A recently published book offers fresh insight into right-wing extremism
in the region and examines the range of efforts to combat it.
Brandenburg , the region around Berlin, is famous for its long leafy
avenues and beautiful lakes. But over the past 18 years this idyllic
picture has developed a dark side. The region has become notorious for
no-go areas for foreigners and increasingly brutal neo-Nazi groups. Is
Brandenburg really as bad as its reputation? Karen Margolis looks at the
new book “Rechtsextremismus in Brandenburg” and talks to one of its
editors, Christoph Kopke.
Over the past year a team of editors at the Moses Mendelssohn Centre in
Potsdam has worked to compile an anthology on right-wing extremism in
Brandenburg. The result is a book of over 450 closely printed pages,
Rechtsextremismus in Brandenburg (Right-Wing Extremism in Brandenburg).
The subtitle, “Manual for analysis, prevention and intervention”
announces it as a political contribution to the fight against racism and
neo-fascism.
Professor Julius Schoeps, director of the Moses Mendelssohn Centre and
one of the book’s editors, said they produced it, “because our Centre
has a social and political mandate. It’s our contribution to
prevention.” The anthology offers impressive and thorough analysis of
right-wing extremism in Brandenburg along with practical advice and
experience. Detailed listings of the main regional organizations working
against racism and neo-fascism round off the picture.
“The book is a unique mixture,” explains co-editor Christian Kopke, a
political scientist. “We decided to combine academic research on
right-wing extremism with the experience of people actively involved in
preventing or combating right-wing violence, racism and hostility
towards foreigners.”
The first part of the book analyses the far right in Brandenburg, giving
a wide-ranging, often disturbing picture of neo-Nazi political parties,
extremist splinter groups and social attitudes. Young people — the main
recruits to the far right scene — and the extreme right music scene get
particular attention. Kopke’s contribution, ‘The Nationalist Movement in
Brandenburg’ gives an insight not only into the main parties but also
the Kameradschaften (‘free associations’) and other small groupings that
are increasingly banding together. Borrowing from the language of
freedom struggles, they call themselves a “nationalist opposition” or
“nationalist resistance”. Reading this makes us aware of what lies
beneath the shocking headlines and increasing lists of ugly incidents
that the mass media continually present.
The in-depth research published in the anthology indicates that extreme
right-wing activity is growing, and that increasing numbers of people
are accepting racist and neo-fascist ideas. Germany’s biggest far right
electoral party, the NPD (German Nationalist Party) is now gaining
ground in Brandenburg after a slower start than in many other regions.
The book points out that a low turnout for right-wing parties at
elections should not be taken as comfort — it doesn’t necessarily
reflect the real level of sympathy for racist or fascist ideas in the
population.
The murder in 1990 of Amadeu Antonio, an Angolan worker in the
Brandenburg town of Eberswalde, is mentioned several times in the book
as a turning point. One of the first overtly racial murders in Germany
after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it shocked the nation, highlighted
the growing hatred of foreigners in the region, and led to the Amadeu
Antonio Foundation being set up to combat racism and anti-Semitism
nationwide.
But racial crime has continued to grow in the region. Brandenburg now
has the highest reported rate of racial murders in Germany and is among
the top third of federal states in terms of hatred of foreigners and
racially motivated crimes. All this has given the region a negative
image — in common with other federal states in former East Germany,
especially Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, which borders on Brandenburg.
The anthology’s editors are anxious to counter their region’s bad image.
Kopke says Brandenburg differs from other regions in that it started
setting up advice and coordination centres early on to deal with
right-wing extremism. He emphasises that political structures play a
vital role. “Brandenburg was governed in the 1990s by a coalition of
conservatives, social democrats and the Green Party,” he explains. “This
broad spectrum supported a variety of anti-racist or anti-fascist
initiatives from government level to grass roots. Organisations were set
up and given public funding.” The coalition spirit is reflected in the
book, from the introduction by Brandenburg’s interior minister, Jörg
Schönbohm (Christian Democratic Party), to an article on right of
assembly by Brandenburg’s chief of police, Klaus Kandt, to essays on
educational work and contributions by journalists, sociologists,
educationalists, psychologists and violence prevention counsellors. The
chairman of the regional football association writes on sport without
racism, and there are articles by local government officials, the
presiding judge at Cottbus administrative court, and an official from
the ministry for education, sport and young people.
Anti-Nazi Networks
The anthology includes a useful, comprehensive appendix listing around
70 groups and institutions active against racism and neo-fascism in the
region.
Right-wing extremism takes hold where political structures are weak,
Kopke argues. This applies to many regions in former East Germany.
