Solstice Celebration Pretzien 2006

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The solstice celebration in Pretzien, Saxony-Anhalt, on June 24, 2006 was a village festival organized by the “Heimatbund Ostelbien” association, at which members of the Heimatbund demonstratively burned a copy of Anne Frank's diary and an American flag . The other guests did not intervene. This process caused outrage nationwide and was also noticed worldwide. Five of those involved were sentenced to suspended sentences in March 2007 for sedition.

Course of events

prehistory

For a long time some young adults in Pretzien had politically positioned themselves as neo-Nazis and had joined the Heimatbund Ostelbien . Other residents of the village tried to counteract these developments by involving them in associations, choirs and the volunteer fire brigade . In the course of this integration strategy, supported by the long-time mayor Friedrich Harwig (former member of the PDS ) and the former Interior Minister Klaus Jeziorsky ( CDU ) from Pretzien, the organization of the village festival was also entrusted to the Heimatbund Ostelbien .

Solstice celebration

The invitations of the Heimatbund Ostelbien announced a “cultural program and sun fire” and did not contain any reference to a planned book burning. The festival took place on a meadow behind the Pretzien parish hall. Two of the organizers wore T-shirts with the imprint "Wehrmacht Pretzien", which alluded to the name of the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War . A campfire was lit. In the course of the event, one of the organizers, the twenty-five-year-old Lars K., asked the 80 guests at the time to throw objects into the fire: Anyone who had something “strange” should “hand it over to the fire now”. Then Marc P., another member of the Eastern Elbe Homeland, burned an American flag in the fire. Lars K. then threw a paperback copy of the Anne Frank diary into the fire and described the content of this book as a lie. Lars H. later stated in court that he had previously asked his girlfriend by telephone to pick the book out of a moving box and bring it over to him. During the cremation, slogans of “German blood” and “German youth” were uttered.

The others present, including the mayor and police officers, did not intervene. The police only searched several apartments in Pretzien ten days after the crime.

Reactions

Since the posthumous diary of Anne Frank is considered to be an important literary testimony to a victim of the Holocaust, the events were viewed in public as a mockery of the victims, a denial of the Holocaust and a repetition of the National Socialist book burnings of 1933. The simultaneous burning of the flags was a link between Anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism interpreted.

The Interior Minister of Saxony-Anhalt , Holger Hövelmann, described this act as an “attack on human culture”. The director of the Anne Frank Center in Berlin , Thomas Heppener, was also outraged. He said it was frightening that there had been no outcry from the Pretzien citizens.

The process

In the following hearing before the Schönebeck District Court against seven men between 24 and 29 years old who were involved in the act, Harwig testified as a witness. On the other hand, many other people present at the book burning referred to “gaps in memory”. In court, Lars K. stated through his defense attorney that his concern was not a denial of the Holocaust, but a "cleaning of objects that are particularly stressful". In this way he wanted to free himself from an "evil chapter" in German history. The defense attorney said that Lars H.'s action had been "clearly misunderstood". Marc P.'s defense attorney also argued that he had denounced the “US policy of aggression” and wanted to free himself from something like the “sense and purpose” of a solstice celebration. These pleadings met with strong rejection from trial observers. The other five defendants refused to testify.

On March 8, 2007, the court sentenced five defendants to nine months' probation "for collective incitement to hatred and the denigration of the memory of the deceased ". Another two of the defendants were acquitted because it could not be proven beyond doubt that they were personally involved in the execution. The prosecutor had asked for twelve months in prison.

After the verdict, Harwig said the verdict didn't resolve the issue. The population of Pretzien was considered divided. The Pretziener pastor Andreas Holtz described the inhibitions in the region as "worn out". Holtz reported: "Not even that some twelve-year-olds greet each other with 'Heil Hitler' in school is a matter of particular concern to many." In Holtz's opinion, something must move in the minds of the majority in order to avert a repetition of events. On March 16, 2007, the Magdeburg Regional Court reported via the German Press Agency that the convicts had requested that the matter be negotiated again before the next higher court.

Post-history

Many Pretzieners do not want to talk about the events of June 24th, 2006 and the problems with local neo-Nazis. Others have founded an "initiative group" which is dedicated to educating people about right-wing extremism and organizing related events. The initiative group is supported by the Berlin Society for Democratic Culture . Among other things, a reading from Anne Frank's diary with the actress Iris Berben took place in Pretzien . The ongoing reading was disrupted by one of the right-wing extremists who appeared in the hall and made video recordings. The Heimatbund Ostelbien was banned as a right-wing extremist organization. The individual members and the convicted perpetrators were continued to be included in the life of the association by the other Pretzieners. According to Bernd Wagner, the managing director of the Society for Democratic Culture, there was still no substantive discussion of the neo-Nazis in Pretzien in 2007.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Associated Press: Three German far-rightists torch copy of “Diary of Anne Frank”. In: Haaretz.com. July 6, 2006.
  2. ^ German press agency: 7 charged with inciting racial hatred in Anne Frank book burning. In: Haaretz.com. October 19, 2006.
  3. ^ A b c Felix Wadewitz: That with Anne Frank is barred. In: Spiegel Online. September 3, 2007.
  4. ↑ a b Anna Reimann: Fairy tales at the beginning of the process. In: Spiegel Online. February 26, 2007.
  5. ↑ Timo Rink, Daniel Schulz: Nine months for book burning. In: the daily newspaper. March 9, 2007, page 6.
  6. ↑ Appeal lodged. In: the daily newspaper. March 17, 2007, page 6.

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