Mike Rueggeberg, the 24-year-old noncommissioned officer who pro­ vided a copy of the controversial video to German TV, told journalists that the Bundeswehr, Germany's 320,000- member army, harbored a thriving black market in SS songbooks, Hitler's Mein Kampf, racist skinhead music, swastika-adorned flags, and other outlawed Nazi paraphernalia. • A few months later, another video surfaced in which several enlisted men made stiff-armed salutes and anti- Semitic remarks. This was followed by news accounts of drunken carousing at the Franzjosef-Strauss barracks in the Bavarian town of Altenstadt, where soldiers celebrated Hider's birthday by chanting Nazi hymns and viewing Third Reich propaganda fdms about Jews. The commanding officer at the base, Thomas Schmidt, was apparently aware of these activities but did nothing to stop them. "It was clear to me that some of our superiors wanted to instill in us young soldiers the traditions of the Wehrmacht [Hitler's army]," a former Altenstadt trainee told Stern, a leading German news magazine. In a separate incident, state prose­ cutors in Bavaria accused two high- ranking German officers—the deputy commandant of a U-boat squadron and a captain at NATO headquarters been tarnished by a homemade video­ MARTIN A. LEE in Brussels—of publishing a poem that tape that had aired on German televi­ denies the Holocaust. "Only the sion last summer. The grainy, ama­ Germans must repent for an invented escue helicopters swooped teurish recording showed four offi­ event," the officers asserted. down from the hills, as battle- cers and four conscripts from this Christian Krause, whose father dressed soldiers leapt from infantry unit acting out rapes, killings, R tanks and stormed buildings torture sessions, and neo-Nazi skits. in a smoothly-executed war games The eight soldiers, some of whom had (above) Neo-Nazis take to the streets in Dresden demonstration. The 571st Alpine been slated for peacekeeping duties in January 1998 to protest "Crimes of the Infantry Battalion was trying hard to in the Balkans, were subsequently dis­ Wehrmacht," a touring photographic exhibit show off the right stuff for German charged and subjected to disciplinary which indicts the regular German army, not only military brass after its reputation had proceedings and civil prosecution. the SS, for atrocities committed during WWII.

48 MOMENT • JUNE 1998 served in Chancellor Helmut Kohl's sciences research institute revealed groups have repeatedly urged their cabinet in the early 1990s, claims he that the army "was becoming increas­ members to enlist in order to hone witnessed numerous neo-Nazi out­ ingly popular among young men with their martial skills. "The weapons bursts during his ten months as an little or no interest in democratic prin­ training given there is irreplaceable," army conscript. "At parties there were ciples or values." In part, this was the advised the neo-Nazi "Thule-Netz" always toasts made to the Fuehrer, and result of German conscription law that computer network. after drinking alcohol, many officers permits a third of the population to The army has employed people like would give each other the Hitler opt for community service instead of Reinhard Willnow, a member of the salute and scream 'Sieg Heil! '"said military duty; consequently, pacifist- far right Republikaner Party, to teach Krause, who served in a paratroop and inclined and left-leaning youth are dis­ history and political education to tank battalion in Lower Saxony. proportionately underrepresented in Bundeswehr recruits The "There were right-wing incidents two the army, which attracts a more con­ Republikaner—which is currently on or three times a month. During one servative constituency than society in Bonn's domestic security watch list of exercise, an officer made a derogatory general. Another factor is that fascist subversive organizations—was founded comment about foreigners, and others joined in. They were saying shocking things like 'Gas the Jews' and "Throw the foreigners out.'" When Defense Minister Volker Ruehe visited Croatia last year, German soldiers yelled, "Heil Hitler!" And a senior reserve officer was recalled after he and another German "peace-keeper" insulted Albanian troops with racial epithets, telling them "Adolf Hitler would have stuck you in the gas chamber." Without providing details, Ruehe insisted that these were all "isolated incidents" involving "misguided young men." After lashing out against "rumor mongers and provocateurs," the Defense Minster reluctantly agreed to cooperate with a parlia­ mentary inquiry that sought to deter­ mine the extent to which right-wing extremist ideas have penetrated the