“That’s why it’s so important to build networks to combat it. Of course,
we can’t measure their effect, and they haven’t been able to stop the
growth of right-wing extremism. But they have established a functioning
network over the past 10 to 15 years, and this has raised public
awareness that right-wing extremism is a serious problem that has to be
tackled.”
Kopke says this also affects the recording of right-wing crime. “If
somebody hears young people yelling ‘Heil Hitler’ on the street and
reports it to the police, it gets into the statistics. In Brandenburg,
people are encouraged to report extreme right-wing crimes, whereas in
other places they might keep silent.” He points out that this also
applies in the academic world. “We managed to get a large number of
researchers in Brandenburg to contribute to our book. But when we asked
a researcher in Saxony last year, he replied, ‘I don’t know anything at
all about neo-Nazis — I only know about young people who dress up in
costume.’
Kopke points to two organisations he sees as particularly effective on
the ground. ‘demos’, a network of mobile counselling teams under the
banner of ‘tolerance in Brandenburg’, is run by the Brandenburg
Institute for Community Counselling. The teams operate in 7 localities
including the regional capital, Potsdam. They support democratic forces
in society as watchdogs, assist local campaign groups, arrange training
courses for local public servants, etc. An essay on ‘demos’ in the book
describes it as a persuasive concept.
At another level, ‘Opferperspective’ (‘victims’ perspective’) works
specifically to help victims of extremist violence. This includes
practical assistance like accompanying victims to the police to report
the crime against them, helping with legal aid and court appearances,
and coping with the media. “What’s important here is that the crime is
seen and dealt with from the victim’s viewpoint,” Kopke says.
“ ‘Opferperspective’ goes into the victim’s locality and tries to force
people there to confront the fact of the crime and its consequences.” He
thinks this has changed the climate in several localities, including
Potsdam.
Kopke sees ‘demos’ and ‘Opferperspective’ as successful because they
focus on a personal approach. They relate directly to individuals
affected by right-wing extremism — while at the same time not neglecting
the social and political levels.
“Living time bombs”
For all thi
s, Kopke is sober about the present situation in the region.
“There’s no doubt that neo-Nazi activity has reached a high level in
Brandenburg, in line with the trend in other places. It’s hard to assess
the extent because it often involves young people joining the far right
for a couple of years, then getting fed up and leaving again.”
Kopke’s co-editor Gideon Botsch has described the extreme right-wing
scene in the Berlin-Brandenburg region as “exceptionally brutal”, with
the threat of a number of “living time bombs”. Some of the splinter
groups Kopke describes in the anthology definitely fit this description.
The anthology explains how over the years, small neo-Nazi groups have
voluntarily dissolved to avoid a ban — only to enter the NPD and carry
on their activities legally under its wing. In several German states,
NPD delegates sit in local parliaments while the party openly supports
racist and neo-Nazi activity.
Does Kopke favour banning the NPD? He answers by quoting Berlin’s
interior minister, Eberhard Körting: “If the NPD isn’t ripe for a ban,
then what is?” The NPD is undoubtedly anti-constitutional, Kopke says.
There are solid legal grounds for banning it. “A ban would put a stop to
the NPD’s role as a reservoir for right-wing propaganda and violence,”
he says. He adds that there is no evidence for the tactical political
argument that a ban would only reap sympathy for the NPD and encourage
its supporters. “The NPD isn’t well organized enough to operate
effectively as an underground party. A small hard core might carry on,
but many present or potential supporters would simply drift away.”
What emerges clearly from the anthology is that the far right scene is
highly differentiated, and the reasons why it is gaining support are
complex. We have to look beyond standard explanations for the
development of racism and neo-fascism in a specific region. It’s not
enough to cite purely economic or social factors like unemployment,
poverty or lack of education. In his introductory essay, ‘What is
Right-Wing Extremism?’ Gideon Botsch warns observers not to
underestimate the extreme right as illogical or lacking in originality
and aspirations. Its programmatic vagueness could actually turn out to
be a source of strength for it. Botsch reminds us that Hitler resolutely
banned discussions on a fixed programme in the Nazi Party precisely
because this left the door open for opportunism and emotional appeals.
Right-Wing Extremism in Brandenburg shows that the battle is not just
about ideology and our world view. It is about hearts as well as minds,
about individual feelings and mass psychology. Nobody who wants to
preserve and promote a democratic, tolerant society in Brandenburg, in
Berlin, in Germany or anywhere in the world can afford to ignore the
analyses and warnings in this book. Racism, anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism
and other dangerous tendencies are not somewhere out there, they are
right here on our doorstep — and it’s not too late to stop them.
Another text by Karen Margolis: “Watch their words” >klick
Rechtsextremismus in der Prignitz (Märkische Allgemeine vom 29.9) >klick
