Germania fraternity in Wiener Neustadt

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Basic data
School location: Wiener Neustadt
Founding: December 25, 1917
Association: Austrian Pennäler Ring
Colours: Blue-red-gold
Motto: German and loyal in need and death!

The pennale fraternity Germania zu Wiener Neustadt (short: pB! Germania zu Wr. Neustadt) is a striking and color-bearing student association for male students who attend the upper level of a school in Wiener Neustadt with a Matura (high schools, HTL Wr. Neustadt , military high school, etc.) . It is considered to be German national and right-wing extremist . The Pennale fraternity became known to the public in January 2018 through a third edition of a songbook with anti-Semitic , racist and Nazi-glorifying texts. The public prosecutor's office then started investigations into suspected re-activation under the Prohibition Act , which were discontinued in August 2018.

history

After there was no student union in Wiener Neustadt during the First World War , the German-Austrian student union Germania was founded on December 25, 1917 at the higher technical school for mechanical engineering and at the state high school. After Germania had already declared its willingness to become a member on January 17, 1919, on June 9, 1919, it was the founding association of the pennal fraternity of the Ostmark (pBdO), an association of pennal fraternities of the " Ostmark ", i.e. Austria , which they up to their Dissolution on August 5, 1933. From 1920 there was a cartel relationship with the DpB! Bajuvaria in Vienna. The pBdO joined the Korporationsverband Deutscher Pennäler Ring (DPR), which existed until 1927, in 1922 and was dissolved in 1933 by the Vienna Police Department. In 1934 Germania adjourned and dissolved Aktivitas , while the old gentlemen's association continued to exist.

From 1947 there was a monthly again Stammtisch , the official reactivation occurred 1960th

When the right-wing extremist website Alpen-Donau.info was investigated in 2010 , the connection was targeted by the investigators. In 2017 the fraternity celebrated its 100th anniversary as part of a boys' day of the umbrella organization Österreichischer Pennäler Ring (ÖPR) , in January 2018 the fraternity was excluded from the ÖPR as a result of the affair surrounding its anti-Semitic and racist songbook. At that time it had 70 members (active and old men ) according to its own information . After the investigation was closed, the connection appeared again in 2019 on the ÖPR website under the member confederations.

According to SZ , one can also read from the website of the fraternity how “ Germanic ” they see themselves: E-mails are called “Strompost”, and the old Germanic month names were used in the event information, such as “Hornung” for February and “Brachmond” for June . According to DÖW are u. a. Students of the military secondary school and the Theresian Military Academy. Members of the Germania fraternity.

Fraternity house

The Rabenturm in Wiener Neustadt (2011)

The connecting house is the Raven Tower Wiener Neustadt , a defensive tower from the 13th century, part of the still existing remains of the city wall, which was rented for this purpose in the 1960s and converted for this purpose. From 1984 to 1986 the rooms were also used by the members of the Wiking Academic Round Table in Wiener Neustadt (TR! Wiking, member of the WKR ), a successful student association of students at the Theresian Military Academy , as guests of Germania temporarily as a liaison house.

Connections to the FPÖ and SPÖ

The FPÖ politician Udo Landbauer , who joined Germania as a youth in 2000, was deputy chairman for two years. The Viennese FPÖ member of the state parliament Stefan Berger was a member of Germania. The former SPÖ functionary Helmut W. joined Germania in 1962 and drew illustrations for the Germania songbook in Wiener Neustadt . During his time as Mayor of Wiener Neustadt , the SPÖ politician Peter Wittmann invited Germania to a song recital in 1994 as part of the city's 800th anniversary celebrations and that year also received a memorial stone from Germania.

Songbook with anti-Semitic songs

In January 2018, Nina Horaczek first reported in the Viennese weekly newspaper Falter about the third edition of the 1997 Germania zu Wiener Neustadt songbook , which also contains a number of anti-Semitic , racist and suspected repetitions of songs under the Prohibition Act . This also includes passages like “We are Indo-Europeans too and want to join the Waffen-SS ”. When the contents of this songbook became known, Udo Landbauer , the top candidate of the FPÖ Lower Austria for the state elections on January 28, 2018 , suspended his membership. He didn't know the songs. He asked for a commission of inquiry to “clarify the scandalous matter completely and comprehensively”. The fraternity suspended the person responsible for the songbook. This would face the authorities. They distanced themselves from the book and would encourage any measure that helps the police with the investigation.

On January 24, 2018, the public prosecutor's office in Wiener Neustadt initiated ex officio investigations against unknown persons on suspicion of violating the Prohibition Act . The police carried out a house search of the fraternity, with 19 song books and files with documents were seized, which were handed over to the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism for review .

Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen described the print of the songs as “deeply despicable” and stated: “The members of Germania are now suspected of being re-used. Whoever is responsible for it has no place in politics. ” Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz ( ÖVP ) called the lyrics“ racist, anti-Semitic and absolutely disgusting ”and called for consequences. For Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache (FPÖ), Landbauer's “red line” had not yet been crossed, as Landbauer had assured him that he did not know the songs.

160 scientists, university rectors and professors, including the president of the university conference , Eva Blimlinger , wrote in an open letter to Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Minister of Education Heinz Fassmann about the NS-glorifying songbook: “This is a call for mass murder, which as such needs to be treated. The normalization of right-wing extremism is progressing in Austria. "And they demanded:" End the cooperation with everyone who employs members of right-wing extremist fraternities in their offices. "At the same time, over 100 artists condemned the fraternity's" neo-national socialist propaganda "in an appeal, including Ruth Beckermann , Reinhold Bilgeri , Franzobel , Arno Geiger , Hubert von Goisern , Michael Heltau , Paulus Hochgatterer , Elfriede Jelinek , Erni Mangold , Peter Matić , Peter Rosei , Gerhard Ruiss , Robert Schindel , Peter Weibel , Erwin Wurm . The verses "call for mass murder". There is no harmless reason that could explain the existence of such songs in a student songbook, wrote the artist initiative.

Hans-Henning Scharsach , an expert on right-wing extremism in Austria, said, according to Spiegel Online , that it is a general problem for many fraternities that they “have not broken away from the tradition of National Socialism” and that they trivialize or deny Nazi crimes. Former EU MP and Corps student Andreas Mölzer (FPÖ) said, referring to the anti-Semitic stanzas and the history of the fraternities: “I also believe that we have to look for and create hygiene in our own house - in every single connection - a psychological and historical hygiene . And where there are such remnants [of anti-Semitism] - I don't know of any - they should be erased and that should be prevented. "

On August 24, 2018, the public prosecutor's office in Wiener Neustadt announced that the preliminary investigation had been discontinued. No evidence of a “propagandistic reproduction of the text passages relevant to criminal law” could be found, and with regard to the publication and issue of the songbook in 1997, reference was made to the statute of limitations .

As part of the BVT affair , it became known in October that Interior Minister Herbert Kickl's Secretary General Peter Goldgruber had asked the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism (BVT) for internal details on the observation of fraternities after the songbook affair had become known. According to a memo made by BVT boss Peter Gridling , Goldgruber wanted to know, among other things, which fraternities are undercover investigators. The answer is said to have been kept general, names were not mentioned. Opposition and the media critical of the government see a connection with the illegal house search in the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Numerous data carriers were confiscated from the office of the head of the extremism unit, including those relating to investigations into the right-wing extremist scene, although the public prosecutor's office had never listed her as a suspect in the BVT case. The Ministry of the Interior denies this interpretation, since Goldgruber's request was made to prepare for a meeting of the National Security Council, which the SPÖ had called on the subject of right-wing radicalism.

In March 2019, the state police authority of Lower Austria, responsible for the association, announced that the dissolution proceedings had been discontinued.

At a hearing of the District Court of Wiener Neustadt on April 29, 2019, the chairman of Germania cut out the relevant pages of the 19 confiscated songbooks with scissors provided by the court, after which the court decided to return the songbooks to the fraternity.

Color and motto

The Germania ribbon is in the colors blue-red-gold with golden percussion , a wine-red velvet cap is worn as headgear . It carries the motto : German and loyal in need and death!

