German police relief organization

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The German Police Relief Organization (DPHW) was a vigilante group in Saxony , Brandenburg and Thuringia that existed from April 2012 to June 2013 and , as a self-appointed auxiliary police force , attracted attention through acts of violence and vigilante justice . The DPHW was founded in 2012 by Volker Schöne, saw itself as the executive arm of the Reich Citizens Movement and represented ideological positions.

The extremist group, which, according to the investigating police, had around 100 active members, became known nationwide when around 15 of them - some of them wearing fancy uniforms - prevented a bailiff from carrying out a foreclosure , tried to tie up and held him. The end of 2015 and early 2016 were at for these acts Meissen District Court several trial court sentences imposed on some multi-year prison sentences for false imprisonment and assault.

History and organization

In April 2012, Volker Schöne founded the Reich ideological German Police Aid Organization , or DPHW for short, a vigilante group in Saxony that attracted attention through illegal measures . Before that, Schöne was a sponsoring member of the German Police Union of Saxony as a non-police officer . V. and maintained the union's website in his free time. He published a text there in which he stated that various German laws were no longer valid and that occupation law was applicable in the Federal Republic of Germany . The union removed the text from the website , but it gained greater prominence in the empire ideological scene and was touted as insider knowledge . Schöne was subsequently expelled from the union.

He claimed that he wanted to tackle police violence and failure of the authorities with the DPHW , but did not consider Germany to be a state, but a GmbH . He recruited the members of his vigilante group from supporters of the Reich citizen scene, who deny the existence of the Federal Republic. Most of the approximately 100 members of the DPHW auxiliary force were, according to an investigating police officer, over- indebted and failed existences, which made the state responsible for their predicament. The political orientation of the DPHW remained unclear because the group did not develop a political program and only cited a number of formal justifications. In a first membership letter, unspecified actions were announced to ensure order and security for the population. Later they made a public promise to point out and prevent legal violations. The DPHW claimed to be able to carry out police tasks "where there is no longer a precinct or where there are too large gaps for the need for police forces". Since this goal requires the state monopoly of force to be undermined, the DPHW invoked the right of resistance in the Basic Law and thus suggested to the outside world and to parts of its members that its actions - even unmistakable crimes - are permissible and "always strictly [...] legitimized". In fact, the DPHW rejects the German jurisdiction and considers its resolutions and judgments to be unacceptable. Often it is about circumventing foreclosures.

The DPHW publicly recruited new members nationwide at more than 50 meetings and “trained” them for upcoming campaigns. Members of the DPHW appeared as "substitute police officers" who were supposed to ensure peace and order and to support and at the same time control the real police. The DPHW acted with noticeably strong name and appearance similarities to the real police and tried to give the impression of a connection to the German police or the German police union. During their operations, its members wore uniforms with strong similarities to the real police and the inscription “DPHW German Police”. The members bore the cost of purchasing police uniforms. The DPHW had no legal form . The DPHW went on patrol and advised people on legal proceedings . Intern was the DPHW organized hierarchical, with the NVA style similar structures military ranks . According to its own information, the group had regional offices in all federal states in 2013, but only attracted attention in Saxony , Brandenburg and Thuringia .

Since the criminal offenses in 2012 and the investigations and convictions that followed, no actions of the DPHW with high public profile have become known in Saxony. The DPHW existed until the end of June 2013 when it announced its presumed dissolution on its website. At the end of 2013 Schöne gave an interview to the right-wing esoteric video portal Conscious.TV , in which he explained that the DPHW will be organized without a top in the future. According to the Green politician and scene expert Andreas Vorrath, interest in the DPHW quickly ebbed away. If one greeted the appearance of the pseudo-police enthusiastically in the Reichsbürger scene, disappointment arose shortly afterwards: Nationwide "Reichsbürger" complained soberly that the DPHW cooperated with the regular state authority , which contradicted the legal and ideological tools of the Reich Citizens Movement . The Office for the Protection of the Constitution had no information in 2014 that the group was still active.