military services. According to figures released by the Bundestag (German parliament), there were 177 neo-Nazi incidents in 1997, four times the figure for the previous year. On several occasions, enlisted men went on crazed rampages and assaulted foreigners with baseball bats and live ammunition. Two con­ scripts set fire to a hostel for guest workers in Dresden. These outrages were part of a wider pattern of racist violence in Germany, where an aver­ age of seven xenophobic attacks occur daily across the country, according to the annual report by Cornelia Schmaltz-Jacobsen, the Government Commissioner for Foreigners. German officials have known for Bundeswehr soldiers act out gns'y execution* and torture techniques in scenes captuied some time of organized neo-Nazi on a homemade video. This evidence of pervasive neo-fascist activity In the German efforts to infiltrate the military. A 1992 military ignited German television viewers last summer. survey by the Bundeswehr's own social

JUNE 1998 • MOMENT 49 (and until 1995 led) by Franz Bundeswehr delegation, this group this dubious distinction, Rossmainth Schoenhuber, an unrepentant SS assembles each year to honor the several was chosen to oversee the German veteran who has often stated that hundred surviving Nazis who had been parliament's investigation of neo-Nazi "Germany's only crime was to lose two personally chosen by Hider to receive activity in the army. world wars." Taking pains to avoid out­ the Third Reich's highest award for After World War II, nearly 11 right neo-Nazi talk in public that could valor. Many of these men subse­ million Germans were ejected from get his party outlawed, Schoenhuber quently served in the Bundeswehr. contested eastern zones where borders has boasted of his close ties to high- In 1997, the German army came had fluctuated for centuries. ranking Bundeswehr officers. under heavy criticism for paying trib­ Organized into vertriebenen General Klaus Naumann, who ute to such an organization. But ("expellee") associations, they became served as Germany's first military Wehrmacht veterans continue to a militant, right-wing lobby in West chief in the post-cold-war era, is not a congregate at Bundeswehr facilities Germany where they account for more Nazi. But his conservative nationalist with young officers. than twenty percent of the population. agenda—which harkens back to a Because the original leadership of Over the years, they delivered a sizable German imperial tradition that pre­ the West German Bundeswehr was portion of the vote to conservative dates Hitler—dovetails in disturbing recruited directly from the upper ech­ politicians who lavished money and ways with the aims of the neo-Nazi elons of Hitler's army, there never attention on vertriebenen groups. movement. Described by Die Zeit as really was a clean break from the Nazi Today these organizations continue to someone who "has the stuff of fanati­ past. As of 1976, only three out of 217 receive substantial sums from the cism," Naumann sought to transform Bundeswehr generals were not Third federal government, even though ver­ reunified Germany's army into an Reich veterans, and 37 military bases triebenen activists agitate for expand­ independent military power imbued in the Bonn Republic were named ing Germany's boundaries to include "with a victor mentality." He was after soldiers who made their reputa­ portions of neighboring countries that the driving force behind the tions during the Hitler years. Recent once belonged to Hider's Reich. Some Bundeswehr's revamped, offensive attempts to rename several of these of this funding has subsidized publica­ strategy, which entails being "strate­ bases have been strenuously opposed tions such as the Ostpreussenblatt gically alert rather than reactively by Kurt Rossmainth, chairman of the ("East Prussian Bulletin"), which averting war." Former German Fleet German equivalent of the House argues that the holocaust is merely Admiral Elmar Schmaehling publicly Armed Services committee. His effu­ anti-German propaganda. accused Naumman of preparing an sive comments about General Eduard Even mainstream German politi­ army of aggression modeled after its Dietl (otherwise known as the cians reflect irredentist ideology when Prussian antecedents. "Butcher of Narvik") prompted a state they routinely refer to formerly In 1996, Naumann became chair­ court in Bavaria to describe Communist East Germany as "Middle man of NATO's military committee in Rossmainth as a "Hitler fan." Despite Germany." In a televised address to Brussels. His successor as chief of the Bundeswehr, General Harmut Bagger, has been lobbying to double Germany's troop