Torsten Lemmer

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Torsten Lemmer (born April 26, 1970 in Düsseldorf ) is a politician , author , music producer , publisher and former neo-Nazi . In 2001 Lemmer announced his exit from the neo-Nazi scene, the seriousness of which, however, has been doubted on various occasions. Even after his marriage to a native Moroccan woman and his conversion to Islam in 2002, doubts did not ebb away.

Political career

Torsten Lemmer 2018 at the Federal Party Conference of the Pirate Party

Lemmer began his political career in 1986 with the Young Liberals and the FDP . Here, as part of the national-liberal wing, he made it to the position of federal chairman of the Liberal Students Working Group . At the same time he was a member of the Young East Prussia community in the East Prussian Landsmannschaft .

From 1989 to 1993 he was a citizen of a Düsseldorf council committee, until the beginning of 1993 he was also the managing director and press spokesman for the Free Voting Community (FWG) group - a split of the Republicans in the Düsseldorf city council - and deputy chairman of the Free Voting Community for Düsseldorf e. V. Before that he was active as deputy federal chairman for another republican split, the Freedom People's Party . After the formation of an alliance of all right-wing extremist forces for the local election in Düsseldorf in 1994 failed, he initially no longer appeared in party politics and instead concentrated on building up his publishing houses.

Between 1999 and 2001 Torsten Lemmer was increasingly looking for the public stage again, for example through regulars' tables organized by Jan Zobel. The most striking feature was the adoption by the CDU mayor Joachim Erwin .

In 2004 Torsten Lemmer applied for the Düsseldorf mayor's office with no prospect of success. As the top candidate for the Independent Voting Community for Düsseldorf - Lemmerliste , however, he achieved a council mandate with an election campaign that was directed exclusively against the incumbent Mayor Joachim Erwin (motto: "Torment Erwin - choose Lemmer"). The Lemmer list was renamed the Bürgerliste and was given a place in the left part of the meeting room. Lemmer also became a member of two district councils and the council's regulatory and transport committee. In addition, he participated in the referendum for the retention of the municipal majority of Düsseldorfer Stadtwerke AG.

In 2006, Lemmer's private rooms were the target of a house search , which, according to police, found evidence of the distribution of right-wing extremist CDs. This search related to a procedure before his exit from the neo-Nazi scene.

In 2008 Torsten Lemmer founded the council group Free Voters with the non-party Martin Reichert . The Independent Voters' Association for Düsseldorf - Free Voters competed with Klaus Kirchner, who had recently left the CDU, for the mayor's election campaign . In 2009 she achieved 2.3 percent and two council seats in the local elections in Düsseldorf. Lemmer was hired as managing director of the council group.

In 2014 the council group Animal Welfare / Free Voters was founded under the chairmanship of Chomicha El Fassi and Claudia Krüger in Düsseldorf, in which Torsten Lemmer was appointed managing director. Since then he has also been a member of the sports committee of the city of Düsseldorf.

According to his own statements, Torsten Lemmer has been a member of the Pirate Party Germany since 2009 and, according to his testimony, was asked by other party members to run for office as federal chairman in 2018. However, no candidacy took place.

Neo-Nazi scene and exit

In October 1995, while investigating a break-in in a camp shared by Lemmer, the police discovered inciting writings. These writings came from Kurt Winter, the owner of the publishing house Mehr Wissen , in which Lemmer's first two books were published.

In November 2000 Lemmer was banned from entering the Düsseldorf City Hall after he disrupted public meetings, threatened a press photographer in the City Hall and prevented him from doing his work. Lemmer appeared at a meeting of the Foreigners' Council, accompanied by five young men in bomber jackets , one of whom began to take photos of the politicians present as they entered the meeting room. Lemmer attempted to lift the house ban through an urgent procedure at the administrative court, but it was confirmed on December 22nd, 2000 and Lemmer no longer objected to it.

