German Police Quell Neo-Nazi Riots--for Now

Hundreds of riot police and border guards Thursday gained the upper hand over rampaging neo-Nazis after four nights of drunken violence that targeted immigrants. But authorities fear that the worst is yet to come as thousands of left-wing extremists prepare to descend on this Baltic port city over the weekend to protest racism and confront the skinhead gangs.

In Bonn, Chancellor Helmut Kohl condemned the attacks against foreign asylum-seekers as “a disgrace to our country,” while President Richard von Weizsaecker warned that the rioting must be considered “very serious and nasty writing on the wall” for united Germany.

The violence in Rostock is just the latest and most dramatic in a steady stream of attacks against foreigners since German unification nearly two years ago. The government blames the unchecked tide of mostly economic refugees from Eastern Europe into Germany for the unrest, which comes against a backdrop of high unemployment, severe housing shortages and public discontent in the formerly Communist eastern part of the country, including Rostock.

Legislators are expected to debate constitutional amendments this fall to tighten requirements for granting asylum and speed up the process, which can now take years, forcing taxpayers to support the applicants in the meantime.

While Germany’s refugees encompass a wide variety of nationalities, from impoverished Eastern Europeans to Africans, Kurds and Yugoslavs fleeing ethnic violence, those who came under attack in Rostock were Gypsies and some northern Vietnamese workers, the latter brought in by Communist East Germany years ago and yet to be repatriated.

Many residents in the drab concrete jungle in the suburb of Lichtenhagen where the violence erupted expressed unabashed gratitude toward the right-wing hooligans for clearing the grassy field in front of the housing complex of about 200 Gypsies who had been camping there all summer because of a lack of refugee housing. Officials evacuated the foreigners Monday and moved them to a former military barracks, where they remained under heavy guard.

“I stood on my balcony and cheered, just cheered,” boasted Brigitte Eschenburg, a 51-year-old resident who, along with several neighbors, complained that the Gypsies had barbecued neighborhood cats, relieved themselves in the bushes, shoplifted from the corner grocery store and heaped trash in the yard.

Residents said complaints to local authorities had fallen on deaf ears, and they insisted that their support of the vigilantism was rooted in frustration rather than racism.

“Somebody should give those boys a bouquet for accomplishing what the politicians wouldn’t,” Eschenburg declared, adding that those who applauded the violence “should be ashamed for just standing by and watching and not joining them.”

Other Rostockers expressed outrage and embarrassment.

“As a citizen of this city, I am ashamed about what has made Rostock famous,” said City Council President Christoph Kleemann at a downtown rally that drew about 3,000 people Thursday to protest the violence.

“Whoever didn’t know the name Rostock before knows it now,” Kleemann lamented.

Left-wing radicals distributed leaflets and sent faxes calling for anti-fascists nationwide to gather in Rostock for a demonstration Saturday afternoon.

A young man answering the telephone for the “Stop the Pogrom” protest said the leftists would “come prepared” to do battle with the rightists. Authorities were bracing for up to 10,000 protesters.

Several dozen neo-Nazis and skinheads in steel-toed boots loitered in front of the housing complex Thursday, chugging beer and schnapps in front of empty refugee apartments charred by their Molotov cocktails. Many of the teen-agers hid clubs, steel pipes and sharpened tools in their sleeves, waiting to do battle with police. Waves of riot police descended on the youths before darkness fell to prevent a fifth night of violence.

About 250 rightists have been arrested and about 180 police injured since the trouble began. Most of those taken into custody have been between 14 and 18 years old, according to authorities.

Police used water cannon, tear gas and riot batons to quell the rioting, which was centered in the housing complex where asylum-seekers were processed and given temporary shelter until being placed in hostels. When the few apartments available were filled up, the Gypsies--who were arriving here at the rate of 80 to 100 a day--were forced to sleep on the grass. About 20,000 eastern Germans also live in the Communist-era high-rises overlooking the grassy area that became such a source of irritation.

City administrators have come under sharp criticism for failing to heed an anonymous warning, telephoned to a local newspaper, of the violence to come. Police also were rebuked for reacting too slowly; a west German television team and a group of Vietnamese refugees were trapped inside a building under siege for nearly an hour Monday night, unable to reach police by telephone because the line was busy.

Officials have suggested that the rioters were better equipped in some respects than the police, who have to send vans to pick up extra officers in emergencies because many still do not have home telephones, which were a luxury in Communist East Germany.

Although there have been reports that the rioters have CB radios, police scanners and even cellular phones, none of these were in evidence Thursday as the rightists gathered in Lichtenhagen.

Among them was a little boy of perhaps 10, staggering drunkenly across the grass with a can of beer in his hand in full view of police, who ignored him. The child gave a Hitler salute and shouted “Sieg Heil!” (Nazi slogans are illegal in Germany).

A group of eighth-graders sporting the short hair and heavy boots favored by the neo-Nazis insisted that they had not yet learned anything in school about the Nazi pogroms in their homeland nearly 50 years ago, nor did they draw any comparisons between shattering the foreigners’ windows and the infamous Kristallnacht of November, 1938, when the Nazis did the same to Jews throughout Germany and Austria.

“You mean like with the Jews and the red stars and everything?” one boy asked, shrugging when told the Star of David emblems that Jews were forced to sew on their clothes were yellow, not red.

“Hitler used gas, and we’re not doing that,” a ninth-grader added.

Many of the teen-agers had traveled from Dresden or other cities to join the attacks. Two young men from Bonn photographed the broken windows and charred apartments for an underground neo-Nazi newsletter.

Government statistics released earlier this month showed a marked increase in the number of right-wing extremists, from 32,300 in 1990 to 39,800 last year. They were tied to more than twice as many crimes--more than 5,000--as in the previous year, including 2,074 attacks against foreigners.

Ultrarightist political parties, usually campaigning on an anti-foreigner platform, have gained seats in three of Germany’s 16 states.

Germany took in a record 256,000 refugees in 1991--a number that exceeds Rostock’s population by about 10,000 and that is expected to double this year.

German Flash Point

After four nights of rioting in Rostock, authorities fear the worst is yet to come.