Right-wing extremist networks

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Links of organizationally independent right-wing extremist organizations are understood as right-wing extremist networks . There are also contacts to firmly established right-wing extremist organizations. These links are constantly changing. The loose form of the networks makes observation by the police and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution more difficult, as does legal action. Prohibition proceedings like usual against associations and party bans are hardly possible.

In German-speaking countries, supraregional alliances are usually created through the merging of free comradeships . The associations usually have a small number of members (approx. 10–50), are often only active on a regional basis and their existence is heavily dependent on the respective leadership figure. The NPD endeavors to use the comradeships for its political work.

background

The term comradeship is also used militarily in right-wing extremist language. It is intended to transfigure the comradely solidarity in the Wehrmacht and present it as an ideal. In the 70s, the military sports groups represented networks in this sense, in which the physical training for combat was the main focus. These were used by the established right-wing extremist parties as room stewards and thugs. After several attacks and acts of violence with fatalities, numerous military sports groups were banned as anti-constitutional organizations.

A connection with the now banned Freedom German Workers' Party (FAP) and other banned parties and associations can be seen, since not all members switched to the legal parties NPD and Republicans , but formed small interest groups. These groups were also joined by supporters or those who had left the parties after disputes.

Since it became apparent, following the example of the Revolutionary Cells and Autonomous Antifa Groups , that small interest groups are more difficult to observe and prosecute by the state organs than public parties, more and more supporters of right-wing extremist and radical sentiments came together in the newly formed groups. This concept of the Free Nationalists was also consciously promoted and implemented by the former cadres of the banned parties. The groups are connected to each other to exchange information and plan demonstrations via the short official channels and thus make it more difficult for the authorities to react to the knowledge gained from communication monitoring. The internet is a convenient way of anonymized communication.

A connection with the comradeship associations in general can hardly be established. Nowadays these clubs usually only have the status of a rifle club , right-wing extremist orientations can only be found here occasionally. However, members of the right-wing extremist spectrum are trying to gain a foothold in the Bundeswehr in order to spread their ideas. Functionaries of neo-Nazi groups sometimes call for access to reservist fellowships by training with the Bundeswehr .

See also: Right-wing extremism on the Internet , list of right-wing extremist organizations banned in Germany

Description of the networks

The right-wing radical networks are oriented both horizontally and vertically. A centralized orientation takes place only in the sense of the supra-regional alliances. Despite these orientations, it is clear that the individual groups strive for independence from one another. In propaganda terms , however, superficial unity is always communicated.

Supra-regional alliances

Most of the Free Comradeships in Germany are organized in four supra-regional alliances:

The use of the term Central Germany for the new federal states corresponds to the revisionist understanding of the former German Reich .

Furthermore, there are efforts to bundle comradeships at the country and regional level, including:

In addition, the aid organization for national political prisoners and their relatives (HNG) acts as a mediator between the partially divided associations.

Party-driven networks

The right-wing extremist parties use the various associations, albeit mostly unofficially, to support their political work. In the new federal states, the NPD in particular often has close contacts to the comradeships and uses their members to support demonstrations and to recruit right-wing rock concerts. The Republicans are also looking to join these networks, but are usually rejected as too moderate. Official control by the parties is always disputed, but is easy to understand through the leadership of actors in personal union.

Within the diffuse orientations of the groups, however, there are also tendencies to distance themselves from these parties, since they cannot fight the social order that right-wing extremists hate because of their constitutional restrictions. Often there are also content-related and personal differences that are cited by the rope teams as reasons for splitting off.

Numerous foundations and party-affiliated organizations try not to make their political work obvious and sometimes appear subtle. Here, too, attempts are often made to build a bridge to the right-wing fringes of the conservative parties.

Some right-wing student associations such as the fraternities Danubia Munich and Normannia Jena as well as the umbrella association Deutsche Burschenschaft are accused of right-wing extremist agitation and relationships with party-affiliated organizations or they are mentioned in various reports on the protection of the constitution. Via networks of relationships established in this way, right-wing extremist parties or their affiliated organizations are able to specifically promote and influence young people who share their political opinion. The old gentlemen also usually rise up within the party structures and support their former student colleagues directly.

Independent networks

Since the networks exist in a loose form of organization, names and designations change quickly depending on the day-to-day political opportunity or the need for evasions due to investigations by the public prosecutor. A basic breakdown is possible, however, with regard to regional, temporal (only for a certain date-related or long-term goal) and content-related aspects.

Free fellowships

Due to their loose structure and relationship to the leader, the free comradeships (also autonomous comradeships or KS for short ) are subject to constant change. The names are mostly kept as a geographical assignment. The NPD has set up a free comradeship section as a means of contacting the comradeship scene . After a ban, the comradeships are often continued under a different name. According to estimates by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, there are around 150 regional and supraregional camaraderie in Germany, with a focus on Saxony with an estimated 40 associations and Bavaria .

Action alliances

Military sports groups

Militia structures were set up under the pretext of physical and mental training. The military sports groups were classified as unconstitutional and prohibited by law. In order to circumvent the ban on military sports groups , hiking groups were set up in some cases , which pretend to organize excursions, but which also focus on military exercises. Groups that appeared as classic military sports groups with military exercises were significant in the 1970s and 1980s; Today these hardly play a role and in the scene an increasing overlap with MMA clubs and more terrorist forms of action can be observed.

