Free community of voters Die Nationalen
The free voter community Die Nationalen was a right-wing extremist voter community founded in Berlin in 1991 around the association of the same name Die Nationalen e. V. , which ran in local elections in Berlin and Brandenburg . In 1997 the association and the electoral community dissolved themselves.
Prehistory and foundation
As early as 1990 there were efforts in Berlin-Lichtenberg to create an electoral alliance from the right-wing conservative German Social Union (DSU) to the neo-Nazi National Alternative (NA), but this initially failed. In 1991 a “Freedom of the Voters' Association 'We are the People' e. V. "was founded, which after a name change since January 1992 under the names" Free voter community Die Nationalen "and" Die Nationalen e. V. ”occurred. The programmatic basis was the "Lichtenberg Declaration", written by Rudolf Kendzia and adopted on June 17, 1991, which was particularly addressed to voters in Berlin and Brandenburg who were dissatisfied with the established parties. An attempt was made with the electoral community to gather representatives of parties and groups from the militant neo-Nazi area and from the ranks of right-wing extremists under their roof. The aim was to work as a non-partisan association towards a unity of “national” forces.
Structure and affiliated organizations
"The National" were divided into regional and district associations. According to the party statutes, membership in the “Die Nationalen” (Nationale) party - founded in 1995 at the start of the elections for the Berlin House of Representatives - was not identical to membership in the “Die Nationalen e. V. “, but the board of directors and the active group of people were largely identical. The number of members was about 150 people. Among the functionaries and members were numerous other well-known functionaries of the right-wing extremist spectrum such as Peter Boche (former functionary of the REP ), Ulli Boldt (member of the Nationalist Front 1994–1996 operator of the former “National Info Telephone Berlin” 1994–1997 chair of the “ Berlin Cultural Community Prussia” "1995 candidate" Die Nationalen eV ", Hess memorial marches applicant in Oranienburg and Frankfurt / Oder, Junge Weikersheim - 1995 exclusion because of the Hess marches), Thilo Kabus (at the time leading functionary of the Berlin NPD, later" Anarcho -Nationalist ”), Andreas Storr (member of the NPD ), Richard Miosga (REP and“ German Legal Office ”), Hans Christian Wendt , Peter Gilian and Rudolf Kendzia as well as members of other right-wing extremist organizations such as the“ German League for People and Homeland ”and“ Community of Interest ” the New Front ”and banned parties such as the“ National Offensive ”.
From 1993 Frank Schwerdt was chairman, Hans Bahlke was deputy chairman . With Schwerdt, the composition, structure and goals of the association changed significantly. While the "moderate" right, as well as most of the NPD members, left the association, under the guidance of the new chairman, the association made a strong rapprochement with the neo-Nazi spectrum and became a national socialist-oriented, transnational collection movement that was particularly active in Berlin and Brandenburg. After the right-wing extremist " FAP " was banned in 1995, it became a collecting basin for members from the Berlin-Brandenburg area. As part of training work, there was close cooperation with the Hoffmann-von-Fallersleben-Bildungswerk and the Berlin State Letters Readers' Circle. The Brandenburg section of Hammerskins Germany could be reached via the address of the National.
The youth organization “Young National Spectrum (JNS) - Youth Association of the National e. V. “in Guben , Weißwasser, Fürstenwalde / Spree, Berlin, Spremberg, Niesky, Zittau and various other cities under its chairman Udo Hempel . At the end of 1995, Die Nationalen announced the formation of university groups at the Universities of Potsdam and Frankfurt / Oder and the Humboldt University in Berlin . At the beginning of 1996, the prisoner's aid of the National e. V. first appeared.
The Nationalists were advised on organizational issues by the Berlin lawyer Runhardt Sander , who also represented them as a notary at the Berlin-Charlottenburg District Court throughout their existence. Like Schwerdt, Sander is a key figure in Berlin's right-wing extremist scene and acts, among other things, as chairman and spokesman for the “Reich Citizens' Union”.
program
In addition to strongly nationalist positions, an extremely racist and xenophobic image of man was represented. The integration of people of other nationalities was rejected as a plan with insidious intent or “anti-national policy by influential international forces”. Furthermore, “Die Nationalen” demanded the expulsion of “bogus asylum seekers and asylum fraudsters” and the separation of foreign and German children in school and kindergarten. The German youth should be given a "national historical awareness" again, for which the well-known historical image should be revised and the "one-sided victory ideology" imposed by the Allies since 1945 should be cleaned up.
