Aggro Saxons
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8 BRIEFINGS Aggro Saxons On Dresden's westernmost outskirts, the concrete where several hundred radicals be highrise project of Gorbitz is the largest of the city's sieged the dormitories of foreign sprawling industrial ghettos. From the looming refugees and workers. The Espe crew proudly boasts the evacuation of apartment blocks, the blue-purple flicker of TV sets foreign nationals from now "foreign illuminates the dark, empty streets below. On the er-free" Hoyerswerda as a milestone side of an aluminium sausage stand, the victory. spray-painted graffiti is nearly identical to that But the spectacle of neo-fascist mobs which covers the walls in Dresden's other projects: bombarding the refugees' "Reds Against the Wall!", "Foreigners Out!" and Hoyerswerda homes with Molotov "Third Reich Again!". cocktails sent deep shock waves through the majority of the German population. Since Hoyerswerda, Dresden, the Baroque capital of south Viking Youth as soon as she turns 18 debate has raged over the asylum law, eastern Saxony, has won itself the title next year, look back to the Third Reich over the sources of rightwing iden of the capital of rightwing radicalism as the high point of German national tification and over plans of action. in the former German Democratic glory. "The Viking Youth simply Meanwhile, the violence continues Republic (GDR). In the wave of racist wants to restore traditional German unabated. violence which has swept the entire values and Germany's real historical Black and Asian people in Dresden united Germany this autumn, time borders," she says, accurately repeat and again the ugliest scenes have say that the ever more brutal aggres ing the group's program. "National sion has created a permanent state of erupted in Saxony. Next to Gorbitz's Socialism was good, but Hitler tried to fear in their communities. Stefan Tran- uniform-type GDR supermarket lies push too far. Mostly, we Just want Ger berg, from the city's Office for Foreign the standard single-storey youth club, many to be German again." Nationals, says that Third World the only such facility for the project's 50,000 inhabitants. In Dresden it is no For the ultra-right, the issue of foreign people stay off the streets at night. secret that the Espe Club is the rallying immigration into Germany is Theme "Even many average people here har bour a lot of hostility towards foreign point for neo-Nazi youth gangs. Number 1. Unemployment has hit the Neubau ghettos like Gorbitz hard. In ers," says the lawyer. 'The abrupt The youth centre had been the Mon the East, the dozen or so fractured changes in their lives have taken a day meeting place of the Gorbitz neo-fascist parties from former West heavy psychological toll, and foreign Brotherhood, a loose coalition of neo- Germany see fertile soil. Through nationals are convenient scapegoats." fascist groups, until the alliance propaganda and visits, the ultra-right In a city of 500,000, the 10,000 foreign splintered this autumn. The Dresden has focused its energies on the eastern ers (among them only 28 asylum ap Criminal Police estimate that a hard youth's disillusionment, pinpointing plicants) constitute a drastically lower core of about 100-150 semi-organised, the influx of foreigners into Germany total percentage than in maJor West violent ultra-right youth live in Gor as the source of their plight. Parties German cities. Over the next five bitz. Roughly three times that are ac such as the German Alternative (GA), years, the number of foreign nationals tive in Dresden as a whole, with the German People's Union (GPU), in Dresden will more than quadruple several thousand sympathisers of the Nationalist List, the Free German as the East takes on its share of the varying degrees of commitment. Workers' Party (FGWP) and the Federal Republic's immigrants and "Yeah, we're all rightwing here," says Republican Party first made contact refugees. Jorg, 18, in a rough working class with the Gorbitz scene several years Across the Elbe, the Right's favourite Saxon accent. Tall and muscular, with ago. In former West Germany, the target is the tum-of-the-century work short-cropped brown hair and flash xenophobic, ultra-nationalist parties ing class Neustadt district, today the ing dark eyes, Jorg says he's a member occasionally score regional electoral rundown quarters of Dresden's alter of the Ku Klux Klan. Although he's successes, taking up to 9% of the vote. native scene. The colourful murals never met a Klan member, he has their Yet, two years after the fall of the wall, and anarchist graffiti on the crum literature in translation. 