Known members

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The scandal over Nazi songs is making waves in Austria , Zeit Online from January 25, 2018, accessed on January 26, 2018; Case Landbauer: Kurz and Faßmann should act , derStandard.at from January 25, 2018, accessed on January 26, 2018.
  2. ↑ a b c Oskar Waas: The Pennalie. A contribution to their history. (= History of European Studentism. Volume 2.) Graz, 1967, p. 185.
  3. ^ Oskar Waas: The Pennalie. A contribution to their history. (= History of European Studentism. Volume 2.) Graz, 1967, p. 272.
  4. ^ Oskar Waas: The Pennalie. A contribution to their history. (= History of European Studentism. Volume 2.) Graz, 1967, p. 388.
  5. ↑ a b Internet Archive : archived page on the history of pB! Germania to Wr. Neustadt
  6. ↑ Anna Thalhammer: NS songs that nobody wants to know. In: diepresse.com . January 25, 2018, accessed on October 22, 2019.
  7. ↑ "Immediately drawn the consequences". In: orf.at . January 30, 2018, accessed October 22, 2019.
  8. ^ Member associations of the ÖPR. In: oepr.at . Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  9. ↑ a b Leila Al-Serori , Oliver Das Gupta: Excitement about FPÖ politicians because of Nazi songbook. In: sueddeutsche.de . January 24, 2018, accessed October 22, 2019.
  10. ↑ list of alleged suspects ( Memento of 11 November 2010 at the Internet Archive ) In: orf.at . November 8, 2010.
  11. ↑ Our Bude ( Memento from March 21, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) In: pbgermania.at .
  12. ↑ Werner Sulzgruber: The raven tower. Contemporary history Wiener Neustadt, 2015, accessed on October 22, 2019.
  13. ^ Wiener Korporationsring : Members. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
  14. ↑ TR! Wiking, history. In: tr-wiking.at . Retrieved January 26, 2018.
  15. ^ Also Vienna FPÖ municipal council at Germania . In: orf.at . February 3, 2018, accessed February 7, 2018.
  16. ↑ FPÖ member of the state parliament Stefan Berger: "I left the matter immediately until everything was clarified". In: profil.at . February 3, 2018, accessed February 7, 2018.
  17. ↑ Illustrator: "Verse blackened 20 years ago". In: orf.at. January 31, 2018, accessed May 16, 2018 .
  18. ↑ Bianca Werfring: Nazi song book: Accused in an interview with the district sheets. In: mein district.at. February 1, 2018, accessed May 16, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Bianca Werfring: Nazi songs: Ex-SPÖ functionary is said to have illustrated Germania book. In: mein district.at. January 30, 2018, accessed May 16, 2018 .
  20. ↑ Patrick Wammerl: SPÖ slides further into the songbook affair. In: kurier.at. February 1, 2018, accessed May 16, 2018 .
  21. ↑ Nina Horaczek: “We'll manage the seventh million”. In: Falter 04/18. January 23, 2018, accessed online on January 30, 2018
    Nina Horaczek: Serious allegations against top candidates of the FP Lower Austria. In: falter.at . January 23, 2018.
  22. ↑ Debate about resignation: FPÖ hopes that the Nazi song will fall silent. In: kurier.at . January 25, 2018.
  23. ↑ Landbauer puts "Germania" membership inactive. In: diepresse.com . January 23, 2018.
  24. ^ Police confiscate Germania song books - responsible person suspended. In: derstandard.at . January 25, 2018.
  25. ↑ Van der Bellen: "That is deeply despicable". In: derstandard.at . January 24, 2018.
  26. ↑ Landbauer has not yet crossed the red line for Strache. In: derstandard.at . January 24, 2018, accessed on January 25, 2018.
  27. ↑ Nazi songs: "This is a call for mass murder". In: kurier.at . January 25, 2018.
  28. ^ Open letter in full. In: derStandard.at . January 25, 2018.
  29. ^ Nazi songs: Artists' initiative condemns fraternity. In: orf.at . January 28, 2018, accessed on October 22, 2019.
  30. ↑ The songs of Germania are incitement. In: derstandard.at . January 28, 2018
    call. In: fixpoetry.com . January 28, 2018.
  31. ^ NS songs: Artists condemn "neo-National Socialist propaganda" . In: diepresse.com . February 28, 2018.
  32. ↑ Hasnain Kazim: The FPÖ and the Nazi songs. In: Spiegel Online . January 25, 2018, accessed on January 30, 2018.
  33. ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: Ö1 Morgenjournal ) on January 26, 2018: Mölzer wants “hygiene in your own house” .@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / oe1.orf.at
  34. ↑ Andreas Mölzer advocates “in-house hygiene”. In: diepresse.com. January 16, 2018, accessed January 26, 2018 .
  35. ↑ Germania song book: Investigations closed. In: sn.at . August 24, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2018 .
  36. ↑ Florian Klenk : Explosive files from the Ministry of the Interior. In: falter.at . October 2, 2018, accessed November 1, 2018.
  37. ↑ BVT: Goldgruber wanted information on fraternity investigations. In: Courier of October 2, 2018, accessed on November 1, 2018.
  38. ↑ BVT: Goldgruber wanted information on fraternity investigations. In: orf.at . October 2, 2018, accessed November 1, 2018.
  39. ↑ BMI General Secretary Goldgruber wanted to know how BVT investigates fraternities. In: derstandard.at . October 2, 2018, accessed November 1, 2018.
  40. ↑ Songbook affair: proceedings against “Germania” dropped. In: kurier.at. March 11, 2019, accessed March 19, 2019 .
  41. ↑ Songbook Affair: Pages cut out. In: orf.at . April 30, 2019, accessed April 30, 2019.