialist crimes. Paragraph 86 of the Penal Code
forbids the distribution, production and storage of the propaganda of
unconstitutional organizations. However, if the propaganda can be shown to
serve certain purposes -- such as political education or artistic/ scientific
goals -- their users are not subject to prosecution.
On 1 December 1994, a Crime Bill was enacted, stipulating a five-year
prison term for denying the Holocaust. The statute also extends the existing
ban on the use of symbols and signs reminiscent of the Nazi era. The
German Penal Code is one of the most advanced and effective in combating
Holocaust denial. Nevertheless, Holocaust denial is a growing phenomenon
in Germany. Germar (Rudolf) Scheerer (see previous reports), for example,
the convicted German leader of international Holocaust denial who fled to
Spain and England, has continued to disseminate his writings from abroad,
mostly on the Internet. His works, as well as those of his co-deniers in
Germany and abroad, have been translated into numerous languages and
put on the servers of neo-Nazis worldwide. Rudolf also contributed a letter
to the "first national revisionist symposium," which took place in Adelaide,
Australia, in August 1998. On his own webpages, as well as on Australian,
US, Canadian and Belgian servers (the addresses are constantly changing,
but not the information), Rudolf offers tens of publications in various
languages, denying the Holocaust, defaming the Jewish people and inciting
to anti-Semitism. His pseudo-scientific report Das Rudolf Gutachten (The
Rudolf Report) and other articles, denying the reality of the Auschwitz-Birkenau
extermination camp, are distributed, on CD-Rom, by the Belgium
extreme right Vrij Historisch Onderzoek (European Foundation for Free
Historical Research), directed by Holocaust denier Siegfried Verbeke.
Verbeke also offers the banned works of other Holocaust deniers in German,
including: 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; Der
Holocaust auf dem Prüfstand, by Jürgen Graf (see also Switzerland). In May
1998 Vrij Historisch Onderzoek announced: "A new revisionist sensation! Just
printed and now on the net -- Jürgen Graf and Carlo Mattogno, Majdanek.
Eine technische und historische Studie (Majdanek: A Technical and Historical
Study) (Castle Hill Publishers, Hastings, 1998)"; in May 1999 it was proclaimed
that the banned book by Franz Scheidl, Geschichte der Verfemung
Deutschlands (1967), had finally been posted on the net.

RESPONSES TO RACISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM
Public Activities
Fear that the success of the DVU in the Sachsen-Anhalt elections in April
could be repeated on a federal level in September 1998, caused the union
of German Post Office employees to demand, on May 20, that the federal
government include in the new post office regulations a clause forbidding
the distribution of materials with "racially discriminatory content." In June,
the German Trade Union convention issued a similar demand to Lander and
political parties. In Schwerin and Ludwigslust (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern),
the Ministry of the Interior decided that it would not release voter addresses
to the NPD.
Prior to the federal elections, the Association of Christian Churches in
Germany, including the Roman Catholic, Protestant and twelve other
churches and Christian communities, appealed to all members of parliament
in Germany to abstain from using hostile, xenophobic statements in political
campaigns. Both the Association of Employees (DGB) and the Association of
Employers (UVB) in Berlin Brandenburg issued a warning against voting for
extreme right parties in the elections. They urged people to cast their vote
against the growing violence against foreigners.
In reaction to extreme right-wing activities, in September a forum, composed
of churches, political parties, unions and various associations, was
created in Furstenwalde to combat anti-Semitism, racism and right-wing
extremism.

Legal Proceedings
Although racism is not defined by law in Germany, the German authorities
have proved their commitment to enforce the relevant paragraphs of the
German constitution dealing with the prohibition of groups and parties that
practice illegal extreme right-wing activities, by outlawing many of them.
Moreover, tens of extremist publications have been banned, as have meetings
and events that were considered unconstitutional (for details of the
Federal Criminal Code, see previous reports).
The pan-European Telekommunikationsgesetz (telecommunications law
-- TKG) came into force in August 1997 to control, inter alia, child
pornography, racism and anti-Semitism on the Internet. In spite of this, and
other legislation specific to Germany, it is extremely difficult, as noted above,
to prevent the distribution of extreme right-wing and neo-Nazi propaganda
on the Internet.
In light of the prevalence of xenophobic violence, Brandenburg Interior
Minister Alwin Ziel created, in 1997, a mobile task force against violence and
xenophobia -- Mobile Einsatztruppen gegen Gewalt und Ausländer-feindlichkeit
(MEGA) -- as well as the Sondereinsatzkommandos gegen
Rechts (Special Units against the Right), similar to the Sonderkommission
Rechtsextremismus (Special Commission on Right-Wing Extremism -- Soko
Rex) in Saxonia. MEGA is said to be responsible for the decrease of violent
incidents of the extreme right in Brandenburg, from 97 in 1997 to 59 in 1998.
In the course of the struggle against extreme right violence, police
succeeded in uncovering weapon arsenals in several cities throughout
Germany. Three policemen were injured during a raid of an underground
musical event attended by 300 extreme rightists in the northern district of
Pankow. Police said several of those arrested possessed banned neo-Nazi
paraphernalia.
In addition, the federal government warned the Gesellschaft für Wehr-und
Sicherheitspolitik (Society for Defense and Security Policy), which
receives an annual government allocation of DM400,000, not to invite
lecturers identified with the extreme right. This was in reaction to a report
of the ARD television program "Panorama," which reported that for years the
association had engaged lecturers with links to the extreme right.
During the year a number of extreme right activists were convicted of
racist offenses. On 29 October, Frank Schwerdt, a leading member of the
NPD and former leader of the disbanded Nationalen, was sentenced in
Berlin to six months imprisonment for distributing 25,000 CDs of the
skinhead band Die Volksverhetzer (The Inciters). Günthert Deckert, former
chairman of the NPD (who is currently serving a 52 month sentence), was
given an additional three months for insulting and denigrating the memory
of the dead. The Mannheim state court convicted Günther Deckert, 58, of
defaming Ignatz Bubis, chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany,
when he called him a ''Jewish Führer. '' Deckert was also found guilty of
threatening to kill a police officer sent to arrest him in 1995. On the other
hand, on March 26, the Hanseatic Regional Court in Hamburg confirmed the
acquittal of André Goertz on charges of denying the Holocaust, brought after
he made statements about "the Auschwitz myth" (see ASW 1995/ 6).