Germany: Murders lead to nazi arrests
01 January 1991
Germany: Murders lead to nazi arrests
artdoc May=1993
Lars Christiansen, 19, and Michael Peters, 25, said to be members
of a neo-nazi organisation responsible for a number of
firebombings of refugee centres across northern Germany, have
been charged with the murder of Bahide Arslan (51), Asye Yilmaz
(14) and Yeliz Arslan (10) who died in an arson attack on their
home in Molln on 23 November. Michael Peters has admitted
telephoning the police with the message: `It's burning in the
Ratzeburgstrasse. Heil Hitler'. Another house was also set on
fire and nine people injured (Guardian 24.11.92, 3.12.92,
Independent 2.12.92).
Meanwhile, two skinhead youths, aged 18 and 24, have been
arrested for the murder of 53-year old Karl Hans Rohn who was
killed after he called the youths `nazi pigs' (Guardian
24.11.92).
Parcel-bomb kills anti-fascist
Kerstin Winter, 24, died on 22 January in Freiburg, southern
Germany, after opening a package left in front of her apartment.
The package contained a splinter-bomb wrapped in newspapers.
Several windows in the apartment were destroyed when the bomb
exploded.
A spontaneous demonstration of around 700 people took place
after Kerstin Winter's murder. She had been active in left,
lesbian and anti-fascist circles (Press release of Berlin Anti-
Racist Centre).
Bans on nazi organisations
Following the Molln murders, the government has banned at least
four neo-nazi organisations. Counter intelligence services
estimate that there are 76 right wing extremist organisations in
Germany. Of 40,000 extremists, 5,000 are prepared to engage in
violence, they say (Guardian 26.11.92).
Police raided the premises, in 40 German cities, of the
Nationalist Front, founded in 1984, and estimated to have 130
members in western Germany (Independent 28.11.92). Action against
the NF was followed by a ban and 60 raids on the offices of the
neo-nazi German Alternative. (Times 12.12.92). 24 flats in the
northern port of Wilhelmshaven were raided in a search for
material that would justify a ban on a local right-wing extremist
organisation, the German Comradeship League (Independent
10.12.92). The fourth group to be banned was the National
Offensive, estimated to have 140 members and said to be active
in Bavaria and eastern Saxony (Independent 23.12.92). Two members
of the `Werewolf Hunting Unit' were also arrested in December and
charged with supplying weapons to the extreme right, including
at least two machine guns and 250 hand grenades. (Times
11.12.92). Apparently, the German government is also considering
an investigation into the Republikaners as an `anti- democratic'
organisation (Independent 16.12.92).
Further nazi prosecutions
Thomas Dienel, a former Communist who now leads the German
National Party (DNP) was jailed for two years and eight months
for inciting racial violence by calling for the mass murder of
Jews and asylum seekers in a speech in the eastern town of
Kaulsdorf (Guardian 9.12.92). An application has been made to the
Constitutional Court calling it to bar Thomas Dienel and fellow
neo-nazi, Heinz Reiss, from public speaking, circulating their
views in the media, and joining or founding political
organisations (Guardian 10.12.92).
Meanwhile, following the firebombing of a bungalow housing
Vietnamese in the eastern German town of Halberstadt, in the
state of Saxony-Anhalf, nine neo-nazis, aged between 15 and 25,
have been arrested (Independent 8.12.92). And in Hagen, near
Dusseldorf, two juveniles were jailed for firebombing a hostel
for asylum seekers (Independent 24.12.92).
Nazi penetration of armed services
The German defence ministry has revealed that three German
soldiers, believed to be skinheads with right-wing sympathies,
are suspected of being involved in three separate cases of
manslaughter in which the victims were Germans mistaken for
foreigners.
Further radio reports claim that drunken soldiers are a