strength. Although he already commands the largest standing army in Europe, Bagger envisions a greatly expanded fighting force. "With 680,000 soldiers," he asserts, "a fully mobilized Bundeswehr will have the strongest forces of NATO for the defense of Central Europe, a power that none of our allies will have in such quantity and quality. Against the background of the developments with our European neighbors this capability of growth will be of strategic importance." As part of its renewed emphasis on tradition-building, the German army has given its seal of approval to rallies held by the Ordensgemeinschaft der Ritterkreuztraeger (Association of Holders of the Knights' Cross of the Iron Cross). Joined by an army marching band and a wreath-laying

50 MOMENT • JUNE 1998 German student fraternities, Christian understatement. The point of no Democratic Union (CDU) leader return has already been reached for Wolfgang Schaueble, Chancellor many. It's very depressing. It's growing. Kohl's designated heir apparent, It's getting worse." referred to the area that was once "the Large parts of the former east of Germany" as "really in the Communist German Democratic center of Germany." Germany's federal Republic have become virtual no-go budget refers specifically to areas for foreigners, who "can no Mitteldeutschlands ("Middle longer move freely in eastern Germany") when earmarking funds for Germany," according to Annette former East Germany—the implication Kahane of east Berlin's Center for being that territories east of reunified Democratic Culture. "Normality in east Germany in Poland and the Czech Berlin means a curfew for foreigners." Republic are part of the fatherland. And it's not just foreigners who are This, perhaps, is the most benign threatened, says Kahane. "Punks and interpretation of nationalist rumblings left-wingers get attacked because from Germany, where it is increasingly right wing extremist groups. they're 'un-German.'" difficult to ascertain where political Even Germans who help foreigners expediency ends and right-wing have been targeted by fascist hood­ extremism begins. recruiting methods and organizational lums. Last year, for example, neo-Nazis Eager to deflect attention from its skills, including computer Web sites torched a Protestant church in the own policy failures and, above all, to and CDs of skinhead bands that spread eastern city of Luebeck, which had prevent the hemorrhaging of its racist propaganda. More than a quar­ been sheltering a family of Algerian electoral base, the CDU has been all ter of a million recordings of neo-Nazi asylum-seekers threatened with depor­ too willing to fix the blame for com­ hate rock were confiscated by German tation. Arsonists had already set fire to plex social and economic ills on immi­ police in 1997. an old Jewish synagogue in Luebeck grants. Mouthing neofascist catch Most ominous of all is the powerful on two occasions. phrases that put the onus on foreigners firepower that neo-Nazis have accumu­ Anti-Semitism has also become more for crime, drugs, job scarcity, and lated. In February, police raided a pronounced in western Germany, nearly every other difficulty, German small bomb factory run by neo-Nazis warns Ignatz Bubis, chairman of the officials changed the Constitution in near Jena that contained an arsenal of Central Council of German Jews, partic­ 1993 and implemented draconian legal dynamite. Local prosecutor Helmut ularly among university students and measures in an effort to curb the influx Roewer said the discovery showed "a intellectuals who have espoused a more of refugees. By jumping on the xeno­ new quality in the weaponry and nationalist line since the end of the phobic bandwagon, mainstream politi­ violent preparations" by right-wing Cold War, one that emphasizes German cians have incited an atmosphere of extremists that suggest they plan to power and identity and is antagonistic hatred that is fueling racist violence step up their terrorist attacks. toward foreigners arid cultural- influ­ within Germany. "The neo-Nazis took Staggering unemployment and ences from the United States. Their this as a signal. It legitimized their views widespread social dislocation in message, while not explicitly Nazi, is and gave them the green light to step eastern Germany persist more than touching a raw nerve at a time when up their attacks," said Graeme eight years after the Berlin Wall top­ joblessness is officially above twelve Atkinson, a special investigator for the pled. Embittered by lack of economic percent in Germany *ihe highest since European Parliament and an editor opportunity and other post-unification Hitler's time. of Searchlight, a London-based