Germany: Police (1)
01 January 1991
Germany: Police
artdoc April=1995
More on policing at Magdeburg
More information, linking the police, either directly or
indirectly, to the far-Right violence in Magdeburg (see bulletin
no. 9) has become public. Four police officers now face charges.
Two police officers disarmed a Turkish man and held him so that
he couldn't defend himself from the racists. The other two
officers have been charged with attacking an Iranian asylum-
seeker. Perhaps the most shocking incident, detailed in a church
report, involves a 20-year-old African man, fleeing from the
fascists. The police stopped him, pushed him to the ground,
arrested him, took him to the police station, stripped him, left
him in a cell, transported him to another station where they made
him wait overnight without blankets or a mattress (Taz
8,9,10.6.94). A Juvenile court in Magdeburg sentenced three
right-wing youths for up to three and a half years in prison for
racist attacks in Magdeburg. The sentence was longer than the
prosecution had requested (Guardian 23.7.94).
Police fail to protect Buchenwald despite advance notice of
attack Five police officers have been suspended and others placed
under investigation after a far-Right attack on Buchenwald.
Twenty-two nazis carried out a planned attack on the building,
urinating on commemorative plaques and threatening to set alight
a female member of staff.
It seems, however, that the Thüringer Office for the Protection
of the Constitution was aware of the possibility of attack,
having received information from their Bavarian counterparts
after a concert by the Oi band `Oithansie' had been cancelled.
Despite the fact that the transport the fascists were travelling
in had been monitored by the police after the passengers attacked
a Turkish flower seller at a service station, the fascists
proceeded to Buchenwald unhindered. And although police raided
flats, seizing weapons and propaganda after the attack, only two
people were initially taken into custody, although more arrests
were made later (Taz 25, 26, 27, 30.7, 5.8.94).
IRR European Race Audit, Bulletin no 10, September 1994. Contact:
Liz Fekete, Institute of Race Relations, 2-6 Leeke Street, London
WC1X 9HS. Tel: 0171 837 0041
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