Citizens' movement for Germany

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Citizens' movement for Germany
Logo of the party "Citizens' Movement for Germany"
Party leader Manfred Rouhs
Secretary General Detlev Schwarz
Deputy Chairman Alfred Dagenbach
Federal Treasurer Manfred Schlender
founding January 20, 2005
Place of foundation Cologne
resolution November 11, 2017 (decision)
Headquarters Alte Rhinstrasse 16

12681 Berlin

Alignment Right-wing extremism ,
right-wing populism ,
nationalism , including
ethnic nationalism
Colours) White blue
Number of members 1,122
(as of December 31, 2014)
Minimum age 16 years
Website www.pro-deutschland-online.de

The citizen movement pro Deutschland (short name: pro Deutschland ) was a right-wing extremist small German party . In the 2011 report for the protection of the constitution by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia , pro Germany was mentioned in the area of ​​right-wing extremism. Accordingly, there were indications for the suspicion of extremist efforts. She was part of the pro movement . On November 11, 2017, Pro Germany decided to dissolve it and asked its members to switch to the AfD .

history

Established in 2005

The party was founded on January 20, 2005 in Cologne, one year after the citizens' movement pro Cologne, according to the media at the time, surprisingly moved into the Cologne City Council. This has been listed and observed since 2004 under suspicion of right-wing extremist tendencies in the constitution protection report of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is classified as anti-constitutional.

The pro-Cologne treasurer Manfred Rouhs , who has also stood as a candidate for the right-wing extremist parties DLVH and NPD , was elected as federal chairman of pro Germany .

2011 to 2012

In June 2010, the only regional association in Berlin to date was founded that uses the self-designation pro Berlin . In April 2011, the former DVU and REP member Lars Seidensticker was elected as its state chairman.

In the election for the Berlin House of Representatives in 2011 , Pro Germany led a controversial election campaign with the state list 17, which failed with 1.2% of the five percent hurdle .

Two days after the attacks in Norway in 2011 , the party demonstrated with 15 participants in front of the Norwegian embassy. a. was condemned by Berlin's ruling mayor Klaus Wowereit and various local media and critics as "unbearable" mockery of the victims and election campaign at the expense of the dead. The police banned the demonstration out of consideration for the grief of family members and citizens of Norway.

In August 2011, which prohibited the Berlin District Court per Germany by injunction the use of the slogan "Choose to go for Thilo's theses" because this Sarrazin violated rights to their own names. 11 August 2011 attacked two election workers - a district chairman and a candidate - from per Germany a police chief inspector in civilian clothes with pepper spray for his attempt a violent argument with a Lebanese to end, although the officers by badge had reported. The officer was seriously injured. Only police reinforcements were able to bring the situation under control and arrest both campaign workers, who were then investigated for dangerous bodily harm, threats and resistance to law enforcement officers. “Pro Germany”, on the other hand, denied the allegations and filed a complaint itself.

In September 2012, pro Germany announced that it would show the Islamophobic film Innocence of Muslims in Berlin and invite the Christian fundamentalist preacher Terry Jones to do so . When the film premiered a few months earlier in the US, organizations in several Islamic countries reacted with riots and attacks on US facilities, in which Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and other employees of the US embassy in Libya were killed. The Endstation Rechts initiative rated the announcement as a "provocation for an end in itself". Two days after the announcement by pro Germany, Islamists tried to storm the German embassy in Sudan . The then Federal Minister of the Interior, Hans-Peter Friedrich , announced that he wanted to prevent the film from being shown by all legally permissible means and accused the party chairman, Manfred Rouhs , of “provoking the Islamists in Germany as well” and thereby “adding fuel to the fire with gross negligence . ” Rainer Wendt , chairman of the German police union , warned of the consequences if the party showed the film in Germany. That could be "very dangerous."

Since 2013

In the 2013 federal election campaign there were again criminal charges against representatives of the party. In August 2013, according to police reports, representatives from pro Germany attacked a 17-year-old student after he had spoken out against the goals and the party as a whole at a demonstration. As a result, Lars Seidensticker - state chairman and federal general secretary of the party - and other people attacked the 17-year-old, hit, kicked and choked him. The police then excluded Seidensticker from the demonstration. According to the police, Seidensticker and another election campaigner were investigated on suspicion of dangerous bodily harm.

