Aid organization for national political prisoners and their families

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The Aid Organization for National Political Prisoners and their Relatives eV ( HNG ) was an organization founded in 1979 that looked after and supported right-wing extremist convicted criminals throughout Germany during and after their imprisonment in penal institutions. Most recently, the organization had around 600 members, making it one of the right-wing extremist organizations in Germany with the largest number of members . Its last seat was in Frankfurt am Main , but its last address was in Mainz-Gonsenheim . On September 21, 2011, the organization was banned by a decree issued by the Federal Minister of the Interior, Hans-Peter Friedrich .

aims

The imprisoned like-minded fellows, referred to by the HNG as “ political prisoners ” or “national prisoners”, were provided with propaganda material, they were given “pen friends” and contacts in the scene, and financial support was provided. These aid services were also offered to previously unorganized neo-Nazis or prisoners without a political background in order to recruit them for the neo-Nazi scene. The organization also placed lawyers in connection with court hearings against neo-Nazis and assisted the defendants in trials. The aim of the psychological and material support was to maintain the “fighting morale” and to avoid leaving the neo-Nazi scene. It was regarded as a successor organization to the " silent help for prisoners of war and internees", which pursued similar goals.

Foundation and members

The HNG, founded in 1979 (registration at the Frankfurt am Main district court on September 21), looked after between 50 and 100 prisoners who were named in a monthly newsletter of the organization entitled “News of the HNG”. For example, from 2000 up to and including March 2001, prisoners from around 70 penal institutions (JVA) in a total of thirteen federal states were listed. Among them were or are several convicted of murder or attempted murder, war criminals like Erich Priebke , Josef Schwammberger or terrorists like Stefan Michael Bar , Gottfried Küssel , Peter Naumann and Steven Smyrek as well as Holocaust deniers like Udo Walendy . Former members of almost all banned neo-Nazi organizations belonged to the HNG.

In the 1980s, Christa Görth from Bielefeld was chairwoman of the HNG. She came from the environment of Michael Kühnen and the Action Front National Socialists / National Activists (ANS / NA). Ursula Müller was the chairwoman from 1991 to July 2011, followed by Daniela Wegener . Well-known members were or are Jürgen Baumgärtner , Siegfried Borchardt , Norman Bordin , Friedhelm Busse , Günter Deckert , Thomas Gerlach , Lutz Giesen , Christian Hehl , Manfred Roeder , Frank Schwerdt , Norbert Weidner , Hans-Christian Wendt , Christian Worch as well as Uwe Mundlos and Beate Zschäpe ( NSU ).

The news from the HNG

With the news of the HNG the organization published a monthly magazine with a circulation of about 700 copies. In the publications, the political persecution of the “ national resistance ” in the Federal Republic of Germany should be documented on the basis of reports on “repression” against “national prisoners” in the penal system. Regularly updated lists of the inmates being looked after were published here. A distinction was made between an actual prisoner list with around ten prominent people in Germany and ten to 15 people abroad (including the USA, Great Britain, France and Italy in particular) and a much longer list of people who “want correspondence”. The last group of people were almost exclusively offenders who had been detained for violent crimes or murders with a racist background. The HNG's “prisoner list” was also published in numerous other publications on the neo-Nazi scene and on the Internet.

Annual general meetings of the HNG

Once a year the association organized a congress or an annual general meeting at different locations in the Federal Republic. These were regularly attended by 150 to 400 people, including numerous prominent representatives of the neo-Nazi and extreme right-wing spectrum such as leadership cadres of the Free Comradeship scene and the banned neo-Nazi skinhead organization Blood and Honor , but also representatives of the NPD , the DVU and former Republicans . Such meetings took place, for example, in March 1996 in Bad Dürkheim (Rhineland-Palatinate), on March 13, 1999 in Schwarzach am Main (Lower Franconia), on March 18, 2000 in Kalbach (Hesse), on March 31, 2001 in Spiekershausen (southern Lower Saxony), on March 23, 2002 in Hessisch Lichtenau (Hesse), on March 15, 2003 in Alzenau -Wasserlos (Lower Franconia) and on March 20, 2004 in Gremsdorf (Middle Franconia). At the annual general meeting of HNG e. V. on April 9, 2005, which was held again in Gremsdorf, gave a lecture by Olaf Rose , who also shot the controversial film " Hess Secret Files " about Rudolf Hess . Thorsten Heise delivered a greeting from the NPD “comrades” and Ralph Tegethoff , the last speaker in his lecture, recalled “the last days of the war in the Greater German Reich and his brave daughters and sons, who gave their lives for their homeland in the last days of the war and beyond gave ”(NPD press release).

