Homeland loyalty German youth

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The Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend e. V. ( HDJ ) was a right-wing extremist German youth association founded in 1990 with a neo-Nazi orientation in the legal form of a registered association with an estimated four hundred members. The association was rooted in the right-wing extremist scene and mainly organized tent camps for children and young people, who were trained militarily and ideologically there. Clear personal continuity existed with the 1994 banned Wiking-Jugend (WJ). The HDJ was banned on March 31, 2009 by the then Federal Minister of the Interior, Wolfgang Schäuble, with immediate effect.

history

Spin-off from the Bund Heimattreuer Jugend

The home loyalty German youth emerged as a split of the right-wing extremist wing from the Bund Heimattreuer Jugend - Der Freibund . The Freedom Federation is an organization that is based on the Bündische Jugend in terms of traditions and forms and worked closely with neo-Nazi organizations until the end of the 1980s . After an internal dispute between 1975 and 1988, the organization largely turned away from militant right-wing extremism . As a result, the right-wing extremist wing left the Freibund in 1990 and founded Die Heimattreue Jugend e. V. (DHJ). The new organization had its focus in northern Germany , its seat was Kiel . At this point the organization was largely insignificant and comprised only a small group of active people.

Realignment

With the assumption of office by a new federal leadership in 1999, the rebuilding of the organization began. In 2000 the name was changed to Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend . The registered association with the full name “Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend (HDJ) - Association for the Protection of the Environment, Mitwelt und Heimat e. V. ”was based in Plön , but mainly operated from Berlin , where the mailbox of the association and its association newspaper was also located.

A HDJ camp in the summer of 2006 near Fromhausen not far from Detmold , in which activists of the forbidden Wiking youth were also involved, caused a major media stir . The HDJ moved further into the public eye in autumn 2006 with the entry of the HDJ activist and comradeship leader Tino Müller for the NPD into the state parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the attack on the journalist Andrea Röpke and two colleagues on the sidelines of an HDJ event Blankenfelde (Brandenburg).

Prohibition order

After the HDJ came into the public eye, it was increasingly observed by the constitution protection agencies and interior ministries. In October 2007 the Federal Ministry of the Interior banned the HDJ from wearing uniforms. Several members of the organization had previously been charged with violating the ban on uniforms enshrined in the Assembly Act at public gatherings. In July 2008, the parliamentary groups of the FDP and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen applied for the federal government to examine an association ban against the HDJ; a similar motion by the parliamentary group of the Left Party followed in September 2008. Even after the uniform ban, the children and young people appeared in photos in the 2008 calendar in uniforms. In addition, the members were asked not to adhere to the uniform ban.

In August 2008, a HDJ tent camp in the Güstrow district was closed and searched by order of the Güstrow district court . Numerous items with swastikas were seized. All parliamentary groups in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, with the exception of the NPD, which declared their solidarity with the HDJ, and numerous other federal and state politicians joined the demands for a club ban .

On October 9, 2008, at the instigation of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, searches of almost 100 members of the organization were carried out nationwide. According to the Ministry, the background to the searches was “ actual evidence that the HDJ is directed against the constitutional order”.

The organization was banned on March 31, 2009 by the German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble under Section 3 of the Association Act with immediate effect. The reason for the ban was the “formation of a neo-Nazi 'elite'” and the “ideological (...) influence on children and young people through the spreading of ethnic, racist, nationalistic and National Socialist views in the context of allegedly non-political leisure activities”. With the delivery of the prohibition order, “search and seizure measures against leading members of the HDJ” were initiated in four federal states. The ban was confirmed on September 1, 2010 by the Federal Administrative Court. The HDJ had previously failed with an application against the immediate implementation of the ban.

