Neo -Nazis on the advance with the AfD: The return of fear

In the small town, near which I grew up, somewhere on the edge of the Thuringian Forest, there is still that solitary pub in which bands occur at irregular intervals. Because I was in the old home again at Easter and the niece took her father (as a chauffeur) and took me (as a fellow runner) to the concert, I stood between all young people and listened to the same as young people as on stage to sound as rebellious as possible.

And as has been chic for young people for a while, everything has been extremely retro. It was the case that evening, as with the almost familiar sight of the fashion and hairdressers believed to be irrevocable: it amused and touched me equally, as four boys, who were banned as punk rockers, jelly-banned Michael, Johnny Cash in Folsom Prison, and finally even free of charge against the “stupid fascos”.

It was like once when I was still young. Or just like now.

Because the reason for singing anti -fascist songs was up to date. A 21-year-old man who is also likely to go through as a boy had shot at the university campus, which is bordering on the city, specifically on students. The majority of the eight injuries came from abroad.

The crime reminded me of the time three decades ago when something similar happened. Neo -Nazis rushed, beaten and murdered foreigners. They attacked left -wing scene meetings, lit refugee homes and, in doubt, threatened anyone who somehow looked different or potentially thought differently.

The reports came disproportionately from East Germany, Rostock, Hoyerswerda or Magdeburg, but also from Mannheim, Mölln or Solingen. Most of it was not reported that the everyday attacks in the schoolyards, the ritual fights in front of the village discos, the permanent feeling not to be safe.

I myself never became a victim. But for many I knew, it was years of fear. The baseball club years. The term invented the “Zeit” author Christian Bangel after working his Brandenburg Antifa youth in the really good novel “or Florida”. The perspective of the other side of the front can be read impressively with the “taz” colleague Daniel Schulz (“We were like brothers”).

I am a little older than the two. I already studied in Jena when the NPD, the self -proclaimed “home protection” and so -called comradeships, dominated the new development areas. Anyone who was traveling in the wrong tram with dark skin was not allowed to count on mercy.

It was not until 1998 that a bomb workshop only flew away from my student booth and the right -wing extremists involved had to immerse themselves, did it look like attempted government politicians and authorities to finally take the situation seriously. In fact, it seemed to be calmer in the years afterwards. The crimes of Uwe Böhnhardt, Uwe Mundlos and Beate Zschäpe were conveniently considered for a long time as “kebab murders” what else, foreign drug mafia.

It was only when the National Socialist subsoil (NSU) flew in November 2011 that the structural failure of the protection of the constitution and the police, but also the systematic self -fraud of politics, media and all of us, showed. This was followed by committees of investigation, government reforms and one of the greatest legal processes in German history – and the first unsuccessful attempt to ban the NPD. And yes, we journalists reported more than ever before.

The multiple scandal around the NSU not only appeared to me as a turning point. Neo -Nazis nationally liberated zones would never call again. Right -wing extremists in small towns and villages would never give the tone again. Fear would never return again.

But as it is with the “never again”: they are an appeal, hope, a promise – and often enough an illusion.

Everything comes back, just differently than you think. Already in the year in which the trial against Beate Zschäpe began, the AfD was founded, which, in addition to right -wing conservative and neoliberal, also attracted ethnic extremists and continued to radicalize over the years. In the meantime, the political hegemon in the country in the east and also in the old west is on the rise.

Of course, the AfD leadership denies every connection to organized right-wing extremism, apart from some even sad mistakes and individual cases. But beyond journalistic research, public prosecutor’s investigations and for my sake, reports from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution are actually enough as an evidence to go to any demonstration or event of the AfD and to look around or listen there.

As is well known, it is currently being bitterly disputed whether access to parliamentary offices would be the AfD, stupid but suitable word: normalizing. There are arguments for both sides, although I think that a border is only sensible at the point where the AfD would get design power.

But what is undoubtedly certain: The success of the AfD has normalized the right -wing radicalism. The extremists appear more and more confidently. They demonstrate through the inner cities, stand on the streets with signs, whisper flags on their garden houses. They threaten mayors and deputies, teachers, volunteers and journalists.

The number of right -wing extremist crimes increases to ever new record values. And there have long been new places associated with murder acts, such as Hanau, Halle or Istha, where Walter Lübcke was shot.

To determine this does not relativize the terror, which has been looking for Magdeburg, Mannheim or Aschaffenburg in recent months. It does not negate the acts of violence and arson attacks on the left -wing radical groups. And it does not hide the fact that officials and offices of the AfD are also attacked.

Instead of enduring in Whataboutism, it is important to endure the simultaneity more complex because of social processes. In parallel to the fear of the next Islamist or mentally disturbed gunman, the fear of right -wing extremist violence, on the street, on the net, in the park, in the park, at the fun fair.

However, the difference to the 1990s is: there is now a large parliamentary party that obviously has hardly any problem – and that even has intersections with the perpetrators, ideological, strategic, personally. That makes the situation even more threatening.

You can find all Martin Debes columns published so far .