'The Klan the Western parties have been unable bling houses attests to a very different takes the strongest stand against the to build solid political organisations subculture. In the barely-heated, niggers and the slant-eyes, those who in the new federal states. Their candlelit cafes, the Neustadt's artists are taking away our Jobs and flats," he demagoguery, however, has obvious and leftist politicos complain that the hesitates for a moment: "and, of ly penetrated at least a segment of the police have not raised a finger against course, against the leftists too." population. regular assaults in the area. The The crowd in Espe agrees that The growing aggression against for culprits who pushed a 28-year-old democracy has left them empty- eigners in Saxony reached a climax in Mozambican out of a street car to his handed. Jorg and his friend Ute, who October during a three-day pogrom in death in April, and the arsonist who will Join the Aryan-supremacist Hoyerswerda, north of Dresden, burned down the Bronx Cafe on New ALR; FEBRUARY 1992 Year's Eve 1991, for example, still remain at large. Although special Western-trained anti-terrorist units have been ordered into Saxony since Hoyerswerda, the Interior Ministry admits that it is un able to guarantee the public's safety. Western personnel are busy training an uncertain and ill-prepared police force. The purge of officers com promised under the communist regime has left a force at only 60% capacity. Yet even this skeletal force has shown itself to be quite proficient in cracking down on the anarchist squats in the Neustadt. In Dresden, officials deny a pro- rightwing bias, as well as the charge that neo-Nazi activity is stronger in Saxony than elsewhere in Germany. The Interior Ministry continued to the most lumpen form. Normally deal with the rightwing extremists in tremist groups succeed in making under 23 years of age, the self contact with the average citizen. the manner of the old GDR—as a professed neo-Nazis operate more criminal rather than a political The outburst of racist violence has ral like street gangs in groups of five to 15 phenomenon. "Most of the criminal lied a diverse coalition of anti-fascist persons, usually with an offenders are frustrated youth with political forces across Germany. In authoritarian, charismatic leader at minimal political ideology, argues the Saxony, the Evangelical church, left the fore. Stuttgart expert Heinrich Rosegger, political parties and extra-parliamen the director of Saxony's new Special Another militant strain, often as tary groups have initiated community Commission on Rightwing sociated with the FGWP or GA, claims work proJects for rightwing youth. Radicalism. "The real number of to act as a citizens' police. Armed with Non-ideological, anti-racist politically motivated, organised per a newly-available array of weaponry demonstrations have united 100,000 sons in the scene is quite small." from baseball bats to gas pistols, the people in Berlin and 7,000 in Dresden. thugs take it upon themselves to In Bonn, however, all of the major Bemd Wagner, director of the Domes cleanse German society of foreign political parties have stooped to tic Security Office in Berlin respon crime, drugs trade and the sex in- sible for ex-East Germany, says that capitalise on the surge of resentment dustry.The police report that still toward foreigners. The ruling Chris extensive conspiratorial networks heavier weaponry is being sold off exist within the German right. This tian Democratic Union has un from the back doors of the Soviet bar scrupulously turned the discussion summer, the various groups came racks as the Red Army troops make together in Dresden to ground the over Germany's liberal asylum law their exit. Saxon National List in an effort to into a dominant election issue. The unify the Right. Although little has The bigger question in Saxony is tenor of debate has simply legitimised been heard of the party since its incep whether there exists a potential for the myth that, indeed, it is the Eastern tion, Wagner argues that under rightwing ideology to take hold European and Third World refugees ground groups are highly organised. among a broader cross-section of the who are to blame for Germany's population. The more disturbing im economic woes. Hopes of uniting the unruly rightw ages from Hoyerswerda were those of The real benefactor of the ing scene were dealt a heavy blow the town's citizens cheering as the government's demagoguery could with the murder of Dresden's popular foreign nationals fled in guarded well prove to be the extremist political neo-Nazi leader Rainer Sonntag. A buses, helicopters whirring overhead. parties. The neo-fascist GPU captured gunman sprang out and fired a single Throughout former East Germany, the 6.7% of the vote in autumn local elec bullet into Sonntag's head. Sonntag's Right's propaganda touched a sensi tions in the north-western city of funeral attracted 2,000 neo-Nazis who tive nerve.