Front companies

The case of the Wilhelm Tietjen Foundation for Fertilization Ltd., which claims to be a foundation and which is merely a company registered under British law and which was used to finance property purchases, has become known. This property should be deemed Venue and meeting place for extreme-right squads are used.

Other associations

Right-wing extremist networks in international comparison

One of the first international networks of the European right is the covert European Social Movement , which has regularly renamed itself in order to cover its tracks. In the 1970s , the NSDAP organizational structure was formed, formally headed by the American Gary Lauck . The leadership was made up of German and Austrian neo-Nazis , who use the NSDAP / AO primarily as a coordination platform.

The situation in Austria is comparable to that in Germany. This is based in part on the common historical past and language and similar legal prohibitions. After the defeat of the neo-Nazi VAPO (People Loyal to the Extra-Parliamentary Opposition) in the early 1990s, right-wing extremist organizations had to withdraw and tried to build decentralized networks. Parts of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and its apron organizations have connections to right-wing extremist organizations. Wolfgang Purtscheller sees a significant difference to the situation in Germany in the fact that with the FPÖ there is a unified party represented in parliament representing the national camp, while in Germany several right-wing parties compete for supremacy in their target group and thus weaken each other.

The right-wing extremist networks in other countries are mostly more organized and operate less covertly than in Germany. Great Britain and the USA deserve special mention here, whose liberal constitution rejects political restrictions, particularly in relation to freedom of expression, but interestingly also Russia , where xenophobia has been increasing for several years, especially on minorities of Asian origin. The Russian neo-Nazis are described as predominantly very violent, militant and anti-Western. One of the largest associations, the Slavic Confederation , was banned by Moscow judges in April 2010. The best-known American white power organizations are the National Alliance (NA) and the Ku Klux Klan . The bonehead network Blood & Honor (B&H), its youth organization White Youth and the terrorist arm Combat 18 , which is banned in Germany, are considered to be internationally active . The Hammerskins form another wing of the militant Nazi music networks .

Further development

The established right-wing extremist parties are increasingly using right-wing extremist networks to spread their ideas. Although there are often inconsistencies between the parties' at least predetermined loyalty to the constitution and the radical views of the leading actors in the networks, the neo-Nazi influences seem to be solidifying due to increased membership. An increase in the proportion of female actors is also noticeable. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution observes the leaders very closely, even if the decentralized structure makes observation considerably more difficult. The observation of these people is usually limited to a few years, as they often give up their management position for family reasons or imprisonment.

In the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 2006 , the interaction of the NPD with right-wing extremist camaraderie and other nationalist networks proved to be a successful concept. In some areas, the NPD and its candidates from the comradeship scene achieved over 30 percent of the vote. It is noticeable that the NPD leaves the content management to the comradeship cadres, some of whom only joined the party a few months earlier.

literature

  • Thomas Greven (Ed.): Globalized right-wing extremism? The extremist right in the era of globalization , VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2006
  • Chloé Lachauer: The dark side of Europe - right-wing extremists on the way to becoming political actors? - Networking of the right in the European Union , Tectum-Verlag, Marburg 2005
  • Searchlight Magazine Ltd. (Ed.): White Noise. Right-wing rock, skinhead music, Blood & Honor - insights into the international neo-Nazi music scene , Unrast Verlag, Hamburg (among others) 2001
  • Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (ed.): Spreading hatred on the Internet - an international dialogue , Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Berlin 2000
  • Friedrich-Wilhelm Schlomann : Neo-Nazi propaganda from abroad to Germany , Hanns Seidel Foundation , Munich 2000
  • Hessian State Center for Political Education (ed.): Networked hatred on the web - what to do! , Hessian State Center for Political Education, 2000
  • Jeffrey Kaplan: The emergence of a Euro-American radical right , Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick (et al.) 1998
  • Heike Kleffner , Anna Spangenberg (ed.): Generation Hoyerswerda . be.bra Verlag, Berlin 2016

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Source: Spiegel Online
  2. ↑ Reply of the Federal Government to a small question about the increase in right-wing extremist incidents in the Bundeswehr
  3. ↑ Source: Bayer. Broadcast, August 14, 2009 ( Memento from April 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Right-wing extremism in Austria ( Memento of the original from March 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Newspaper of the memorial service association @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / zeitung.gedenkdienst.at
  5. ↑ Heribert Schiedel : The right edge. Extremist sentiments in our society. Edition Steinbauer, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-902494-25-2 ; Rosa Antifa Vienna: Brown networks in Austria ( Memento of the original from December 21, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.raw.at
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Purtscheller : Aufbruch der Völkischen. The brown network . Picus-Verlag, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-85452-239-8 , p. 37. This book also contains many examples of connections between the FPÖ and right-wing extremists.
  7. ↑ Russian neo-Nazis: "Slavic League" prohibited. . The standard. April 29, 2010. Retrieved October 7, 2011.
  8. ↑ Neo-Nazi comradeships are spreading in the NPD , Spiegel Online