In 2001 Lemmer and his close confidante Jan Zobel, Tim Holzschneider and Jürgen Drenhaus took part in Christoph Schlingensief's "dropout" project Hamlet / Naziline at the Schauspielhaus Zurich, which was supported by the Federal Agency for Civic Education and aimed at bringing former neo-Nazis through to reintegrate a theater project into society. Lemmer's participation led to criticism of the seriousness of the project as he still had links to the extreme right. He was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen and visited Bertolt Brecht's grave . At the invitation of Rezzo Schlauch he took part in a Bundestag debate.

Lemmer then founded, together with Schlingensief, Peter Kern , Bibiana Beglau and with the support of Antje Vollmer, the drop -out club Rein-Verein in Zurich, Berlin and Düsseldorf. He also took, u. a. with Thomas Krüger , participated in a panel discussion at the Volksbühne Berlin . He then published a contribution to the anthology Christoph Schlingensiefs Nazis rein in Suhrkamp Verlag . At the end of 2002, the premiere of Kern's film against racism Hamlet - This is your Family , with Torsten Lemmer and Christoph Schlingensief in the leading roles. In January, the Hamlet film came to Düsseldorf at great expense. This was followed by demonstrations with the aim of educating about neo-Nazism in Germany and abroad, accompanied by a subsequent discussion with the participation of Torsten Lemmer and Peter Kern. In the wake of his Hamlet project, Schlingensief himself doubted the credibility of Lemmer's departure. In an interview with the taz in 2004 he said: "Lemmer still owes me the proof that he no longer participates in Rock Nord" and subsequently refused to add a foreword to Lemmer's dropout book write.

In 2002, Lemmer and eight other men, including his long-time friend Zobel, were on trial for trespassing after they disrupted a cabaret performance with boos and whistles to an already existing house ban. Lemmer was sentenced to a fine of 4,800 euros.

In 2004 Lemmer's book Rechts out - my exit from the scene (with a foreword by Gerhard Zwerenz and a conversation with Norbert Madloch ) was presented to the public by the Eulenspiegel publishing group at the Leipzig Book Fair . Since then, Lemmer has participated in numerous readings, lectures and discussions against intolerance, violence and right-wing radicalism.

In May 2009 Torsten Lemmer was sentenced by the Düsseldorf Regional Court for sedition to a prison sentence of 10 months on probation. The judgment is final. In the course of this process it emerged that Lemmer was also employed by the right-wing rock label Funny Sounds from 2002 to 2006 , which he had denied for years after his departure.

journalism

In his youth, Lemmer was editor and publisher of several Düsseldorf school and youth newspapers. From this basis Lemmer became involved in youth press associations . In 1985 he became chairman of the umbrella association of youth press e. V. Düsseldorf / Mettmann . Thereupon the youth editors elected Lemmer to the board, in 1988 also as chairman of the Landesring Junge Presse in North Rhine-Westphalia .

At the same time, Lemmer began a traineeship at the Waerland health magazine , but soon became editor-in-chief of the city magazine Pinboard , which was founded in 1979 and was its editor until the beginning of 1993. He was also responsible for the monthly “Düsseldraht” post (from 1990 to 1993).

In 1993, FAP's skinhead magazine Querschläger was followed by the successor Frontal , which, thanks to its more professional design, was to develop into a leading magazine for the right-wing extremist skinhead scene. After six issues, indexing was imminent. The project was abandoned, but a new one started immediately. Torsten Lemmer, Christian Eitel from the Dorfmusik label and Manfred Rouhs founded the “LER und Partner GmbH” (which was not registered) and, according to their own statements, started the right-wing rock newspaper project Moderne Zeiten with an initial print run of 10,000 copies . Political propaganda was prepared according to the scene and reports about bands, especially the in-house label, were presented.

The monthly publication announced at the start was given up after the first issue. Due to the lack of success, Rouhs left after a month as an important donor. The company was renamed “Creative Zeiten GmbH”, the magazine finally changed to Rock Nord , under which name it existed until 2005 - but without the involvement of Torsten Lemmer.

music

Lemmer played an important role in the neo-Nazi music scene. He recognized the importance of music as a medium for recruiting young people for neo-Nazism early on . In the book Skinhead Rock , published in 1994, he wrote: “The more right-wing conservative national groups dismissed this type of music as a riot. Neither the DVU nor the Reps attempted to tap new potential voters through the music channel [...] The Greens succeeded by instrumentalizing certain music groups and styles. a. the breakthrough. Overall, they correctly assessed the effect of music. "

Musically, Torsten Lemmer was initially the leader and singer of the hit combo "Die Spontis". The title Drink, Heiter Lustig sein was played by some radio stations at Carnival and later used by the right-wing rock band " Rheinwacht ", which he produced, on their debut album Neue Macht as "Father Rhine". It achieved cult status among neo-Nazi music fans in Cologne and Düsseldorf.