classification

Right-wing extremism experts and representatives of the authorities assign the DPHW to the Reich Citizens Movement due to ideological overlaps (or use the largely synonymous term of the Reich ideologues or Reich governments ) or speak of “close connections” between the two groups. The DPHW itself distanced itself from the Reich Citizens' Movement and committed itself to democracy in public statements. However, several of the founding members were previously active in groups of citizens of the Reich or themselves distribute ideological content on their private homepages. Several leaders of the DPHW also met in October 2012 for a coordination meeting with the empire ideological " Republic of Free Germany " Peter Frühwald. The press spokesman of the DPHW, Holger Fröhner, published the book The Century Lie in 2009 , according to the supply "the Bible of the Reich Citizens Movement", and in 2014 the book Das Deutschland Protokoll, which was written in the same "Reich German" tenor . According to the Sächsischer Zeitung, Schöne DPHW saw itself as the executive arm of the Reich Citizens' Movement. According to the legal-political spokesman for the Green parliamentary group in Saxony , Johannes Lichdi , the DPHW has served "various Reich citizens' movements as a quasi executive body" since its foundation and is, for example, " expressly named as such by the Commissary Reich Government (KRR) 'Free Germany' from Leipzig " . The political scientist Jan Freitag classified the DPHW as the greatest danger emerging from the Reich citizen scene. It actively intimidates dissidents and tries to deter the authorities from their work by threatening them. In addition, the DPHW is one of the few armed and militarily trained groups on the scene.

Criminal offenses

On 23 November 2012 partially uniformed DPHW supporters prevented a bailiff of the district court in Meissen Bärwalde , a district of the Saxon town of Radeburg violently on the enforcement of a title. During the action on a Bärwald farm, Schöne and 14 members of the DPHW disguised as police officers captured the bailiff in the yard of the property. The group tried unsuccessfully to handcuff the bailiff and prevented him from leaving the property. One of the participants filmed the action for "training purposes". The bailiff was sick for a year because of the psychological consequences of the action. DPHW members claimed that he had committed a criminal offense because bailiffs are no longer civil servants and are therefore not allowed to exercise any sovereign duties of the state. They themselves merely made use of their right to provisional arrest for everyone . It became known that the Reich citizen scene in Bärwald had previously founded a fake Jewish association called "Esau" with which they had concluded a fictitious lease in order to use this trick to avert the foreclosure auction of the courtyard that was also used as DPHW headquarters. According to the Jewish community in Dresden , this procedure has been practiced by Reich citizens in the Bautzen area for a long time .

On October 11, 2012, the Thuringian police had to intervene because the head of the tax office in Sonneberg was harassed by the DPHW. On November 29, 2012, DPHW members dressed in fantasy uniforms tried to “arrest” a bailiff in Weimar . The Thuringian police started investigations against seven suspects. In December, in a village in southern Saxony-Anhalt , DPHW representatives tried unsuccessfully to prevent the police from executing an arrest warrant.

On July 10, 2012, during a raid in Berlin, explosive chemicals and pyrotechnics were confiscated from a “citizen of the Reich” of the Free Republic of Germany , with a uniformed DPHW representative acting as “ legal advisor ”. When police officers, with the support of explosives experts, searched a littered company premises in the Berlin district of Neukölln in 2013 , which was known as "extraterritorial" territory and as "Republic of Free Germany Territory", in order to remove the explosive chemicals illegally stashed there by a 39-year-old "Reichsbürger" and by the cent To confiscate pyrotechnics stored in an air raid shelter without a permit, a fake DPHW police officer appeared to protect his like-minded fellow from what he considered to be an illegal police search. The DPHW supporter, disguised in a police uniform, then received a complaint for presumption of office .

Prosecution

The investigation into the group was led by the Operational Defense Center for Right-Wing Extremism . In February 2013, the police in Saxony and Brandenburg searched various apartments of DPHW members and a DPHW business premises, and the uniforms and legal firearms of some members were confiscated. In 2013, the Dresden public prosecutor opened proceedings against the people involved in the action in Bärwalde, among other things because of presumption. In August 2015, 292 suspects in connection with the DPHW were brought to the public prosecutor's office, 84 people were still being investigated. 60 people were charged with multiple offenses, including coercion, deprivation of liberty, and threats and extortion. According to the state parliament member Kerstin Köditz, there are “apparently a number of intensive offenders” among the accused. The investigating police spoke of around 100 active members. Many of the proceedings against "ordinary members" of the DPHW have been discontinued because it has always presented itself to the public and to its ordinary members as a law-abiding vigilante group. Many members therefore had no knowledge of the aim of the DPHW, which is aimed at committing criminal offenses.

