Disturbing actions and crimes: right youth groups grow quickly – networked nationwide

Within a year, several right -wing youth groups with a total of several hundred followers were created in Germany, some of which are not shy away from serious acts of violence. “The police authorities from the federal and state governments have been observing that new youth groups have appeared in the right -wing scene, which initially founded themselves in virtual space,” said a spokesman for the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) on request. In the meantime, these were increasingly noticeable through events, crimes and disruptions.

Recruitment via social media

According to security circles, the largest of these groups is “young and strong” with a number of trailers in the middle three -digit range. An estimated more than a hundred people feel belonging to the group “German youth forward”. “The disturbance” is also one of the number of associations relevant to numbers. The group “Last Defense Wave” recently made headlines when eight of their alleged members came into custody. “The youth groups are networked nationwide and are composed of various regional offshoots,” said a BKA spokesman.

Protests against CSD parades

Platforms such as TikK, Instagram and YouTube would be used to recruit new members and mobilize for actions-especially for counter-demonstrations on Christopher Street Day events and for actions that are directed against “Demos against right”. The police have so far appeared with propagandaeles and acts of violence.

Young talent of the party “Die Heimat”

While the constitutional protection of the right -wing extremist party “Die Heimat” (formerly NPD) in his annual report 204 continues to attest a “distinctive mobilization weakness”, he observes a significant increase in both the supporters and the activity level at the young organization “Young Nationalists” (JN). “A violent attack on the Saxon top candidate of the SPD in the European election campaign by relatives and people from the environment of the Dresden JN base” Elblandrevolte “underlines the radicality in parts of the youth association,” the report says.

Investigators had taken a nationwide raid against the “last wave of defense” in May. The federal prosecutor had five young people between the ages of 14 and 18 arrested in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg and Hesse.

Brand attacks and Nazi sayings

With attacks on asylum accommodation and left -wing institutions, the group wanted to bring the democratic system of the Federal Republic to break down, according to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. Two of the accused are said to have tried to set fire to an asylum seeker home in Schmölln in Thuringia – but without success. They then sprayed the accommodation according to “foreigners out” and “Nazi area”. In January, three alleged members of the group are said to have planned an arson attack on asylum accommodation in Senftenberg in southern Brandenburg. The group supporters are also suspected of having committed the arson attack on a cultural center in Altdöbern Brandenburg in October.

In a Berlin trial, a 24-year-old admitted, who, according to the security authorities in Berlin and Brandenburg, has a leading function in the group “German Youth”, the acts accused of him and expressed remorse. The man, who was sentenced to a prison sentence, had attacked people with other suspected neo-Nazi who wore clothes with “Antifa” emblems.

In addition to “political opponents”, the enemy images of the new right-wing youth groups include the LGBTQ community and immigrants identified as “political opponents”. In individual groups, “xenophobia” plays a role and also the use of symbolism of National Socialism, said a BKA spokesman. However, anti -Semitism is “not a formative element” for the right -wing youth groups.

When parents, teachers or friends are looking for help because they realize that young people slide into right -wing extremists, it is often too late. Often, radicalization processes would not be recognized, or it is tried too long to solve the problem itself, said a BKA spokesman.

He added that social activities with Corona pandemic had a lot of shifted to digital space, he added a “good docking point” for the spread of its ideology.

Experiences of isolation and powerlessness would typically be overcome by searching for certainty and a “sense of belonging”, he continued. Efforted by permanent crises, but also by “the seeping of extreme right -wing ideological set pieces in social discourses, the risk of perceived displacement of social norms is favored”. This in turn also influences the behavior of the individual. If right -wing extremist actors through public rhetoric or digital mobilization gave the impression that discriminatory attitudes are normal or legitimate, the inhibition threshold for violence is sinking.