Anti-fascists fined for countering nazi demo
01 August 2003
Last autumn, thousands of people demonstrated in Munich against nazi rallies opposing a travelling exhibition on war crimes committed by Germany's regular armed forces during World War II (and which are often portrayed by historical revisionists as non-fascist, see Statewatch vol 12 no 6). Almost a year later, the authorities have started to prosecute individual anti-fascists for organising the counter-demonstrations. On 22 September this year, the Munich county court sentenced two anti-fascists Christian Boissevain and Martin Löwenberg (who had been interned in a concentration camp during Germany's nazi regime) to pay fines for organising the protest on 30 November last year. The nazi demonstration was registered with the authorities by the alleged right-wing terrorist Martien Wiese who was arrested in early September in connection with planned bomb attacks on a synagogue and other institutions in Munich.
The public prosecutor accused Boissevain and Löwenberg of public incitement to criminal offences, as Boissevan had handed people streetmaps showing the route of the planned nazi demonstration. He was found guilty and sentenced to pay 900 Euro. The 78-year old Löwenberg, a committee member of the Bavarian branch of the Association of those Persecuted by the Nazi regime (VVN-BdA), was sentenced to pay 300 Euro for a speech he made calling on people to stop the nazi rally. Löwenberg said:
After liberation in 1945 the most important lesson for us was: fascism and war could have been averted if democrats and anti-fascists had recognised the threat in time and actively fought the Nazis. As long as my head and my body allow it, I will always be there when Nazis march, in order to show that they are not tolerated in Munich.
The public prosecutor ruled that the legality of a demonstration was decided by courts and not by citizens. The fact that even the Social Democratic mayor of Munich, Christian Ude (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands), had publicly called on people to block the way of nazis did not impress the court. The sentence created outrage in the overfilled court room and several people were ordered by the judge to leave, including the head of Munich's Green Party Siegfried Benker, who will be standing trial in October for opposing the far-right demonstration.
Whilst the Bavarian court prosecutes anti-fascists for organising a peaceful counter-demonstration with the argument that the state decides on matters of fascism, many have asked if the state is indeed able to protect the Jewish community and foreigners from fascist attacks. The failure of the internal security services to stop the activities of the neo-nazi organisation that was behind the planned bomb attack in Munich has yet again thrown up serious questions with regards to the security services and the far-right in Germany (see Statewatch vol 12 nos 1 & 3).
Martin Wiese, who registered the nazi rally with the Munich authorities, is a 27-year old and part of the neo-fascist group Aktionsbündnis Süddeutschland ("Action Alliance South Germany") and the 30-40 strong skinhead group, Kameradschaft Süd ("Comradeship South") which is known for its violent attacks on foreigners in Munich. The latter planned a bomb attack on the Jewish community centre and synagogue in Munich for 9 November this year, the anniversary of the Reichspogromnacht - when in 1938 the German SA and SS burnt down synagogues and Jewish shops across Germany and deported more than 30,000 Jews to concentration camps the next day. Wiese moved from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to Munich three years ago and allegedly also took part in the attack on the asylum seekers home in Rostock in 1992. He is known for his active opposition to the abovementioned exhibition uncovering war crimes committed by the German regular armed forces. In August this year, he spoke at a 2,400 strong nazi rally in Wunsiedel in commemoration of Hitler's former deputy Rudolf Hess.
The Bavarian Interior<