Between December 2015 and March 2016, a total of 13 people involved in the action in Bärwalde were found guilty in the first instance of collective deprivation of liberty in the act of dangerous bodily harm and the abuse of official signs before the district court of Meißen and were sentenced to prison terms of between 10 and 30 months almost exclusively without parole . Several defendants argued to the court according to the so-called Reich Citizenship ideology that they would not recognize his legality. As a result of an appeal procedure with subsequent revision, Schöne was finally sentenced in December 2018 to a suspended prison sentence of one year and ten months for the act in Bärwalde. In 2016, he had already been sentenced to six months' imprisonment without parole for attempted coercion and presumption of office after posing as a notary and trying to prevent the foreclosure of his house with the help of fictitious claims against officials.

Others

Before the DPHW was founded, Volker Schöne was a member of the regional executive committee of the German Police Union of Saxony e. V. in the German Association of Officials (DPolG Sachsen), according to a document from the union from 2009, member of the working group member support, but not a police officer himself. After Schöne was mistakenly referred to as an employee of the Saxon Police Union (GdP) in an article in the Sächsische Zeitung on September 13, 2013 , the GdP's federal board protested on the same day against being associated with Schöne and his DPHW.

literature

  • Jan Rathje: "We're back". The “Reich Citizens”: Beliefs, Dangers, Strategies for Action. Funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior as part of the federal program “Cohesion through participation”. Amadeu Antonio Foundation , Berlin 2014 ( PDF; 1.2 MB ).
  • Dirk Wilking (Ed.): "Reich Citizens". A manual. Brandenburg Institute for Community Advice - demos, Potsdam 2015, ISBN 978-3-00-048341-7 ( PDF; 5.7 MB ).
  • Friedrich Burschel (Ed.): March through from the right - Völkischer Aufbruch: Racism, right-wing populism, right-wing terror. Rosa Luxemburg Foundation , 2016 ( online ).

Web links

Broadcast contributions

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Jan Rathje: "We're back". The “Reich Citizens”: Beliefs, Dangers, Strategies for Action. Amadeu Antonio Foundation, Berlin 2014, pp. 22–24.
  2. ↑ a b State Executive Committee of the DPolG Saxony (as of September 17, 2010) ( Memento from December 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ).
  3. ↑ Between conspiracy myths, esotericism and Holocaust denial - the imperial ideology. Contribution to the dossier right-wing extremism of the Federal Agency for Civic Education , October 14, 2015.
  4. ^ Message from the regional office , regional management of the DPolG Saxony.
  5. ^ A b c d e Mounia Meiborg: Vigilantes in Saxony: No friend and helper. In: Stuttgarter Zeitung . November 7, 2013, accessed March 31, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Stefan Locke: Conspiracy theorists. Reich citizens arrested in Dresden. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 19, 2016. Accessed June 8, 2016.
  7. ↑ a b c d Stefan Locke: When violence comes from the citizen. In: FAZ.net . December 16, 2015, accessed May 2, 2016 .
  8. ↑ a b c d Friedrich Burschel (Ed.), March through from the right - Völkischer Aufbruch: Racism, right-wing populism, right-wing terror. Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, 2016.
  9. ↑ a b Jewish community distances itself from Bärwalder Verein. sächsische.de , September 14, 2013. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  10. ↑ a b c d e f g Dirk Wilking (Ed.): "Reichsbürger". A manual , Demos - Brandenburg Institute for Community Advice, 2015 ( PDF ).
  11. ↑ a b Mounia Meiborg: Vigilante: One, two, false police. In: Zeit Online . September 5, 2013, accessed March 31, 2016 .
  12. ↑ a b c Panzer Mike drives in. In: Saxon newspaper . February 23, 2016, accessed November 23, 2018 .
  13. ↑ a b Reich Citizens in Court. In: Saxon newspaper. December 13, 2015, accessed November 23, 2018 .
  14. ^ Thomas Fritz: Police operation against "German Police Aid Organization" in Altenburg. In: thueringer-allgemeine.de. March 3, 2013, accessed March 31, 2016 .
  15. ^ A b So-called imperial citizens in Thuringia. Answer of the Thuringian Ministry of the Interior to a small question from the left-wing MP König, Erfurt, July 2013.
  16. ↑ Findings on the Gerstungen vigilante group. Small request from the MP Walk (CDU) and answer from the Thuringian Ministry of the Interior and Local Affairs, Erfurt, November 2015.
  17. ↑ Imke Schmincke, Jasmin Siri: NSU -Terror: Investigations on the Right Abyss. Event, contexts, discourses. transcript Verlag, 2014, p. 82.
  18. ↑ a b Reich citizens - eccentricities or part of the right-wing extremist movement? Proceedings for the conference on October 8, 2014, University of Applied Sciences Police Saxony-Anhalt. Ministry of the Interior and Sport of the State of Saxony-Anhalt ( PDF ).
  19. ^ "Reich Citizens" and "Self-Administrators". Information from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. State Office for the Protection of the Constitution Brandenburg
  20. ^ Citizens of the Reich: Now there is a house ban. In: Berliner Zeitung . May 1, 2016, accessed May 1, 2016 .
  21. ↑ Findings about the "German Police Aid Organization". Answer of the Federal Government to the minor question from MPs Frank Tempel, Ulla Jelpke, Jan Korte, another MP and the left-wing parliamentary group, BT-Drs. 17/13684 (2013), p. 4.
  22. ↑ Thomas Trappe: Movement of the "Reich Citizens" - Adolf Hitler's disciples. In: Cicero . May 10, 2013, p. 2 , archived from the original on April 1, 2016 ; Retrieved April 1, 2016 .
  23. ↑ False police officers in court. ( Memento from October 15, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) sz-online October 16, 2015.
  24. ↑ a b PM 2013-54: GRÜNE welcome raid at the German Police Fund (DPHW). Press release from February 28, 2013.
  25. ↑ Jan Friday: "Reich Citizens". A threat to democracy or ridiculous conspiracy theorists? The example of Brandenburg . In: Yearbook Extremism & Democracy 26 (2014), p. 172.
  26. ↑ Saxony: Auxiliary police take the law into their own hands. In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung . October 3, 2015, accessed April 4, 2016 .
  27. ↑ Jürgen Müller: Fugitive "Reich Citizen" captured. In: Saxon newspaper. January 21, 2016, accessed November 23, 2018 .
  28. ↑ False policeman rents farm to false Jewish community. SZ-Online, accessed on June 6, 2016.
  29. ↑ Thomas Datt, Arndt Ginzel: DPHW - The self-appointed deputies , MDR exact .
  30. ^ Thomas Trappe: Adolf Hitler's disciples. Cicero, May 10, 2013.
  31. ^ Raid in Neukölln: "Reichsbürger" hoards chemicals. Frankfurter Rundschau from January 8, 2013.
  32. ^ Andreas Debski: Operatives Abwehrzentrum - Significant increase in neo-Nazi attacks in Saxony. In: lvz.de. March 31, 2016, accessed April 1, 2016 .
  33. ^ Andreas Speit : Reich Citizens Movement - Right-wing intensive offenders play the police . In: taz.de. August 20, 2015, accessed April 1, 2016 .
  34. ↑ Investigative proceedings against the group "German Police Aid Organization" (DPHW) , answer of the President of the Saxon State Parliament to the minor question from MP Kerstin Köditz, parliamentary group DIE LINKE, Drs.-No. 6/2152, Saxon State Parliament.
  35. ↑ a b Jürgen Müller and Tobias Hoeflich: The wrong general. In: Saxon newspaper. March 16, 2016, accessed November 23, 2018 .
  36. ↑ a b Meißen district court sends self-appointed police officers behind bars for 22 months. In: mdr.de. December 15, 2015, archived from the original on March 31, 2016 ; accessed on March 31, 2016 .
  37. ↑ Stefan Locke: District court in Meißen condemns "Reich Citizens". In: FAZ.net. January 15, 2016, accessed March 31, 2016 .
  38. ↑ "You have targeted the state attacked". In: Saxon newspaper. January 18, 2016, accessed November 23, 2018 .
  39. ↑ Another prison sentence in the Reich Citizenship Trial. In: Saxon newspaper. January 28, 2016, accessed November 23, 2018 .
  40. ↑ Citizens of the Reich have to go to prison. In: Saxon newspaper. January 15, 2016, accessed November 23, 2018 .
  41. ↑ Jürgen Müller: Wrong policeman doesn't have to be behind bars. In: saechsische.de. December 4, 2018, accessed December 11, 2018 .
  42. ↑ Falko Grimmendorf: "People's Democratic Executive". In: der-rechte-rand.de. Retrieved December 11, 2018 .
  43. ↑ Wrong police officer - wrong business partner - wrong union! We will not let our reputation be damaged! Website of the Police Union of the State of Saxony eV, September 13, 2013; False policeman rents farm to false Jewish community. SZ-Online. Retrieved June 6, 2016.