In May 2015, an internal party power struggle broke out between Pro Köln and Pro NRW. One of the reasons was rivalries between Markus Wiener and Markus Beisicht. The Kölner Stadtanzeiger reported that they were accusing each other of behavior that was harmful to the party, for example fraud to the detriment of taxpayers on the part of the city party and the extreme right-wing trend on the part of the state party. As a result, at the end of 2015, Pro Köln supported the establishment of the Pro Germany Regional Association of North Rhine-Westphalia. Markus Wiener became state chairman.

Resolution 2017

On November 11, 2017, the party decided at a federal assembly to disband. The members were asked to join the AfD. The reasons given on the website were the AfD's entry into the German Bundestag, as well as that the Austrian FPÖ, the French Front National and the Flemish Vlaams Belang stated that they would no longer support any party in Germany that was in competition with the AfD would.

organization structure

The seat of the party was Berlin . The party was divided into the organizational levels federal association, regional association, district association, district association and local association. Organs of the federal association were the federal assembly (according to § 9 Abs. 1 PartG ) and the federal executive committee.

In June 2010 the umbrella organization “Die Pro-Movement (PRO)” was founded, in which pro Cologne , pro NRW , pro Germany and other small clubs were organized. Since then, the former pro Cologne and even more current pro NRW chairman Markus Beisicht has acted as chairman, and the pro Germany chairman Manfred Rouhs has been appointed as his deputy. According to the statutes, the purpose of the association is the "Germany-wide coordination and coordination of the political work of the various independent pro-parties and associations in the municipalities and states". Since 2015, Pro NRW on the one hand and Pro Germany and Pro Cologne on the other have been operating separately from each other.

The movement developed activities in Hambühren (district of Celle, Lower Saxony), in the Hochtaunus district (Hesse), in Frankfurt (Oder) (Brandenburg), in the district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen (Bavaria), in Oberhausen and Dormagen (North Rhine-Westphalia), in Hanover ( Lower Saxony), Heilbronn (Baden-Württemberg), in Peine (Lower Saxony), in Munich (Bavaria) and in Berlin , where the only regional association existed for a long time. Another regional association has existed in North Rhine-Westphalia since October 31, 2015. In some cases, however, the activities were stopped again after a short time.

Political content

In its basic and electoral program, the small party called for the creation of "law and order". The age of criminal responsibility should be reduced to 12 years and "the Prussian heritage" should be strengthened. Illegal immigrants should be "deported immediately". One is not the “social welfare office for the whole world”.

According to the will of the party, pupils with poor knowledge of German should be removed from regular classes and taught in “native language classes”. Asylum procedures should be tightened, criminal foreigners should be deported and the "old 68 cuddle education " should be ended. The subject of history should be “made compulsory”, and the party wanted to introduce tuition fees after the standard period of study had expired.

The party called for the "rejection of the power claims of the multinational companies", in particular the "big banks and insurance groups". A so-called “children's check” in the amount of € 5,000 and a “family loan” in the amount of up to € 20,000 were to be introduced exclusively for Germans, although financing was not mentioned in the program.

Relationship to right-wing extremism

Members and senior management

Manfred Rouhs (with megaphone) next to right-wing extremist Axel Reitz (4th from right )

In terms of personnel, the party is closely networked with the partner organizations pro Cologne . The party chairman Manfred Rouhs was deputy chairman of the association “The Pro Movement”, which serves as a collective organization for the pro parties . The chairman was Markus Beisicht , former state chairman of the right-wing extremist DLVH . Rouhs was also a member and candidate of the DLVH, a member of the Young National Democrats and a candidate of the neo-Nazi NPD . A photo of a rally in Cologne-Kalk before the local elections in autumn 1999 also shows the right-wing extremist Axel Reitz, who is known throughout Germany, next to Manfred Rouhs. While the latter denied knowing Reitz at all, he told the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger that Rouhs had even asked him to help organize the rally and said: "Most of the participants came at my request." In June 2012, Rouhs showed solidarity also officially on behalf of pro Germany with the French right-wing extremist Front National , which u. a. calls for the reintroduction of the death penalty.

In March 2011, the German-Swedish right-wing extremist Patrik Brinkmann was elected regional chairman of Berlin, but resigned a little later because he rejected the candidacy of a party member because of his homosexuality . However, he is still a member of pro NRW . Brinkmann was previously a member of the DVU . He is considered a leading figure in European right-wing extremism and the founder of the “Continent Europe Foundation” (KES). Well-known members of the foundation included a. the former NPD functionary Andreas Molau , the French publicist Pierre Krebs , the publisher Gert Sudholt convicted of sedition and the history revisionist Olaf Rose .