Legal disputes over HDJ activities

Federal leader Sebastian Räbiger was convicted in 2008 by the district court of Zossen for dangerous bodily harm. The fine was 100 daily rates of 30 euros each. In November 2006, on the sidelines of the “Märkischer Kulturtag” in Blankenfelde, he attacked two journalists, including Andrea Röpke , a journalist who was investigating conspiratorially through the HDJ . His appeal against the judgment was rejected on June 28, 2010 by the Potsdam Regional Court .

In May 2010, the former North German HDJ members Ragnar D. and Christian F. were in the dock in Berlin because in January 2007 they had carried out a “race training” based on the National Socialist model, including the anti-Semitic propaganda film “ The Eternal Jew ”, in front of children and young people . In addition, in May 2006, D. helped to organize a “Pimpfenlager” of the HDJ in Kölzin, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania . The program in the holiday camp included torchlight procession in uniform for the children. There he also made plaster masks with them, some of which were marked with swastikas. The two defendants were sentenced to 17 months and 12 months probation for sedition and dissemination of propaganda by unconstitutional organizations . A co-defendant received a fine.

activities

The target group of the organization, founded in 1990, included children and young people aged 7 to 29. Outwardly, the HDJ represented the image of a largely non-political sponsor of youth work. According to the association's statutes, its main task was to “train young people to be helpful to their neighbors, to be loyal to their homeland and fatherland and to educate citizens open to the idea of ​​international understanding”. The members of the HDJ, however, abhorred a pacifist approach to life. Tolerant behavior towards weaknesses and being different was classified by the HDJ as a low character trait.

In addition to the implementation of tent camps , large trips , youth camps and sporting and educational events were also part of the club's program. Sports exercises and performance marches such as the edelweiss march, knife rehearsal and 150 km march were regularly organized to “shape body and character”. The largest and most important meeting was the annual Whitsun camp with several hundred participants. In addition, there were regionally or age-restricted summer and winter camps and camps with a focus on work such as fanfare train camps and parachute jump camps throughout the year.

In addition to the sporting events and activities in the areas of culture and customs such as baking cookies , singing folk songs and folk dancing , political training courses were held at irregular intervals, as were lectures by members or invited speakers on topics such as the flight and expulsion of the Germans between 1944 and 1948 or the air raids on Dresden included. In addition, together with other supporters of the right-wing extremist scene, so-called hero commemoration ceremonies were held close to the day of national mourning and solstice celebrations .

ideology

The HDJ described itself as an “active youth movement loyal to the people and loyal to their homeland for all German girls and boys aged 7 to 29”. The most important goal of the organization was "an independent Germany in a Europe of free peoples". In addition, she was committed to "against the Englishization of our mother tongue".

A paramilitary character was created through roll calls, field games, marching in rows with flag bearers and fanfare marches and the wearing of uniform-like mandatory clothing. The HDJ made particular use of the Landsknecht drum with a flame drawing (also a symbol of the Hitler Youth ), membership in its drumming groups was reserved for male members, according to the historical model.

According to the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution , the association was neo - Nazi . It “(in the HDJ) systematically conveys a right-wing extremist view of the world based on the ideal of the ' national community '. The Lebensbund concept is also intended to prevent older members from leaving the right-wing extremist scene after they have started a family. ”The HDJ's image of history was rated as revisionist , with territorial revisionism associated with it. The state office saw a substantive and formal proximity to the forbidden Wiking youth . The North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of the Interior described the HDJ as a representative of a “völkisch-nationalist ideology”, whose worldview also includes a “commitment to neo-paganism ”.

organization

The association was led by a federal leadership, which according to the statutes consisted of the federal leader (most recently Sebastian Räbiger ) and his deputy (most recently Thomas Eichler), the federal girl leader (most recently Holle Böhm), ​​the federal treasurer and other employees, including the federal manager, the federal travel guide , the control center leader, the press officer and the press spokesman for the family and friends and the spokesman for the honorary council as representatives of the honorary members. The federal leadership was elected every three years at the annual Federal Youth Day.