Assessment of the constitution protection authorities and the federal government

In 2001, the federal government stated that “through content in the publication“ Nachrichten der HNG ”. .. the impression (being) conveyed that, in particular, offenses such as the distribution of propaganda for unconstitutional organizations, the use of their symbols or incitement of the people with a right-wing extremist background are not punishable. Corresponding convictions, so the argument there, are rather an expression of unjustifiable state oppression. This counteracts potential criminals' awareness of injustice. In individual cases, this could reduce the inhibition threshold for committing right-wing extremist crimes. ” The number of members for the year 2000 was given as 550. Since then, the number of members and the influence of the organization have increased continuously, so that a Spiegel-TV report in November 2005 stated that “in the prisons. .. the propaganda work of the HNG massively (hindered) the rehabilitation of right-wing extremist perpetrators ” . The Office for the Protection of the Constitution therefore rated the HNG as the “largest nationwide active neo-Nazi organization in Germany”.

In addition to caring for prisoners, the HNG also served to maintain contacts between organizations and people who actually rivaled one another within the highly fragmented extreme right / neo-Nazi spectrum. The 2000 report on the Protection of the Constitution came to this conclusion: "For the approximately 550 members - mainly from the fragmented neo-Nazi scene - the HNG has the function of a bracket that ensures a certain cohesion of the scene."

Raid 2010

In September 2010, at the instigation of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, a nationwide raid against the organization took place. In several federal states, including Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg, the group's rooms were searched by the police.

Ban 2011

The Federal Minister of the Interior, Hans-Peter Friedrich, banned the organization by decree on September 21, 2011 . Friedrich justified the ban by stating that “it was no longer acceptable that imprisoned right-wing extremists were encouraged by the HNG in their aggressive stance against the free democratic basic order.” From “Rejection of the democratic constitutional state and the glorification of National Socialism, the HNG tried to target right-wing extremists to keep in the scene. "The HNG contributed to the" radicalization of the neo-Nazi scene. "A lawsuit against the ban was dismissed by the Federal Administrative Court in December 2012. A complaint before the Federal Constitutional Court was rejected in July 2018.

Succession organization

A successor organization is the Aryan Defense Jail Crew , which was discovered by German authorities in 2013. The network was founded by Bernd Tödter in Hünfeld, Hesse .

The successor organization Prisoners' Aid, registered as an association in Sweden, still works with an official framework .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nationwide raid against neo-Nazi group ( memento from September 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on tagesschau.de , September 6, 2010
  2. ^ "Friedrich forbids neo-Nazi prison aid" sueddeutsche.de of September 21, 2011
  3. ^ A b c Jan-Henrik Buschbom: The aid organization for national political prisoners and their relatives eV - A portrait. ( Memento of December 7, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ a b c d “No consolidation of right-wing extremist structures via prisoners”. ( Memento of December 25, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) hib message 145/2001 of May 28, 2001.
  5. ^ Jan Bielicki: Neo-Nazis in Prisons: Dangerous Networks. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. April 12, 2013, accessed April 12, 2013 .
  6. ↑ Free Press, April 10, 2013
  7. ↑ Nationwide raid against neo-Nazi group Hannoversche Allgemeine, September 7, 2010. Retrieved September 22, 2011
  8. ^ Patrick Gensing : Neo-Nazi organization HNG prohibited . In: NPD blog . September 21, 2011
  9. ↑ Federal Ministry of the Interior : Federal Minister of the Interior bans neo-Nazi prisoner aid organization ( Memento from September 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). Press release from September 21, 2011
  10. ↑ Press release No. 123/2012 - Prohibition of the aid organization for national political prisoners legal. Federal Administrative Court , December 19, 2012, accessed on December 19, 2012 .
  11. ↑ Süddeutsche.de / dpa / afp / thei / mane: Judgment against right-wing extremist HNG - Germany's largest neo-Nazi group remains banned. In: Süddeutsche.de . Süddeutscher Verlag , December 19, 2012, accessed on December 19, 2012 .
  12. ↑ Patrick Gensing: Prohibition of HNG finally confirmed. In: Publikative.org . December 19, 2012, archived from the original on December 21, 2012 ; Retrieved December 19, 2012 .
  13. ↑ 1st Senate Federal Constitutional Court: Federal Constitutional Court - decisions - constitutional complaints against association bans unsuccessful. July 13, 2018, accessed August 21, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Left-wing MPs suspected V-men in prison network welt.de, April 11, 2013.
  15. ^ With an eagle swooping fr-online.de, April 11, 2013.
  16. ↑ Neo-Nazis in prisons apparently also sought contact with Zschäpe mz-web.de, April 10, 2013.