Germany: Racism and fascism (1)
01 January 1991
Germany: Racism and fascism
artdoc July=1994
Election round-up: Predictions for 1994
With GermanyØs general election set to take place in October and
a marathon 19 local, state, European and presidential elections
due throughout 1994, the far-Right Republikaner party are tipped
to gain 8-10 per cent of the vote and thus, under the system of
proportional representation, enter the Bundestag for the first
time. There are also fears that, with unemployment rising and
effecting a third of the population in the east, Germany risks
a return to the `unstable conditions of the pre-Hitler Weimar
Republic'. According to a poll carried out by the Allensbach
Institute, 58 per cent of east and 53 per cent of west Germans
expressed the desire for a strong leader to tackle rising crime
and joblessness. However, in elections in the northern state of
Schleswig-Holstein in March, the far-Right failed to make any
significant gains and, in fact, only managed to contest a few
towns (New Statesman 25.2.94, Independent 25.1.94,Guardian
5.2.94, Financial Times 21.3.94).
CSU embrace nationalism
Despite a pledge from all mainstream parties not to pander to
nationalist sentiment, the Christian Social Union says that it
will adopt nationalism as a part of its election campaign. The
Bavarian party, led by Edmund Stoiber, which the pollsters
predict will lose its absolute majority in Munich, fear that the
DVU and the Republikaner are growing at its expense. Max Streibl,
a prominent CSU leader, had a meeting with Franz Schonhuber, the
former Waffen SS warrant officer who leads the Republikaner party
(Jewish Chronicle 4.2.94).
Meanwhile, the Bavarian Interior Minister Dr. Gunther
Beckstein has called for the PDS to be placed under surveillance
by the internal intelligence service with the ultimate aim of
banning it in 1994 (PDS News, January 1994).
Republikaner rally plan
The Republikaner party, in a bid to circumvent bans on election
meetings by local authorities, has bought a 9000 seat tent to
hold rallies across the country (Daily Telegraph 11.1.94).
Association of Free Citizens formed
A new right-wing party, the `Bund Freier Burger' (Association of
Free Citizens) has been formed. Principally anti-Maastricht, its
leader, Manfred Brunner is said to have links with the Austrian
nationalist Freedom party led by Jurg Haider (Guardian 5.2.94).
Denial of Holocaust not an offence rules appeal court
The Federal Court of Justice has, in a controversial decision,
effectively ruled that to deny the existence of the Holocaust
does not constitute an incitement to racial hatred. During an
appeal court hearing in Karlsruhe, the leader of the National
Democratic Party, Gunter Deckert had a 1-year suspended sentence
and fine revoked. He had previously having been convicted in
November 1991 of organising a lecture by the US neo-nazi Fred
Leuchter during which Leuchter said that nazi war crimes never
occurred and that there were no gas chambers at concentration
camps. The court ruled that it was `too much of a
generalisation' to assume that this alone constituted an
incitement to racial hatred (European 18.3.94, Jewish Chronicle
18.3.94).
Links with Zhirinovsky split far-Right
The Republikaner have warned that any German group who allies
itself with the Russian nationalist, Vladimir Zhirinovsky is
damaging the country's interests. To this end, they have ruled
out an alliance with the German People's Union (DVU) because of
its backing with Zhirinovsky Jewish Chronicle In Saxony, the
authorities say that neo-nazis have been attempting to make
contact with the 35,000 Russian soldiers, believed to be pro-
Zhirinovsky, still stationed in east Germany (Daily Telegraph
11.1.94). It is alleged that a prominent former east German
communist has been funding Zhirinovsky. Werner Girke, in charge
of managing foreign assets in a former GDR government, has been
placed under invest