In the early 1990s he was the manager and background singer of the right-wing rock band Störkraft, famous for its negative headlines . He also acted for other bands from the neo-Nazi spectrum such as " Rheinwacht ", "Siegeszug", "Schlachtruf", " 08/15 ", " Kraftschlag ", " Noie values ", " Body Checks " or " Sturmwehr " as a manager and / or producer. At this time, Lemmer founded several companies with the help of others, including the label “Dorfmusik”, the distributor “Moderne Zeiten / Creative Zeiten GmbH” and the record company “Funny Sounds & Vision GmbH”. According to Lemmer, Funny Sounds produced more than 2500 songs. In addition, Funny Sounds had the sub-labels "Destiny Records", "Aze" and "Doktor Records", on which English-speaking bands such as "Celtic Warrior" and " Brutal Attack " as well as albums by German-speaking right-wing rock groups such as " Arisches Blut ", "Foierstoss" , "Division Wiking" or " 1488 " were published.

For the football World Cup in 1994 he sang the hymn World Champion on a maxi CD as "WM-Blöker" , accompanied by right-wing rock musicians from " 08/15 " and "Rheinwacht". In 1996 he released the CD Germany Masters of All Classes under the name “EM-Blöker” .

In 2001, a homage to the then Mayor of Düsseldorf Joachim Erwin was published under the title Erwin - You and I forever .

Publications

  • Torsten Lemmer: Skinhead Rock. A necessary clarification about non-conforming music. More knowledge publishing house, Düsseldorf-Langenfeld 1994, ISBN 3-88686-045-0
  • Torsten Lemmer: singer for Germany. Biography of the popular singer Frank Rennicke. More knowledge publishing house, Düsseldorf-Langenfeld 1996, ISBN 3-88686-047-7
  • Torsten Lemmer: "Right out," my exit from the scene. Autobiography. Conversation with Norbert Madloch, foreword by Gerhard Zwerenz . Das Neue Berlin, Berlin, ISBN 3-360-01242-9 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Personnel entry in the catalog of the German National Library
  2. ^ After house searches: Councilor Lemmer im Visier des Staatsschutz , RP-Online , March 3, 2006.
  3. ^ "Rathaus Online" of the city of Düsseldorf , accessed on December 9, 2009.
  4. ^ "Rats-Info" of the city of Düsseldorf , accessed on October 30, 2016
  5. ↑ Düsseldorf politicians could stir up pirate party congress , accessed on November 19, 2018
  6. ↑ https://wiki.piratenpartei.de/Bundesparteitag_2018.2/Protokoll
  7. ^ Books published by the publishing house Mehr Wissen according to ISBN, accessed on December 10, 2009
  8. ^ Page by Christoph Schlingensief
  9. ↑ Homepage of the Aussteigerverein Rein-Verein ( Memento of the original from December 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rein-verein.de
  10. ^ Hamlet film on the Viennale website
  11. ↑ Klaus Jansen, Peter Ortmann: With disruptive force against Erwin . Article on taz.de, September 20, 2004, accessed January 2, 2016
  12. ↑ Torsten Lemmer gives a lecture at the youth welfare office of the state capital Magdeburg against right-wing extremism , article on Presse Anzeiger , May 16, 2007.
  13. ↑ Incitement of the people: Torsten Lemmer condemns , RP-Online , May 13, 2009.
  14. ↑ Biography on Lemmer's homepage lemmer.tv , accessed on January 2, 2016
  15. ↑ Label releases including sub-labels on discogs.com, accessed January 2, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Lemmer, Torsten
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German author, politician (FDP, REP, FWG), publisher and musician
DATE OF BIRTH April 26, 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf