Xenophobic riots in Heidenau

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Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 39.4 ″  N , 13 ° 51 ′ 29.6 ″  E

Xenophobic riots in Heidenau (Germany)
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Location of the city of Heidenau in the Free State of Saxony

To xenophobia in Heidenau in District Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains ( Saxony ) occurred on Friday, August 21, 2015 as Heidenauer and arrivals from right-wing sympathizers against a newly opened refugee camp demonstrated and violent attempted to prevent their respect. Over 1,000 people took part in the xenophobic protests. Two evenings in a row there were attacks by right-wing extremists on the police and the refugees' accommodation . Several dozen police officers were injured. As a result, high-ranking politicians, including Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel ( SPD ) and Chancellor Angela Merkel ( CDU ), visited the refugee home to demonstrate their solidarity with helpers and residents.

background

On August 21, 2015, the regional directorate for Saxony set up an emergency shelter for asylum seekers in a former Praktiker building market in Heidenau, a town with 16,000 inhabitants . It will initially accommodate 250 people on almost 6000 square meters and, after renovations, up to 600.

The right-wing extremist NPD made a significant contribution to the mood against the refugee accommodation . The protests were mainly organized through a Facebook group where the NPD logo can be seen. The NPD has had a city council since spring 2014 and is represented in the district council of the Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains district with five members.

In April 2015, a local NPD group was founded in Heidenau. It also includes Heidenau's NPD city councilor Rico Rentzsch, who founded an initiative “No to the home” and repeatedly called for “resistance”.

Xenophobic protests in Freital and Dresden had already attracted nationwide attention in June and July 2015 . In the course of this, there were also partially organized attacks by neo-Nazis on refugees, their accommodations and the police officers deployed. Both cities are only a few kilometers away from Heidenau.

course

August 21, 2015

By 6 p.m. in Heidenau, a meeting registered by the NPD against the impending use of an empty commercial building on Hauptstrasse - a former hardware store of the Praktiker hardware store chain, which was dissolved in 2013 as a result of insolvency - was formed as a branch of the Chemnitz reception center . Around 1,000 people took part in the following demonstration march , which took place along Von-Stephan-Strasse, Käthe-Kollwitz-Strasse, Ringstrasse, Haeckelstrasse, Ernst-Thälmann-Strasse and Bahnhofstrasse. At the protest march, xenophobic banners and right-wing extremist symbols such as the flag of the German Reich were shown. In front of the private house of Mayor Jürgen Opitz (CDU) in the Ringstrasse, the demonstrators insulted him as a “traitor”. The protest march broke up at 7:15 p.m. on Freedom Square.

Subsequently, around 30 people tried - as previously announced publicly - to block State Road 172 . This was prevented by the police officers deployed. In the further course up to 600 people gathered in front of the planned initial reception facility. From the crowd, police officers were pelted with stones, bottles and fireworks. There was also property damage. There were also repeated attempts to blockade, also with the help of construction site facilities, but these were stopped by the police. The officers blocked the S 172 between Güterbahnhofstrasse and August-Bebel-Strasse and used pepper spray and tear gas. In the repeated attacks at around 10:30 p.m. with firecrackers, stones and bottles, 31 police officers were injured, one of them seriously.

At around 12:40 a.m., the first bus with refugees finally arrived several hours late. The buses with the arriving asylum seekers were led under police protection to the site of the planned initial reception facility. Of the planned 250 people, only 93 refugees were initially able to move into their accommodation by Saturday morning.

22nd August 2015

On August 22, around 10 p.m., around 250 people took part in a rally against racism in front of the reception center, which has now housed 250 refugees. At the same time, around 150 neo-Nazis gathered, from among whose ranks there was an organized attack on the police officers deployed at 10:45 p.m. The emergency services were continuously and massively pelted with stones, bottles, fireworks and construction site materials. Through the use of pepper spray, among other things, the police succeeded in preventing an apparently planned breakthrough by the neo-Nazis to the counter rally. Two officers were injured in the clashes. A total of 170 police officers were on duty. The police are investigating, among other things, for breach of the peace . According to the Saxony police, one person was arrested, 65  dismissals were issued and the identity of 23 people was established.

23rd August 2015

After two consecutive nights of right-wing xenophobic riots, the police set up a security zone on August 23, 2015 . Saxony's Interior Minister Markus Ulbig (CDU) came to Heidenau on the same day. According to him, the police have now much more authority: officers can in a large area identity checks perform. Vehicles and baggage may also be searched within the controlled area. Two water cannons from the Saxony police were brought up. With them, too, possible right-wing extremists should be stopped early. Officials of the Saxon riot police (11th to 13th BPH Dresden) supported the Dresden police.

On the night of August 24, 2015, around 250 people demonstrated their solidarity with the refugees and joined forces with around 150 people who had previously arrived in the immediate vicinity of the accommodation. On the way back to the train station, a group of people from this crowd of demonstrators, whom observers believed the demonstrators had assigned to the right-wing spectrum, were attacked. The police used irritant gas and batons and separated the two groups. Several people were injured.

Attack on asylum seekers in September 2015

On September 26, 2015, four Pakistani asylum seekers were attacked again in Ernst-Thälmann-Strasse by a group of young people of German and Russian origin. A 24-year-old and a 33-year-old asylum seeker were injured.

Effects on politics and society

Ban on assembly and repeal by the Federal Constitutional Court

The district office of the Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains district banned all open-air public gatherings and elevators in the entire urban area of ​​Heidenau for the upcoming weekend from Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. to early Monday morning at 6 a.m. by order of August 27, 2015. The ban on assemblies was justified on the basis of a police emergency . The available police forces are not able to "do justice to the forecasted development of the situation."

Both a right-wing extremist rally registered for Saturday and a welcome party planned for Friday evening were prohibited . Bernd Riexinger ( left ), Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) and other politicians at the state and federal level sharply criticized the ban on meetings. Cem Özdemir ( Greens ) called for people to come to Heidenau on Friday evening anyway.

On August 28, 2015, the Dresden Administrative Court lifted the ban on assembly, thereby granting the urgent motion of a law student who interpreted the indirect ban on the welcome party as a curtailment of the fundamental right to freedom of expression . After a complaint was filed by the District Office, the Saxon Higher Administrative Court in Bautzen put the ban on gatherings back into force on the same day, but excluded the welcome party. All further demonstrations in Heidenau had to be canceled for the weekend.

On Friday evening of August 28, 2015, around 100 right-wing demonstrators gathered despite the prohibition of demonstrations and were surrounded by police officers. According to information from a spokesman for the Dresden Police Department , the personal details of those present and photos were taken and they were sent off. According to the reporters present, there should have been no resistance.

On Saturday, August 29, 2015, the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe completely lifted the ban on assemblies and called it illegal . The ban had previously caused outrage nationwide. The police union (GdP) also criticized it as a “slap in the face” and “an oath of disclosure for the rule of law”.

Demonstrations and events against xenophobia

In Cologne on August 24th, around 500 people demonstrated in relation to the incidents in Heidenau under the motto "Solidarity with all refugees". On August 27, 1000 people gathered in Berlin in response to the events in Heidenau and the arson attacks on refugee homes in recent weeks. The alliance Dresden Nazifrei organized a welcome party on Friday afternoon of August 28th in the immediate vicinity of the refugee accommodation in Heidenau and on Saturday, August 29th a demonstration in Dresden under the motto “ Prevent tomorrow's pogroms today ! Protection for refugees instead of understanding for racists ”, in which around 5000 people took part.

Facebook as a medium for xenophobia

Referring to the xenophobic attacks urged Federal Justice Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) in a letter the US company Facebook Inc. to on, sharper against xenophobic messages in the same social network Facebook to proceed. In particular, he criticized the fact that they were not deleted despite corresponding information from users. Facebook reacted to the corresponding letter from Maas and made it clear that “Facebook is not a place for racism”. In addition, the company agreed to exchange information with the Federal Ministry of Justice.

At the beginning of September 2015, a security guard who was jointly responsible for the security of the refugee home was withdrawn from the property after an anti- fascist group made public that the Dresden resident had committed himself to the NPD and a hooligan group on Facebook .

On September 14, 2015, Federal Minister of Justice Heiko Maas met with the Facebook representative for Europe on the subject of hate crime on the Internet. Maas once again asked Facebook to delete racist and xenophobic entries in its network. However, the company only agreed to set up a working group that will develop criteria for dealing with hate speech by the end of 2015. In addition, Facebook promised to improve cooperation with non-governmental Internet complaint offices in Germany and to support such institutions financially.

Reactions

Jürgen Opitz (CDU), Mayor of Heidenau, published a statement after the riots on August 21, 2015 in which he condemned the violence and spoke out in favor of solidarity with the asylum seekers in his community. After the riots, Opitz was concerned about the city's reputation: At the moment, “terrible images” dominated the news from Heidenau. "Our city's reputation as a family-friendly community has been severely damaged," he said. Heidenau is not ruled by the Nazis.

The district councilor Jürgen Kasek (Greens) saw the development as “a catastrophe with an announcement. Because on Monday it became known, including the local mayor, that initial accommodation will be set up there. We have a similar experience as in Dresden or in Freital , where the situation arises with relatively little advance warning that there are far too few officials on site. ”He criticized the fact that information from social networks about the right-wing extremist blockades was not taken seriously beforehand be. Kasek fears that there will be similar incidents in the future.

The police president of Dresden, Dieter Kroll , announced on Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) that the perpetrators would be prosecuted: “We know pretty well that the attack was aimed at us. We know who was facing us. ”During the riots on Sunday night, one of the right-wing extremist attackers recorded a video of stone throwing and attacks on individual police officers, which he initially posted on the Internet, but later deleted. The video was secured by various people, including the state parliament member Henning Homann (SPD), who filed criminal charges against unknown persons . “When right-wing extremists apparently boast about their crimes on the Internet with videos they have shot, it is terrifying. If they could unintentionally support the investigative work of the police, we should take this chance, ”said Homann.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and the federal government also spoke about the riots through government spokesman Steffen Seibert in Berlin and described them as "repulsive" and "shameful". In a joint press conference with French President François Hollande in Berlin, Merkel once again condemned the riots as "unacceptable". Hollande was also dismayed by the incidents and said that the attacks on the refugee homes in Germany had “shaken him up”.

On August 24, 2015, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) visited the refugee accommodation and spoke to refugees, concerned citizens and politicians. He also called for more decisive action against right-wing extremists with the wording “Not a millimeter of this right-wing radical mob”. He referred to the rampaging criminals as "pack". As a result, the SPD federal headquarters in Berlin-Kreuzberg was the target of a bomb threat, numerous racist e-mails and calls on August 25. Party employees were verbally abused, insulted and threatened.

At an ecumenical service in the Christ Church in Heidenau, 200 believers came together for a “prayer for our city”.

Federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière (CDU) announced after the riots in Heidenau that the right-wing extremist violent criminals would feel the "entire rigor of the rule of law". “We have a huge wave of willingness to help, but at the same time an increase in hatred, insults and violence against asylum seekers. That is unworthy and indecent for our country, ”said de Maizière.

As a reaction to the riots, 150 people blocked the access to an emergency shelter for refugees in Leipzig on the evening of August 24, thus preventing 51 residents from being relocated to Heidenau against their will.

On August 26, 2015, Angela Merkel, accompanied by the Saxon Prime Minister Stanislaw Tillich (CDU) and the Mayor of Heidenau, Jürgen Opitz (CDU), visited the asylum accommodation to talk to refugees and the local volunteer workers. Merkel condemned the violent riots by right-wing judges with the statement "There is no tolerance for those who question the dignity of others." Refugee opponents tried to disrupt their visit by boos, loud whistles and honking cars, insulted Merkel as a "traitor to the people" and shouted " To the German people ”and“ We are the pack ”. As a result, the Dresden police are investigating for insulting constitutional organs on the basis of a video on YouTube against a demonstrator who Merkel insulted as a "stupid bitch", "whore" and "cunt" during her visit to Heidenau and in the presence of police security forces.

Legal consequences

Politicians and officials have announced that the perpetrators will be prosecuted .

The Federal  Public Prosecutor at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe - the public prosecutor's office of the federal government or Germany's highest criminal prosecution authority  - initiated an "examination process" to clarify the authority's jurisdiction in the case of the Heidenau riots and other similar cases, in order to begin investigations into the prosecution of the violent perpetrators.

In response to a request from the deputy André Schollbach of the Saxon state parliament, the Ministry of the Interior in Saxony announced that 46 preliminary investigations into the events on August 21 and 22 in Heidenau had been started.

More than three months after the xenophobic riots in Heidenau, the Saxony police had identified a total of 48 suspects. They were charged with a total of 55 criminal offenses; In addition to sedition and breach of the peace, there is also the use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations , insults, dangerous bodily harm and violations of the Explosives and Assembly Act. The police handed over 25 cases with 20 suspects to the Dresden public prosecutor's office.

In February 2016, a protester involved was fined for insulting police officers the day after the riot. Three men, who were 20, 26 and 32 years old at the time of the offense, were sentenced in November 2016 for throwing stones, bottles, firecrackers and blocking a construction site in the direction of police officers to prison terms of over two years to one year and two months on probation.

aftermath

The still undestroyed “Together” sculpture by Hüseyin Arda in Heidenau

Right-wing ideas are still present in Heidenau after the legal processing. In 2015, a sculpture by the German-Turkish metal artist Hüseyin Arda was set up in the city center. He wrote the word "Together" in large letters. On the night of February 5 to 6, 2016, the sculpture was completely painted over by strangers in the colors of the German Empire ( black-white-red ).

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

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  44. ↑ Not a millimeter to the right-wing radical pack , Die Welt, August 24, 2015
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