The membership base of the HDJ was divided in 2009 into seven regional units: Prussia, Mecklenburg and Pomerania (the name of the federal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was deliberately avoided to a claim to the to 1945 to Germany and since then to Poland is part of Pomerania to make clear), Franconia , Swabia, Hesse, Saxony, Hermannsland (after the incorrectly Germanized name for the Cheruscan Arminius , essentially comprised the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and was mainly active in East Westphalia ) and Schleswig-Holstein. Since May 2004, four so-called control centers existed as a superordinate structure: North, West, Central and South. The latter was also responsible for members in Austria and South Tyrol . Members in whose vicinity there was no unit were assigned to the nearest units or the responsible control centers.

Affiliated to the association were so-called “Friends and Family Circles” (FFK), which provided material and organizational support to the association. In this way, the families of the children and young people were also integrated into the work of the association, with the result that the circle of sympathizers expanded significantly beyond the 400 members, aged 7 to 29. The FFK served the implementation of the “ Lebensbund principle ” by tying members to the association even after their retirement.

Uniforms

Until the ban by the Federal Ministry of the Interior in 2007, the members of the joint events were characterized by their uniform-like mandatory clothing, which gave the elevators a paramilitary character. The male children and adolescents wore gray shirts or boys' jackets as a reminiscence of the Bundische youth movement of the 20th century, the girls and young women "girls blouse" and long blue skirts. Association and special badges in the style of military badges and medals were attached to the clothing.

The association newspaper "Der Funkenflug"

The association newspaper “Der Funkenflug - jungstürmisch volkstreu” appeared as the association's communication organ in a total of eight years. An average of four issues appeared per year. One issue consisted of 24 pages. In the newspaper, in addition to reports on the work of the association and natural history teaching, members of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS as well as representatives of the Nazi regime such as the National Socialist aviator icon Hanna Reitsch or the "war hero" Hans-Ulrich Rudel were glorified and by former members of the Waffen SS evoked the bravery of German soldiers. Often there were memories of the "happy, contented past in the 30s" and direct references to the Hitler Youth. Historical and biographical presentations were z. E.g. in Funkenflug 2/2008 detailed about the militant werewolf : "... people are living unity, humanity is an empty collective term ..." The federal leader Sebastian Räbiger chose the words: "If your people are everything for you." is and you are ready to stand up for what you love, to dare and fight everything, then your place is with us! ", what about National Socialist slogans like" You are nothing, your people are everything "and" Well, people, get up and storm break loose "(originally a quote from Theodor Körner the beginning of the wars of liberation , 1943 in the Sports Palace speech of Joseph Goebbels used) recalls.

With pithy words such as "It is only worth living for something that is also worth dying for" and "Home loyalists, you place the WE of the community higher than the I of the individual ...", the worldview of the HDJ was presented to the young readers (flying sparks 2/2008). In the first flight of sparks in 2008, there was only one book tip for the first quarter of 2008: “Myth of the Waffen-SS. Glory and honor to our German soldiers ”by Herbert Schweiger .

Influence on the right-wing extremist scene

The small number of members belies the actual influence that the organization exerted in the right-wing extremist environment. In addition to the hundreds of young people who were trained here, the organization was well networked in the right-wing extremist spectrum.

"Märkischer Kulturtag"

Since 2001 the HDJ has organized the “Märkische Kulturtag”, a conspiratorial event in Brandenburg with up to 250 visitors, in cooperation with the neo-Nazi groups Community of German Women (GDF) and Berliner Kulturgemeinschaft Preußen (BKP). Well-known people from the entire right-wing extremist spectrum appeared as speakers. B. the history revisionists and Holocaust deniers Udo Walendy and Jürgen Rieger , the ideological pioneer of the Wiking youth Herbert Schweiger and the former Wiking youth federal leader Wolfram Nahrath as well as NPD functionaries such as Ralph Tegethoff or Udo Pastörs .

Viking youth

There were clear personal continuities with the Wiking-Jugend (WJ), which was banned in 1994 . The last HDJ federal leader Sebastian Räbiger was also the last WJ Gau leader for Saxony. Their former federal leader Wolfram Nahrath was a member and often speaker at events of the HDJ. Other former management cadres of the WJ were also active in the HDJ, for example the person responsible for the WJ for the Lower Saxony Gau Manfred Börm or the WJ Gau leader Franken Dirk Nahrath.

The HDJ avoided direct programmatic references to Wiking-Jugend in order to avoid being banned as a successor organization to the WJ. The affinity to the WJ as well as to its model, the Hitler Youth (HJ), was obvious. For example, when the WJ was banned, the similarity between the office designation HJ-Reichsführer and WJ-Bundesführer and the designation Gaue for the regional units were cited as reasons. Both the terms federal leader and federal girl leader as well as the designation of the Gaue in internal invitations were also used in the HDJ. The reference to National Socialism became even clearer when tents in a HDJ camp near Frommhausen near Detmold bore the inscriptions “ Führerbunker ” and “ Germania ” in August 2006 .

Othala rune on flag of the Viking youth

The HDJ sought legal permission to use the Odalrune again and justified this with the character of the HDJ as the successor to the BHJ. In addition to the BHJ, the Odalrune was also used by the Wiking youth and their use was prohibited after they were banned. The casual shirt of the HDJ also showed optical similarities, which bore the same imprint of an eagle as the casual shirt of the WJ, where only the organization names were exchanged.

NPD and JN

There were both personal and structural links between the HDJ and the NPD / JN . Probably the best-known member of the HDJ unit Mecklenburg and Pomerania was the NPD member of the state parliament Tino Müller . At a joint meeting between the HDJ and the Nordic Relief Organization, one of the most important neo-Nazi organizations in Scandinavia, which took place in Sweden in July 2006, not only the comradeship leader Lutz Giesen but also the NPD state parliament candidate and leadership cadre of the "Mecklenburg Action Front" David Petereit took part. Members of the HDJ took part in the NPD election campaign in the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in summer 2006.

The NPD federal board members Jörg Hähnel and Stella Palau were active in the unit Prussia, the oldest regional unit of the HDJ, which had already been founded at the time of the DHJ . Another national board member of the NPD in the ranks of the HDJ was Manfred Börm . In addition to them, other NPD executives and members regularly took part in meetings and events of the HDJ, such as a football tournament named after Albert Leo Schlageter or another football cup in Berlin that was named after the Hitler boy Herbert Norkus and originally from Wiking -Youth was organized. The HDJ, in turn, appeared regularly at NPD events, such as B. at the annual "funeral march" on the occasion of the bombing of Dresden , where they also took part in the stewardship, at the press festival of the German voice , at which the fanfare procession and a dance group of the HDJ performed in Dresden in 2006, or hall events by NPD and JN, where the HDJ was represented with information stands.

further contacts

A long-term cooperation and personal interdependence existed between the HDJ and the Deutsche Kulturgemeinschaft (DKG) and the organizations Freundeskreis Ulrich von Hutten e. V. and Notgemeinschaft für Volkstum und Kultur . There were also contacts to the right-wing extremist German party - Die Freiheitlichen .

The HDJ maintained contacts with right-wing extremist organizations in Europe beyond Germany. Representatives of the organization took part in a meeting with the Nordic Aid Organization and Nordiska Förbundet in Sweden, the right-wing extremist Vlaams Nationaal Jeugdverbond (VNJ) in Belgium or the “ Youth Day” organized by the Federation of Free Youth in Austria. In the event of liquidation , the association's assets should, according to the statutes, fall either to the “ Silent Help for South Tyrol ” or to the “German Circle of Friends in East Germany”, two associations of the German minority in Italy and Poland.

There are personal connections to the JN's “journey and warehouse interest group”, which is partially viewed as the successor organization.