The former state chairman of Berlin, Lars Seidenstricker, was previously active in the German People's Union (DVU). Other candidates for the Berlin House of Representatives election in 2011 with a right-wing extremist past were Torsten Meyer (former DVU state chairman of Berlin), Moritz Elischer (also DVU state board member Berlin) and the NPD activist Alexander Schlesinger.

In November 2011, the former NPD functionary Nico Ernst was also elected to the party's federal executive committee. In the past, Ernst was active in the marches of the militant neo-Nazi scene and could be found in the vicinity of the neo-Nazi "Kameradschaft Rhein / Ahr".

In November 2012, the former NPD functionary and member of the state parliament Mirko Schmidt was elected to the federal executive committee.

The political roots of the youth commissioner from pro Deutschland and responsible for the internet presence of pro Deutschland in Bavaria, Stefan Werner, lie with the republicans and the right-wing extremist German party . In 2005 he stood as a member of the DP on the list of the NPD Munich in the federal election.

In April 2011, the association pro Bayern e. V. (which formally does not belong to pro Germany) held an event in Regensburg at which functionaries from pro Germany were also present. Benjamin Boss from Amberg was also present at this event. Boss is a leading activist of the neo-Nazi comradeship "Nationaler Resistance Amberg" and was one of the leading figures at a neo-Nazi demonstration in November 2010 in Sulzbach-Rosenberg. Another guest took part in the event , Gert Sudholt , who has a previous conviction for sedition and, with his “Verlagsgesellschaft Berg”, mainly sells historical revisionist publications that glorify the armed forces. Sudholt presented a selection of his publications in Regensburg.

Political classification

The sociologist Alexander Häusler assigns the party to the extreme right, a form of right-wing extremism that would be surrounded by a “ right-wing populist shell”. Häusler uses the term “extreme right” to denote the “far right edge of the political spectrum”. This collective term encompasses the “entire political right wing spectrum” from the “brown zone between right-wing conservative and right-wing extremist circles” to “openly neo-Nazi scenes”. Criteria for classification in terms of content are ethnic- nationalistic , racist and anti-Semitic manifestations, authoritarian political ideas, the rejection of the principle of social equality, discrimination against minorities and the ethnicization or nationalization of social and economic problems. The extreme right stylizes the multicultural society as the central enemy. Campaigns against the construction of mosques and minarets are used to make a racism charged with cultural and religious beliefs socially acceptable.

The political scientist Christoph Butterwegge , professor at the University of Cologne , agrees with Häusler's classification; pro Germany is right-wing extremist and at the same time populist. The party would be "serious and bourgeois-democratic", but incite "against ethnic and religious minorities".

The members of pro Deutschland are also recruited from former members of the NPD , the DVU or the Republicans .

Political strategy

In 2006, Manfred Rouhs in Cologne officially presented a strategy paper of the pro-movement on building networks, which was entitled "Building Concept". In this concept, the creation of citizen inquiries is described as the “core work of the citizen movement”. According to this, public petitions are started at the local level on locally controversial topics such as the building of mosques or the opening of asylum facilities , in which signatures are collected. The addresses of the signatories are collected in a card index by the federal or regional association and structured according to members, donors, supporters and interested parties. These people are then regularly supplied with promotional material from the pro movement. As soon as the local topic is exhausted, a new topic from the areas of “multi-culturalism, crime development, corruption and social justice” is sought and a new petition is started with the same procedure.

Election results

In the election for the Berlin House of Representatives on September 18, 2011 , 1.2% of the second votes per Germany was achieved (17,829 of 1,460,012 votes in absolute terms) and thus failed to make it into the House of Representatives as well as in all district assemblies . In doing so, however, the party jumped the hurdle for state party funding under the Political Parties Act ( Section 18 ). After the 2016 election , in which it only achieved 0.4%, it lost its entitlement to state party funding.

In the 2013 federal election , the party ran in 13 federal states with state lists and received 73,854 votes, which corresponded to a nationwide share of second votes of 0.2%. The direct candidates, who were nominated in three constituencies, achieved a first vote share of 0.8% ( Manfred Rouhs in the Bundestag constituency Berlin-Marzahn - Hellersdorf ), 2.1% ( Mirko Schmidt in the Bundestag constituency of Meißen ) and 0.4% (Stefan Werner in the Bundestag constituency of Munich-West / Middle ).

