Neo-Nazi Shooting Spree - 07/17/2007

A gang of right-wing extremists invaded a beach in Eastern Germany on Sunday, shouting racist abuse at day-trippers, making the banned Hitler salute and shooting a submachine gun into the air.

It was a perfect afternoon to go to the lake. Finally, after weeks of cold and rain, Germany on the weekend was bathed in warm sunlight. A Sunday at the water was just the thing.

But day-trippers relaxing by the Krakower See in the Eastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania got a bit more than they bargained for on Sunday. A horde of right-wing extremists arrived on the scene shouting racist slogans, making the banned Hitler salute -- and shooting a submachine gun into the air. Beach bathers were terrified by the seeming invasion.

Neo-Nazis have become a lasting problem in some parts of Eastern Germany.

According to the police, six men and one woman drove to the lake in a pick-up truck where they yelled racists slogans and verbally abused the families bathing there, most of whom were ethnic Germans who had moved to Germany from Eastern Europe following the collapse of communism. Such immigrants, many of whom speak only poor German despite their background, are often targeted by right-wing radicals.

The extremists some of whom were drunk, then shot a submachine gun into the air at least 17 times, according to the police. The ordeal only came to an end when a few of the men at the beach succeeded in overpowering the neo-Nazis and holding them down until the police arrived.

The seven suspects, who range in age from 21 to 29, were charged with breaking firearms law and making the banned Hitler salute.

The state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is something of a stronghold for the extreme right. Germany's far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) won 7.3 percent in elections there in September 2006, crossing the 5 percent threshold and securing six seats in the state legislature. And there has been a number of incidents of neo-Nazis insulting or attacking holiday-makers in the state in recent years.

Black Man Beaten, Stabbed for Speaking English - 05/21/2007

The long list of racially motivated assaults in Germany has just got longer with the beating and stabbing of a Ghanaian man caught speaking English outside a night club in an eastern town on Friday night.

An African man was beaten and stabbed by three German teenagers outside a nightclub in the latest of a long series of racist attacks in eastern Germany.

Police said the 22-year-old man, named only as Daniel G., had enraged the three 18-year-old men because he had been speaking English to his girlfriend. The doorman of the nightclub in Nauen near Berlin had refused to let him into the club and he was talking to his girlfriend about it when the three assailants approached him.

Far-right assaults are on the rise in Germany.

"Why are you speaking English, Nauen is in Germany," one of them shouted, the newspaper Bild reported. Another man pushed him to the ground and they started kicking him. One of them pulled out a knife and stabbed him.

Police said the victim, a trainee retailer from Ghana who has lived in Berlin for over four years, managed to defend himself with pepper spray. He and his girlfriend fled to the railway station with the attackers in pursuit but police arrived in time to stop them attacking him again. The victim was taken to hospital with a stab wound to the kidney but it wasn't deep enough to be life-threatening.

Two of the attackers, named only as Nils N. and Merlin Maria D., were caught and confessed to the attack. They face assault charges but have been granted conditional release pending the court case. The third assailant faces no charges because he was deemed to have played only a minor role.

Racially motivated attacks are a frequent occurrence in Germany, especially in the former communist east where far right parties are now represented in three of the region's five federal states.

The domestic intelligence agency recorded a total of 919 assaults motivated by far-right extremism last year, up from 816 in 2005. Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said this month that he was alarmed that young people were increasingly adopting far-right attitudes.

"We have to undertake every effort to get young people to support democratic views," he said. But he did not say how, and he identified Islamic terrorism as the gravest threat to stability and security in Germany.

Source: Spiegel

Racism Warning Has German Hackles Raised - 05/18/2006

On Wednesday, a former government spokesman said black visitors to Germany should be careful where they go in the country. His remarks have drawn criticism -- and support.

It doesn't take much to try Germany's patience in the weeks leading up to the World Cup soccer championships. Nerves are especially raw when it comes to comments and incidents that cast doubt on the country's hospitality and its openness to the millions of international guests expected to descend on the country in June. On Wednesday and Thursday, that sensitivity was laid bare for all to see.

Former government spokesman Uwe-Karsten Heye says some parts of Germany are dangerous for foreigners.

A former government spokesman on Wednesday suggested that dark-skinned visitors to Germany should consider avoiding the eastern part of the country where racism runs high. "There are small and medium-sized towns in Brandenburg, as well as elsewhere, which I would advise a visitor of another skin colour to avoid going to," said Uwe-Karsten Heye, who now leads an anti-racism organization called "Show Your Color." "It is possible he wouldn't get out alive."

