May 1, 2008 in Hamburg
In 2008 the NPD called for a nationwide demonstration in the Hamburg workers' district of Barmbek on May 1st. The attempted occupation of International Workers' Day by the neo-Nazi party led to large counter-protests from a broad spectrum of society. Instead of the expected 700, 1,500 neo-Nazis demonstrated under the motto “Work and social justice for all Germans - together against globalization!”. Thousands of counter-demonstrators protested mostly peacefully against the neo-Nazis. On the fringes of the demonstration, there were violent confrontations between neo-Nazis , autonomists and the police. At the event, the Free Comradeships appeared for the first time in public as supporters of the NPD, numerically significant and violent.
Demonstration and counter-demonstration
demonstration
The NPD had called nationwide for the demonstration in Hamburg-Barmbek as the “National May 1st” under the motto “Work and social justice for all Germans - Together against globalization!”. Previously, at the 2008 NPD federal party conference, the federal chairman Udo Voigt had expressly welcomed the black bloc and made it clear that one “cannot be divided up by the media and not by agitation”. This black bloc represented a large part of the demonstrators of the NPD rally in Hamburg. Leading NPD members such as Jürgen Rieger , Thomas Wulff , Dieter Riefling and Torben Klebe took part in the demonstration .
The North German Radio (NDR) spoke of 1,500 demonstrators. The police put their number at around 700.
The neo-Nazis arrived in rented coaches and by public transport. To get to Barmbek, they used the S-Bahn from Hamburg Central Station .
Originally the demonstration was supposed to start at 12 noon, but track blockades and individual arson along the routes to Hamburg led to considerable delays. From 4 p.m., the right-wing extremist demonstrators marched through Hamburg. It is estimated that 300 to 500 autonomous nationalists were among the right-wing extremists .
Almost all of the right-wing demonstrators' coaches were partially cleared of glass by counter-demonstrators throwing stones. The bus drivers then drove off with their vehicles. As a result, most of the right-wing extremists had to leave by public transport.
Counter-demonstration
To the counter-demonstration under the motto “International solidarity instead of national community ! Out to antifascist May 1, "said the Hamburg Alliance Against Right on that of members of churches , trade unions , Antifa groups and the national associations of parties SPD , Die Linke and GAL Hamburg is. The protest march started on Wiesendamm at the Barmbek S-Bahn station , was stopped several times by requests from the police and ended at the Ohlsdorf cemetery . In several places the demonstrations were within sight of each other. The number of counter-demonstrators is estimated at 7,000, including around 1,600 militant autonomists ( Black Bloc ), 1,000 moderate autonomists and 1,400 other left-wing radicals.
Riots and police operations
Course of the riots
Already the evening before there were riots in the Sternschanze in the area of the Rote Flora . Militant Autonomists pelted police officers with stones, one policeman was injured; they set fire to dumpsters and smashed the windows of a savings bank. After the police used water cannons, the situation calmed down.
Serious riots broke out in Barmbek on the morning of May 1st from 10:45 a.m. The police cordoned off all access roads to the district. Autonomous people pulled tires on the S-Bahn tracks and set them on fire. Shortly afterwards, strangers set fire to a tire store not far from the Barmbek S-Bahn station. Then left-wing extremist counter-demonstrators fought violent street battles with the police for hours. They threw stones and fireworks at the police officers. They also destroyed shops and bus stops and set up burning barricades. The autonomists attacked the host and the guests of a restaurant. A police patrol car and six cars went up in flames. Around 150 autonomous groups attacked around 50 right-wing radicals on Hellbrookstrasse. Right-wing demonstrators attacked left-wing counter-demonstrators on Saarlandstrasse. The police were only able to separate the groups by using the mobile task force and the water cannons. The paths of the demonstrators and counter-demonstrators did not cross in time. The autonomists who passed the crossroads first, but then blocked the street area. Autonomous groups armed with clubs increasingly split off from the counter-elevator; they stabbed tires, threw windows at companies and car dealerships, and started several fires. The fire brigade refused to put out the fire for fear of attacks.
