German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has banned the extremist far-right group Hammerskins Deutschland as well as its regional branches and affiliated group Crew 38, the ministry said on Tuesday.
In the early hours of the morning, the police searched the flats of 28 suspected members of the association in ten German states: Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Berlin, Brandenburg, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia , Rhineland-Palatinate , Thuringia and the Saarland.
The German neo-Nazi group is an offshoot of the white supremacist group from the USA and has existed in Germany since the early 1990s.
Why is the group banned?
Hammerskins Deutschland stands against the constitutional order and against the idea of international understanding, the ministry said. The purpose and activities of the association are against the criminal law, it added, justifying its actions.
Concerts organized by the group are used to spread their right-wing extremist ideology, also among non-members, according to the ministry.
The federal and state governments worked together for more than a year to prepare for the ban; they are also cooperating with the US authorities.
Blow against right-wing extremism
According to the ministry, this is the 20th right-wing extremist organization in Germany to be banned so far.
The ban is “a tough blow against organized right-wing extremism,” Faeser said. It sends “a clear signal against racism and anti-Semitism.”
Right-wing extremism is still “the biggest extremist threat to our democracy,” he stressed, adding that “this is why we continue to act with all determination to destroy right-wing extremist structures.”
dh/jcg (dpa, AFP)
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