The comments came as part of an interview with the public radio station Deutschlandradio Kultur about how right-wing extremism and racism can be combated in Germany. Heye also said there was an increasing tendency in the country to look the other way when it comes to right-wing violence. His comments about "no-go" areas in Germany came as a response to a question about whether tourists from Togo or the Ivory Coast should feel comfortable travelling anywhere in Germany.

But by specifically mentioning Brandenburg, the eastern German state surrounding Berlin, Heye ensured a swift reaction. The governor of Brandenburg, Matthias Platzeck, called Heye's statements an "unjustifiable slandering of entire regions within Brandenburg." The state's Interior Minister Jörg Schönbohm demanded Heye's resignation from "Show Your Color." And even the Turkish-German parliamentarian Ekin Deligöz from the Green Party warned against overstating things. "That's want they want," he said referring to right-wing extremists. "They want foreigners to stay home and not even to come to Germany in the first place."

The uproar comes just weeks after an apparently racist attack against an Ethiopian-German in the Brandenburg state capital of Potsdam, just outside of Berlin. Almost a month after the attack, the victim remains in hospital with severe head injuries. Earlier this week, reports of a racist attack on an Italian in Berlin once again stirred up opprobrium, though it was later revealed that the alleged victim may have invented the incident.

And most are willing to admit that there are parts of Germany with a very real problem with racism. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a Green Party representative in the European Parliament, came to Heye's defense by saying: "The reality is school classes with many immigrant children question whether it is safe to go to Brandenburg or Mecklenburg-West Pomerania" -- another state in eastern Germany -- "for camping trips."

Yonas Endrias, a member of Germany's African Council, likewise supported Heye. "None of us blacks would go on an outing in Brandenburg," he said. "There is also racism in western Germany, but as a black person, the chances of being attacked in an eastern German village are much higher." Following the Potsdam attack in April, the Africa Council spoke of areas in eastern Germany which blacks should avoid.

On Thursday, as a reponse to the furor, Heye clarified his remarks by saying he didn't intend to single out Brandenburg. He also praised the state's extensive efforts to combat right-wing extremism. But he didn't back down. "We cannot make it the responsibility of the victims to decide how to defend themselves from racism and anti-Semitism," he wrote in a statement for the online version of Vorwärts, a Social Democrat Party publication which he edits. "This is the responsibility of the pluralistic society. Unfortunately, the tendency to look away has increased."

Source: Spiegel

Indians Attacked by Crowd at Street Party - 08/20/2007

A group of eight Indians was attacked by a mob at a street party in eastern Germany on the weekend. All were injured, one seriously. The police deny there was a political motive behind the attack despite calls of "foreigners out."

Despite a mob's calls of "foreigners out," police are denying there was a far-right motive behind an attack on a group of Indians in eastern Germany this weekend.

The eight men were attacked by a mob of around 50 Germans at a street party in the early hours of Sunday in the small town of Mügeln in the eastern German state of Saxony. The trigger for the violence was a brawl on the dance floor in a party tent shortly before 1 a.m., police said. The reason for the brawl was not yet clear.

Singh Gorvinda was one of the Indians injured in the attack.

The Indians left the tent where the dance was being held but were then attacked by the mob, which chased them across the town's market place until they took shelter in a pizzeria run by an Indian. The owner let them in, but the mob tried to kick in the doors of the restaurants as a large crowd looked on. The restaurant owner's car was also seriously damaged.

Seventy police officers were called in to restore order. Fourteen people were injured in the incident, including the eight Indians, four of the attackers and two police officers. One of the Indians and one of the attackers were taken to hospital for treatment. Two of the attackers, aged 21 and 23, were arrested on Saturday night but later released. The police have set up a task force to investigate the incident.

In remarks to the German news agency DDP Monday, a police spokeswoman in Leipzig denied there was a neo-Nazi motive behind the attack, despite eye-witnesses accounts of people calling for "foreigners out."

There were reports Monday that the police had been warned in advance of the attack but had done nothing to prevent it. Mayor Gotthard Deuse told the German news station N24 that there had been warnings of possible problems at the street party. However, the police spokeswoman denied this, saying that the warning in question had been sent to a youth club in the town, warning of a robbery. This had "absolutely nothing to do" with the attacks, the spokeswoman said. The mayor said there were no neo-Nazis in the town and that, if the incident did have a far-right motive, it was most likely caused by people from outside the city.

Some of the men were merchants living in the area, police said. "They just wanted to take part in the celebrations," a police spokesman told the Associated Press.

Attacks on foreigners are far from unusual in eastern German states such as Saxony, where there are concerns that far-right groups are gaining in strength and taking on institutional roles in some places. The far-right, neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) holds several seats in Saxony's state assembly, having won over 9 percent of the vote in the 2004 state election.

Source: Spiegel