Several former members are now active in the AfD and the Identitarian Movement . This also includes employees of AfD politicians.

Well-known former members

literature

  • Jens Mecklenburg (Hrsg.): Handbook of German right-wing extremism. Elefanten-Press, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-88520-585-8 , p. 271.
  • Andrea Röpke : Holidays in the Führerbunker. The neo-Nazi child-rearing of the "Heimattreuen German Youth (HDJ)". Educational Association Work and Life Lower Saxony East, Braunschweig 2007, ISBN 978-3-932082-31-3 .
  • Camp, songs, covenant of life. National youth work in the spirit of the Hitler Youth. In: Antifascist info sheet. No. 74, Winter 2006/07, ISSN  1862-7838 , pp. 6-11.
  • The BHJ: Völkische Jugendarbeit. Between Nazi tradition and alliance renewal. In: Antifascist info sheet. No. 74, Winter 2006/07, pp. 12–15 (also focuses heavily on DHJ and HDJ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ NPD member teaches at primary school in Hamburg. Spiegel Online , June 8, 2007, accessed on August 12, 2008 : “The right-wing extremist association has personal similarities to the Wiking-Jugend, which was banned in 1994; some consider the HDJ to be the direct successor organization. "
  2. ↑ Right-wing extremist youth organization is observed. Die Welt , June 1, 2007, accessed August 12, 2008 .
  3. ↑ Summer camp in the Führerbunker - Nazi training courses for children. (PDF; 49 kB) Panorama , May 24, 2007, accessed on August 12, 2008 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e Questions and answers on the implementation of investigative measures under association law against the HDJ. Federal Ministry of the Interior , October 9, 2008, archived from the original on April 3, 2009 ; accessed on March 31, 2009 .
  5. ↑ a b Schäuble forbids loyalty to German youth. Spiegel Online , accessed January 27, 2011 .
  6. ↑ a b c BMI prohibits right-wing extremist HDJ. Federal Ministry of the Interior , archived from the original on April 3, 2009 ; accessed on March 31, 2009 .
  7. ↑ Profile: Die Heimattreue Jugend e. V. Apabiz , accessed August 12, 2008 .
  8. ^ Profile: Die Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend eV Apabiz , accessed on August 12, 2008 .
  9. ↑ Andrea Röpke: "Ideological education" / ex-cadre of the forbidden Wiking youth and NPD stewards at the camp of the home loyal German youth. August 17, 2006, Retrieved August 12, 2008 (originally published at Looking to the Right ).
  10. ↑ The tent camp was also the subject of a small inquiry in the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament: Printed matter 14/2640: Assessment of the “home-loyal German youth”. (PDF; 16 kB) State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia, September 27, 2006, accessed on August 12, 2008 .
  11. ↑ Neo-Nazis beat journalist down. Tagesschau , November 5, 2006, archived from the original on February 4, 2016 ; Retrieved August 12, 2008 .
  12. ↑ Alexander Fröhlich: Uniform prohibition for young Nazis. the daily newspaper , October 12, 2007, accessed on August 12, 2008 .
  13. ↑ Check the prohibition of “home-loyal German youth”. Press service of the German Bundestag , July 4, 2008, archived from the original on April 6, 2009 ; Retrieved August 11, 2008 .
  14. ↑ Prohibition of “Checking German Youth Loyal to Home”. Press service of the German Bundestag , September 17, 2008, archived from the original on April 6, 2009 ; Retrieved October 9, 2008 .
  15. ↑ Sebastian Räbiger called for this in “Funkenflug” 4/2007.
  16. ↑ Police break up HDJ camp. Spiegel Online , August 9, 2008, accessed August 9, 2008 .
  17. ↑ Politicians demand a ban on the HDJ. Tagesschau , August 11, 2008, archived from the original on June 12, 2010 ; Retrieved August 12, 2008 .
  18. ↑ Press release BMI: Nationwide search measures against right-wing extremist youth organizations. Federal Ministry of the Interior , October 9, 2008, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved October 9, 2008 .