disappointments, a lost generation of "I observe, in our country, a sense antifascist magazine. east German youth has adopted an of yearning for authoritarian solu­ According to Germany's federal aggressive national identity to replace tions," says psychologist Horst- intelligence agency, 7500 hard-core a vanished country. Overt sympathy for Eberhard Richter. "A lot of people militants currently belong to neo-Nazi fascist views, especially among those think that the increasingly difficult cells, ajump from 5400 in 1994. These under 30, has become the norm in problems can be managed only with ideologically committed cadres com­ many eastern villages, small towns, and authoritarian means, as if an open prise the knife's edge of the fascist urbarfdistricts. society can't manage capitalism, and scene in Germany, which encompasses "There are kids everywhere who only a hard hand and an iron broom nearly 70 organizations with approxi­ steal and beat people up. But in the east will work." mately 50,000 members (a figure that the forms of criminality are interwoven Germany's rapidly growing does not include the 35,000 members with an ideology and an all-pervasive Jewish population is now about of the Republikaner Party). racist view of the world," says east Berlin 100,000, almost all of whom live in German authorities acknowledge criminologist Berndt Wagner. "To say western Germany. The number of that neo-Nazi groups are becoming that one third of east German youth is Jews has doubled since 1991, when more dangerous because of improved now prone to the extreme right is an continued on page 71

JUNE 1 998 • MOMENT 51 Germany exhibit included graphic photographs "isolated incidents," so-called by continued from page 51 that showed ordinary German Defense Minister Ruehe, involving soldiers, rather than SS members, neo-Nazis and the army. Although the government agreed to admit an committing horrendous crimes the German government keeps unlimited influx of Jews from the against civilians on the Eastern Front. detailed lists of political extremists, former Soviet Union. These emigres The reaction was explosive. Members academy officials claim they were are beginning to instill new life in a of the ruling coalition in Bonn unaware that Roeder, a headline- community that was virtually wiped denounced the exhibition, claiming grabbing fanatic, had served eight out by the Nazis. Recently, however, that only the SS, not the German years behind bars for a fire bomb some German politicians have called army, was responsible for wartime attack that killed two Vietnamese for restrictions on Jewish immigration. atrocities. German military officers, immigrants. Prior to this, Roeder "The humanitarian contingent of Jews who have assiduously cultivated links had visited the United States on cannot go on forever," said Wolfgang with the traditions of the Nazi-era several occasions, functioning as a Zeitlmann, domestic affairs spokes­ Wehrmacht, were similarly offended roving ambassador to the Aryan person for the conservative Christian by what they regarded as an insult to a Nations in Idaho, the Liberty Lobby Social Union, Chancellor Kohl's decent army. in Washington, DC, and other right- Bavarian-based coalition partner. Skinheads marched shoulder-to- wing extremist groups in North A debate is now raging in Germany shoulder with the mayor of Munich America. between those who cling to the myth in protest. The ubiquitous Manfred But Germany's ruling Christian that ordinary Germans remained aloof Roeder, a convicted neo-Nazi ter­ Democrats see little cause for alarm. from Hitler's genocidal campaign (a rorist and holocaust-denier whose "The theory that there is extreme view encouraged by many leading cordial ties to the German army right infiltration of the army is not German politicians) and those who were a source of great embarrass­ correct," insists Christian Schmidt, a recognize that ordinary Germans must ment to the government, exchanged CDU member of the parliamentary accept a national responsibility for the physical blows with counter-demon­ committee lookihg into a plethora of holocaust. The issue came into sharp strators who supported the exhibit. neo-Nazi incidents involving German focus last year during street demon­ Roeder had been invited in 1995 to soldiers. After two committee hearings strations against a museum exhibit on lecture at Germany's most presti­ failed to turn up new evidence, the "Crimes of the Wehrmacht," which gious military academy in Hamburg, CDU declared that the inquiry should traveled around the country. The perhaps the most damning of all the be terminated. ®

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