Interior Minister Seehofer has banned the right-wing extremist group “Combat 18”. In the morning, the police searched several properties in six federal states.
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (Christian Social Union) Has banned the extreme right group “Combat 18”. The spokesman for the ministry, Steve Alter, announced on Thursday. In the morning, the police searched several objects in Hesse, Brandenburg, Thuringia, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate. The alleged ringleader Stanley R., who is considered an important figure in the scene, was reportedly found at his workplace by the police in Thuringia and taken to his home, which was searched.
According to the security authorities, the violent association is directed against the constitutional order “because it is related to National Socialism”. According to its assessment, it has 20 members nationwide. “Today’s ban is a clear message: Right-wing extremism and anti-Semitism have no place in our society,” said Seehofer.
Police ensured “items relevant to weapons law”
During the searches, according to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the police also secured “objects relevant to weapons law” in addition to laptops, sound carriers and Nazi devotional items. The production and distribution of music with right-wing extremist content was reported to be a focus of the group’s activities. The latter tried to use music to convey its “inhuman attitude with right-wing extremist and anti-Semitic agitation” into society.
In Thuringia, two objects were searched: a residential building in Erfurt-Vieselbach, a rural district away from the state capital, and, according to the State Criminal Police Office, another object in the Eisenach area. According to the Interior Ministry there, a larger apartment building in Castrop-Rauxel was searched in NRW. According to the Ministry of the Interior, officials in Brandenburg searched two houses, one in Wildau and one in Eberswalde.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, a search was carried out in Trierweiler near Trier. “Cell phones, computers and right-wing symbols have been seized,” said a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. An object was searched in Hessen.
“Combat 18” has its origins in Great Britain
The right-wing extremist organization is considered the armed arm of the neo-Nazi network “Blood and Honor”, which is banned in Germany. It originated in the UK and is active in several European countries. The number “18” is a scene code for the first and eighth letters in the alphabet, ie A and H – the initials of Adolf Hitler. The symbol of the group preparing for a “racial war” is the dragon. Neo-Nazis who feel that they belong to “Combat 18” often wear black ones T-Shirts or jackets with the inscription “C 18”. These symbols and abbreviations may no longer be used after the ban. This also applies to the motto of the group: “Brothers are silent – whatever it takes”. The group can file a complaint against the injunction with the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig within one month.
What had made a ban procedure difficult in the past few years is the concept of “leaderless resistance” of largely autonomous cells propagated by “Combat 18” – even if the groups act in a networked manner and according to defined common guidelines. Right rock concerts are the source of money and the opportunity to make contact.
Ban has long been demanded
On their return from joint shooting training in the Czech Republic in September 2017, suspected members of a section of “Combat 18” at the German border were stopped by the GSG 9 special unit. The federal police found ammunition from them – the case ended up in court.
There have long been calls for a ban on the group and other right-wing extremist associations. They received a new urgency after the assassination of the Kassel government president Walter Lübcke, in which a right-wing terrorist background is suspected. The CDU politician was shot close up on the terrace of his house last June. The main suspect is Stephan E., who was known to the authorities because of his neo-Nazi past. “Combat 18” had subsequently distanced itself from E. in a video that the security authorities classified as genuine.
No group membership is known for Halle’s right-wing terrorist assassin. He killed two people last October after unsuccessfully attempting to break into a fully occupied synagogue.
Interior expert on the left speaks of “symbolic blow to the right scene”
The ban on “Combat 18” is far too late from the perspective of Irene Mihalic, the Greens’ domestic politician. “At last you take into account the dangerousness of” Combat 18 “and put an end to years of trivialization,” said the member of the Bundestag to the German Press Agency. It is now important to prepare all information on the networking of “Combat 18” with other essential right-wing extremists. Possible connections to the alleged murderer of Walter Lübcke should also be clarified.
For the interior expert of the Left Party, Martina Renner, the ban is merely a “symbolic blow to the right-wing scene”. “Nothing more,” wrote the member of the Bundestag and vice-party chair on Twitter. The ban had been in evidence for more than half a year. “Enough time for the militant neo-Nazi group to put weapons, financial records aside, and clear communications.”
Hesse’s Interior Minister Beuth thanks Seehofer for decisive action
FDP domestic politician Benjamin Strasser declared that “Combat 18” was “one of the most radical groups in the extreme right-wing scene”. The ban was urgently required. Strasser accused the Ministry of the Interior of “only recently denying the existence of C18 structures in Germany”.
Hesse’s Interior Minister Peter Beuth (CDU) welcomed the move: “I am grateful to the Federal Interior Minister for his decisive action against” Combat 18 “,” he said. “With the ban, the state sends a clear signal to the right-wing extremist scene in the Federal Republic: We are defensive and use all means of the rule of law to smash extremist structures.”
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