In the mayor election of 2013 in Hildesheim , Andreas Tute, as a candidate for Germany, received 5.3% of the vote (2,854 votes in absolute terms).

In the state elections in Saxony in 2014 , 3,162 of the second votes were achieved per Germany, which corresponds to 0.2%.

literature

  • Alexander Häusler (Ed.): Right-wing populism as a "citizen movement". Campaigns against Islam and the construction of mosques and communal counter-strategies . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 3-531-15919-4 .
  • Alexander Häusler, AK RUHR / LAGA NRW (ed.): Right-wing populism in the form of a “citizens' movement” Structure and political methodology of PRO NRW and PRO DEUTSCHLAND. 2010 ( online ; PDF)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Overview of the board members, statutes and program of the citizens' movement pro Germany ( Memento of the original from June 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 289 kB)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bundeswahlleiter.de
  2. ^ Annual report of the parties for the year 2014 (Part 2 - Other entitled parties). Bundestag printed matter 18/8475, p. 299 (PDF; 75.8 MB)
  3. Ultra rights are catching up with the past. Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, March 19, 2007
  4. Right-wing populists are not allowed to advertise with Sarrazin. Die Welt, August 11, 2011
  5. AK RUHR / LAGA NRW (ed.): Right-wing populism in the form of a "citizens' movement" structure and political methodology of Pro NRW and Pro Germany. 2010 ( PDF file ( Memento of the original from March 31, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ). The "PRO movement" and anti-Muslim cultural racism from the far right (Ed. By the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung ; PDF; 166 kB) Christoph Kopke : The limits of tolerance: right-wing extremist milieu and democratic society in Brandenburg , p. 49 ISBN 978- 3-86956-038-0 . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.arbeitsstelle-neonazismus.de

