On March 9th, before the German 4th division football match between Chemnitzer FC (CFC) and VSG Altglienicke, supporters of the CFC were holding a moment of silence including a pyrotechnical display for Thomas Haller, the former chief of the notorious hooligan gang “HooNaRa” (Hooligans Nazis Rassisten, or Hooligans, Nazis, Racists), who died the day before.… Continue reading ““HooNaRa”: Football Clubs in (East)Germany and their problems with right-wing extremism”
In late August, the east German city of Chemnitz startled observers from all over the world. On 26 August 2018, 35 yr.old German Daniel H. was stabbed to death after a quarrel had escalated at a city festival in Chemnitz (Saxony). Shortly afterwards, the police arrested two asylum seekers from Syria and Iraq as… Continue reading “Scenes of ‘civil war’? Radical right narratives on Chemnitz”
Germany to the Germans! Foreigners out” was the central slogan of the racist riots in the city of Rostock in 1992. For around three days, neo-Nazis controlled the streets in the plattenbau district of Lichtenhagen where the central registration for asylum-seekers (as well as a housing block of Vietnamese contract workers) were situated. With stones… Continue reading “The truth lies in Chemnitz?”
German right-wing extremism is currently on everyone’s lips. The right-wing threat in Germany is increasing in violence, as the recent rallies and demonstrations in the eastern German cities of Chemnitz and Köthen have made clear. Adding to the danger is the fact that right-wing activists are now closely linked, from football hooligans to neo-Nazis to… Continue reading “German Right-Wing Terrorism”
The ‘Battle of Cable Street’ on 4 October 1936 has long been annually commemorated as one of the most significant moment in the fight against fascism in Britain. Yet three years before Cable Street – the British Union of Fascists’ provocative attempt to dominate the streets of East London, with its large Jewish population –… Continue reading “Remembering the ‘Battle of Stockton’”
Founded in 2013 in response to the eurozone crisis, the party evolved through various stages, increasingly campaigning on a nativist ticket. Revolutionary fascists and (nominally) democratic radical-right actors have long told apocalyptic stories of national decline, of the ever-growing threat of the demise of the nation through decadence and cultural/ethnic “pollution.” These stories, however, do… Continue reading “Alternative for Germany and the Myth of National Rebirth”
Chemnitz shows how collaboration across three right-wing sectors is a recipe for disaster, as the extreme right understands very well. Haunting video footage of groups of German right-wing extremists chasing, harassing and attacking ethnic minorities, journalists and counter-protesters circulated widely on social media last week, along with footage of overwhelmed police. “If the mob attacks,”… Continue reading “The united German extreme right”