Right-wing perpetrators attacked journalists. According to a police spokesman, the police classified 80 percent of the right-wing extremists as willing to use violence. According to the police, the violence in the riots in the vicinity of the demonstrations came from the right-wing extremist demonstrators. "The aggression and sheer violence came from the right," said the police chief of operations to the news magazine Der Spiegel . Riot police from Lower Saxony, Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg were called together for the demonstrations . 2500 police officers were on duty. During the riot in the afternoon, the police arrested or detained around 250 counter-demonstrators. Over 20 police officers from different federal states were injured. According to the Zapp magazine , the police were overwhelmed because 2500 emergency services were too few.
According to estimates by the police, around 4,000 mostly masked autonomists marched through the streets in groups after the official end of the counter-demonstration and repeatedly attacked police officers with stones and bottles. In the evening there were further riots in the Schanzenviertel. Militant autonomists threw stones at police forces and shot them with fireworks. Windows of a savings bank were damaged and a barricade was erected. The police used water cannons and removed the barricade. Some autonomous people have been taken into custody.
Criticism of the urgent procedure of the higher administrative court
In order to prevent the demonstrators from meeting the counter-demonstrators, the police had imposed strict conditions on the demonstrators. They insisted that left and right should demonstrate half a kilometer apart, so that there would have been a sufficiently large buffer zone between the camps. The demonstrators were also not allowed to take glass bottles and cans with them in order not to use them as projectiles. The Hamburg Higher Administrative Court lifted the conditions on the evening before the demonstration, however, in an urgent procedure, so that right and left during the demonstrations came within sight. Instead of monitoring two isolated blocks, the police now acted as a buffer.
The judgment of the administrative court caused largely incomprehension. The Hamburg Interior Senator Udo Nagel stated that the police “after a careful and fact-based risk prognosis” had imposed conditions “in order to be able to prevent the opposing participants from meeting”. He considered the decision of the Higher Administrative Court to be "incomprehensible". In his opinion, the court "not only exposed the police forces deployed, but also bystanders to the greatest dangers". The federal chairman of the police union, Konrad Freiberg, accused the court of having acted “irresponsibly”. The police press office said that the police not only had to separate around 1,500 right-wing and 7,000 left-wing demonstrators from one another, but also had to protect local residents from attacks, which was impossible to manage. The Higher Administrative Court “should have taken into account that the police were not able” to “cope with the operation.” Even for experts, the court decision was “incomprehensible”. The Hamburg police chief Werner Jantosch announced with a view to the decision of the Higher Administrative Court “reworking need”. The President of the Higher Administrative Court, Rolf Gestefeld, rejected the police and trade union's criticism of the court's decision. In his opinion, the riots took place “mostly at a great distance from the demonstration route”, so that the conditions imposed by the police “did not change anything”.
New form and behavior of the right-wing extremist scene
At the May 1st demonstration in Barmbek, the NPD consciously tried to address the issue of social issues . The party had been trying for several years to claim May Day for itself. According to observers, the party wants to reinterpret International Labor Day as a national day of struggle.
According to media representatives, sentences like "We'll kill you" were uttered by the demonstrators. Stefan Schöllerman from NDR stated that the neo-Nazis had targeted individual journalists. Leading members of the NPD had incited the attacks. The NPD politician Thomas Wulff is quoted as saying: "Anyone who comes too close to us will feel our resistance."
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d May 1, 2008 Hamburg Neo-Nazis threaten journalists massively . Zapp article from May 8, 2008.
- ↑ a b NPD demo in Hamburg. Black billows of smoke over Barmbek . In: Spiegel Online , May 1, 2008. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
- ↑ a b c d André Zand-Vakili: May riots. An orgy of violence shakes Hamburg . In: Welt Online , May 1, 2008. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
- ↑ a b May 1 demos Riots in Hamburg - tussles in Kreuzberg ( Memento from June 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). In: Süddeutsche.de , May 1, 2008. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
- ↑ a b May riots. Street battles paralyze Hamburg . In: Welt Online , May 1, 2008. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
- ↑ May 1st in Hamburg: Water cannons and burning tires . In: Spiegel Online , May 1, 2008. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
- ^ RP Online May 1, 2008
- ^ Friederike Freiburg, Stefan Schultz: May riots in Hamburg. The police and the judiciary are blaming each other . In: Spiegel Online , May 2, 2008. Retrieved February 15, 2010.