Participation in local and state elections
The Free Voting Community ran on May 24, 1992 in the Berlin elections to the district council assemblies in nine city districts. Right-wing extremist skinheads and well-known neo-Nazis were on her list of candidates . The FWG received a total of 2477 votes (0.2%), 1616 of them in Berlin / West. In October 1995 the announced state list of the party "The National" for the Berlin House of Representatives elections shrank to two direct candidates due to a lack of support signatures. An attempt to break a ban on associations that had already been feared at the time by joining a party of the same name had thus failed.
further activities
A memorial rally in front of the Russian Military Museum was planned for May 9, 1992, at which the Holocaust denier David Irving was to appear as a speaker. It was prevented by a counter-demonstration. In addition, in cooperation with other right-wing extremist groups such as the “ Berliner Kulturgemeinschaft Preußen e. V. "(BKP) and the" Studentenbund Schlesien "organized several lectures at which speakers such as Hans-Dietrich Sander , Wolfgang Strauss , Hans-Michael Fiedler and Pierre Krebs appeared. In several cases such events of the National were banned by the police. B. a planned lecture by Peter Dehoust on August 26, 1994 in Guben. On September 6, 1995, over 70 neo-Nazis tried to hold a nationwide meeting organized by the national authorities in Cottbus . In 1996 posters and stickers of a “Rudolf Hess Action Committee” for the “ Rudolf Hess Memorial March ” in Merseburg , on which Die Nationalen e. V. as a contact address. The NPD / JN in Hamburg adopted this design for the posters.
The right-wing extremist newspaper “ Berlin-Brandenburger Zeitung (BBZ)” - “Newspaper of National Renewal” - developed from the “Nationalen Nachrichten”, the election campaign newspaper from 1992 .
Self-dissolution of the association and continuation as a circle around Frank Schwerdt
In order to forestall an impending ban, the association “Die Nationalen e. V. ”in November 1997. According to the official justification, “the tasks of the National e. V. (...) largely fulfilled ".". However, the activities were initially continued by a group of neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists around the former chairman Frank Schwerdt. As early as 1997, a so-called “coordination council” had met in Berlin, to which Schwerdt and representatives of the individual former free comradeships belonged and whose function was mainly to exchange information with one another. The group around Schwerdt thus developed into the most important hub of the East German neo-Nazi scene. Not only did the Berlin neo-Nazi comradeships coordinate here, but intensive development work was also carried out in the eastern German states. In mid-1998 the officially disbanded National also included a university group and the youth organization “Jungnationale”, and they formed the center of a network of over 30 groups made up of local and district associations and “independent” comradeships in Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.
After Schwerdt 1998, a nine-month sentence partly because of sedition was serving, paralyzed the activities and there was a significant decline in membership from 1998 for about 150 to 1999, only about 50 people. Even after Schwerdt was released from prison, the work of this group of people got off to a very slow start. Schwerdt rejoined the NPD and quickly rose to leading positions. The former chairman of the National tried to persuade the remaining 110 members of the association to join the NPD and its youth organizations. At the same time, this meant an upgrading of the NPD, which had hitherto been almost insignificant in the Berlin-Brandenburg area and had only 60 members in the state of Brandenburg, whereby it had already tripled its number. The Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution therefore also noted that 1997 marked “a possible turnaround for the NPD in Brandenburg”.
literature
- Antifascist author collective: masterminds in the brown net . Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-89458-140-9 .
- Bernd Holthusen: Right-wing extremism in Berlin . Marburg 1994, ISBN 3-89472-103-0
- Right-wing extremist movements in Berlin . In: Durchblicke , No. 7. State Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Berlin, Berlin 1997.
- Bernd Wagner : Handbook of right-wing extremism . Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-499-13425-X
Web links
- Frank Schneider: NPD like a phoenix from the ashes. The neo-Nazi association Die Nationalen defected to the NPD .