  19. ↑ Right-wing extremist HDJ remains banned. (No longer available online.) Heute.de , formerly in the original ; Retrieved January 27, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: 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.heute.de  
  20. ↑ Patrick Gensing: "Heimattreue" without home. tagesschau.de , accessed on January 27, 2011 .
  21. ↑ Andreas Speit: Beatings in the supermarket. the daily newspaper , accessed on January 27, 2011 .
  22. ^ A b Theo Schneider: Neo-Nazi must pay. Junge welt , June 30, 2010, accessed January 27, 2011 .
  23. ↑ Swastikas in the Pimpfenlager. the daily newspaper , May 12, 2010, accessed on January 27, 2011 .
  24. ↑ Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend (Ed.): Calendar 2008 . 2008.
  25. ↑ Title unknown . In: Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend (Ed.): Flying sparks . No. 1 , 2007.
  26. ↑ That's us. Home loyalty German youth, archived from the original on September 28, 2007 ; Retrieved March 31, 2009 (HDJ website at Archive.org , January 9, 2008 version).
  27. ↑ Alexander Schierholz: Call for a ban on right-wing youth clubs. In: mz-web.de. mz-web GmbH, August 18, 2008, accessed on May 31, 2009 .
  28. ↑ We want that. Home loyalty German youth, archived from the original on September 28, 2007 ; Retrieved March 31, 2009 (HDJ website at Archive.org , January 9, 2008 version).
  29. ↑ Andrea Röpke : They don't talk anymore. They hate. - Andrea Röpke on organized brown child rearing. (No longer available online.) In: stz online. Südthüringer Verlag GmbH, December 11, 2008, formerly in the original ; accessed on March 31, 2009 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.stz-online.de
  30. ↑ Constitutional Protection Report 2006. (PDF; 4.5 MB) Senate Department for the Interior and Sport Department for the Protection of the Constitution, archived from the original on May 17, 2014 ; Retrieved August 12, 2008 .
  31. ↑ Printed matter 14/2640: Evaluation of the “Heimattreuen German Youth”. (PDF; 16 kB) State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia, September 27, 2006, accessed on July 17, 2013 .
  32. ^ Constitutional Protection Report Brandenburg 2008, p. 60f. ( online ( Memento of May 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ); PDF; 6.0 MB)
  33. ^ Neo-Nazis ante portas. Junge Welt , September 8, 2008, accessed on August 12, 2008 (fee-based offer).
  34. ↑ a b Bavarian State Parliament: Printed matter 15/9165. (PDF; 42 kB) Bavarian State Parliament , November 20, 2007, accessed on October 9, 2008 .
  35. ^ Article First German-Swedish cultural weekend in Sweden from July 18, 2006, website of the Nordic aid organization; Accessed September 10, 2006
  36. ↑ Article HDJ guest in Flanders, May 4, 2006, HDJ website; Accessed September 10, 2006
  37. ↑ doewweb01.doew.at ( Memento from January 21, 2016 in the web archive archive.today )
  38. ^ NDR Info: Raid against the right in four federal states: Police take action against NPD youth organization. December 21, 2010, accessed on December 23, 2010 : "The model of the 'interest group' founded in 2008 is apparently the 'Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend' (HDJ), which was forbidden by the Federal Minister of the Interior last year."
  39. ↑ AfD parliamentarians employ right-wing extremists and constitutional enemies https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2018-03/afd-bundestag-mitarbeiter-rechtsextreme-identitaere-bewegung
  40. ↑ Andreas Kalbitz was apparently HDJ member https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/brandenburgs-afd-chef-andreas-kalbitz-war-offenbar-hdj-haben/25644952.html
  41. ↑ From Nazi skinhead to nipster - right-wing extremist youth cultures in transition https://www.bpb.de/politik/extremismus/rechtsextremismus/255988/jugendkulturen-im-wandel