Germany Considers Outlawing Far-Right Party

In the latest sign of a growing backlash against right-wing violence that has plagued Germany this summer, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder suggested in remarks made public Saturday that the country’s most prominent far-right party may soon be banned.

If a panel looking at outlawing the National Democratic Party decides in favor of a ban, the executive branch of government and the parliament should press for it with maximum weight by making a joint proposal to Germany’s Constitutional Court, Schroeder said in an interview to be published in today’s Bild am Sonntag, a mass-circulation weekly newspaper. Authorities believe that the National Democratic Party, known here as the NPD, has neo-Nazis in its ranks.

Schroeder also suggested that demonstrations should be banned at certain sensitive places, including the site of a future Holocaust memorial in central Berlin and the Brandenburg Gate, which for many Germans still carries connotations of Nazi parades.

“The state has to react with an iron hand when lines are overstepped,” Schroeder said. “That means that in social work with youths, it must be explained to them what cannot be tolerated.”

In recent days, authorities have denied right-wing requests for permits for marches in Berlin and Hamburg meant to mark the anniversary of the death of Nazi Rudolf Hess, one of Adolf Hitler’s top deputies. Permission was granted, however, for a far-right rally in Hamburg today.

Germany has been shocked by a recent wave of right-wing violence and hate crimes, a problem that is worst in the former East Germany, plagued by a weak economy, high unemployment, a relatively short history of democracy and limited experience with foreigners.

In the eastern town of Altenburg, police arrested 15 neo-Nazi protesters Friday night and confiscated six posters honoring Hess. Police said Friday that they had arrested three men ages 18 and 19, two of them known rightists, for setting fire to an Asian fast-food stand in the eastern town of Schwerin. And two 17-year-olds were arrested for attacking a 28-year-old Angolan on Thursday in the Berlin suburb of Mahlow, authorities said.

The Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel counted 27 incidents of right-wing violence in July, from the painting of swastikas on Holocaust memorials to beatings so severe that three of the victims later died. All but four of the crimes it listed were in eastern Germany. Government statistics show 129 xenophobic offenses in June, including 28 violent right-wing attacks that left one person dead and 26 injured.

The federal government announced Wednesday that it will spend an additional $35 million on educational and social projects in the next three years to fight right-wing extremism.

The Hamburg rally set for today is being billed by organizers as a protest against the Bild Zeitung, the highest-circulation newspaper in Germany, for its participation in an August “Show Your Face” media campaign. The campaign has consisted of a series of articles in which prominent figures have spoken out against right-wing extremism.

About 2,500 people paraded in Hamburg on Saturday in a “day of action against the extreme right.” Among the participants in that march was Konrad Freiberg, head of the city’s police union, who said last week that he had received a death threat from a man identifying himself as being from a group called “Adolf Hitler Bodyguards.” The man called several times and also declared that he would kill “Jews and leftist trash,” Freiberg said.

Another anti-rightist demonstration drew more than 1,000 people Saturday in the former East German town of Rostock, which was the scene last week of a march by about 60 neo-Nazis carrying torches and honoring Hess. Three of those marchers were charged with displaying symbols with banned racist or Nazi content. About 200 people also staged an anti-rightist protest Saturday in the eastern town of Eisenach.

Interior ministers from Germany’s 16 states met with federal Interior Minister Otto Schily in Duesseldorf on Friday and pledged to take a tougher stance against rightist extremism.

“We want to increase the pressure on neo-Nazi ideologues and their thuggish followers,” Fritz Behrens, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, said after the meeting.

By far the biggest rally in Germany on Saturday was an annual parade through central Berlin to call for the legalization of marijuana. Even in this march, however, which drew about 10,000 demonstrators, some participants displayed posters or banners condemning far-right violence.

Oliver Gruber, 27, a plumber from eastern Germany who was in the “Hemp Parade,” said he welcomed participation by people with an anti-rightist message.

“We’re all left-wing people,” he said. “We all belong together.”

Germany is at a new “starting point” now that there is more public discussion of right-wing extremism, Gruber added. “For too long, people didn’t talk about it and didn’t realize what’s going on.”