  6. Constitutional Protection Report of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia for 2011, p. 35.
  7. Disbanded right-wing party. AfD does not want members of Pro Germany Der Spiegel November 12, 2017
  8. ^ WDR: Pro Köln wants to establish itself nationwide as Pro NRW ( Memento from April 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), June 4, 2007
  9. Frank Jansen in blog.zeit.de “stoerungsmelder” from March 29, 2011
  10. Oberverwaltungsgericht NRW, 5 A 203/08 ( Memento from April 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) from July 8, 2009, accessed on September 26, 2015.
  11. NGN : Catch basin: Former DVU regional chief running for the Berlin regional association of “Pro Germany” , from March 24, 2011.
  12. Election to the Berlin House of Representatives: Information from the regional returning officer (PDF; 19 kB)
  13. ^ The State Returning Officer for Berlin: Second votes in the election for the Berlin House of Representatives on September 18, 2011: Preliminary result. Retrieved September 19, 2011 .
  14. ^ Pro Germany protests in front of the Norway embassy. In: Berliner Morgenpost , July 25th.
  15. Hannes Heine: Islamophobes run up in front of the Norwegian embassy. In: Der Tagesspiegel , July 25, 2011.
  16. ^ Sarrazin ban for pro Germany. In: the daily newspaper , August 11, 2011.
  17. Berlin.de, press release police headquarters from August 11, 2011  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.berlin.de  
  18. Right-wing populists are not allowed to advertise with Sarrazin. In: Die Welt , August 11, 2011.
  19. ^ Björn Stephan: Pro Deutschland campaign workers attack Lebanese and police officers. In: Der Tagesspiegel , August 11, 2011.
  20. Jump up ↑ Right-wing populist rioters: PRO Germany wants to show the controversial "Mohammed film" in Berlin. In: Endstation Rechts , September 14, 2012.
  21. Pro Deutschland wants to show Mohammed film in Berlin. ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Die Zeit , September 13, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zeit.de
  22. Crowd attacks German embassy in Sudan. In: Die Zeit , September 14, 2012.
  23. ^ "Pro-Germany" boss wants to show Mohammed film in Berlin. In: Spiegel Online , accessed on September 15, 2012.
  24. "Stupid, but not punishable". In: tagesschau.de . September 17, 2012, archived from the original on September 19, 2012 ; Retrieved September 17, 2012 .
  25. ^ SPD and Greens politicians against the ban on Mohammed films. In: Spiegel Online . September 17, 2012, accessed September 17, 2012 .
  26. ^ Abusive campaigners , the daily newspaper of August 29, 2013
  27. a b http://www.ksta.de/nrw/rechtsextreme-in-nordrhein-westfalen-die--pro-bewegung--zeretzt-sich-selbst-und-hat-nun-zwei-landesverbaende-23110048
  28. http://www.pro-deutschland.de/
  29. "Pro-Movement founded as an official umbrella organization" ( Memento of the original from November 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Report on the website of the party pro NRW from June 15, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pro-nrw.net
  30. cf. Häusler (2010), p. 19.
  31. Power struggle at Pro NRW and Pro Köln: Right-wing extremist pro-movement dismantles itself. Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, May 15, 2015
  32. cf. Häusler (2010), p. 19f.
  33. Hannes Heine: Outside, but not in vain. In: Der Tagesspiegel , March 4, 2011.
  34. ^ Election program of the Citizens' Movement pro Germany for the election to the Berlin House of Representatives and the district assemblies in 2011 ( Memento of the original from April 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on May 18, 2016)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.abektivenwatch.de
  35. http://www.bpb.de/politik/wahlen/wer-haben-zur-wahl/berlin-2011/45925/pro-deutschland
  36. ^ Pro Cologne: "Evidence" for neo-Nazi contacts. ( Memento of the original from February 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , April 23, 2005. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ksta.de
  37. Stephen Brown, Anton Maergerle: Lawyers of the extreme right , S. 389. In Stephan Brown, Alexander Geisler, Martin Herster (ed.): Strategies of the extreme right. Background - analyzes - answers . 2009, pp. 358-377.
  38. "The grandchildren fight it better ..." , Nation24 of June 18, 2012
  39. ^ Andreas Förster, Claudia Fuchs: Right-wing populists meet in Zehlendorf. In: Berliner Zeitung , March 4, 2011.
  40. Andreas Kopietz: Right-wing millionaire plans election campaign. In: Berliner Zeitung , January 21, 2010.
  41. ^ Constitutional Protection Report 2009. ( Memento of July 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) p. 119 ( PDF ; 4.3 MB)
  42. ^ Berlin instead of the Swedish province. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 13, 2009.
  43. Thorsten Stegemann: A crusade against Islam and five million euros. In: Heise online , March 11, 2010.
  44. ^ Swedish neo-Nazi planning election campaign in Berlin. In: Berliner Morgenpost , January 21, 2010.
  45. Theo Schneider: Catchment basin: Former DVU regional chief running for the Berlin regional association of “Pro Germany” In: Netz gegen Nazis , March 24, 2011.
  46. AK RUHR / LAGA NRW (ed.): Right-wing populism in the form of a “citizens' movement”. Structure and political methodology of Pro NRW and Pro Deutschland , 2010, p. 13
  47. ^ Pro-Germany report on the 5th Federal Assembly, November 27, 2011
  48. ^ 6th Federal Assembly , website of pro Deutschland from November 18, 2012
  49. ^ "PRO Bayern": Right-wing populist meeting in Rechberg In: regensburg-digital , April 11, 2011.
  50. Alexander Häusler : The “PRO Movement” and the anti-Muslim cultural racism of the far right , pp. 2–3, 2011.
  51. cf. Häusler: Right-wing populism in the form of a “citizens' movement”, 2010, pp. 31–34, 36.
  52. Christoph Butterwegge: Financial market crisis, poverty and right-wing extremist politics, in: Christoph Kopke: The Limits of Tolerance: Right-Wing Extremes Milieu and Democratic Society in Brandenburg, pp. 41–55, specifically p. 49.
  53. Pro Germany pasted over Sarrazin posters. In: Berliner Morgenpost , August 11, 2011.
  54. Häusler: Right-wing populism in the form of a “citizen movement”, 2010, pp. 29–32
  55. ^ "Concept" , website of pro Deutschland, accessed on July 19, 2012
  56. Official result of the 2011 parliamentary elections in Berlin (PDF; 4.9 MB)
  57. https://www.bundestag.de/blob/503226/eb02070236090c98b3ca24ce9dfc57fa/finanz_16-data.pdf
  58. Result of the Hildesheim mayor election 2013 ( memento of the original from September 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Preliminary final result, Hildesheim City Hall  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / rathaus-hildesheim.de
  59. State election 2014: provisional state result