In the Essen cultural center: the police came two hours after the emergency call because of right-wing extremist slogans

A group of young people had to wait for the police in a cultural center in Essen for more than two hours after an emergency call about right-wing extremist slogans in front of a pub across the street.

An estimated 50 people shouted “Hitler and SS back” or “Foreigners out”, and there were also insults and threatening gestures with a knife, according to an open letter from the North Rhine-Westphalia State Youth Council, which drew attention to the “police failure” in the incident in June power.

The pub is considered a meeting place for the right-wing extremist scene.

The police confirmed the timing, practiced self-criticism and announced that they would work up the operation.

In the direction of the city of Essen and the NRW Ministry of the Interior, the state youth council criticized that one wonders how it could be that the meeting place for right-wing extremists "after all the years and incidents there" still exist.

As the police announced on Thursday, an emergency call was received at 1.45 a.m. on June 12 because of right-wing extremist calls.

A patrol car was there at 3:59 a.m.

Why did it take so long?

- "We can't explain that, we're checking right now," said a police spokesman.

The operation was rated as a disturbance of the peace.

So the priority wasn't set that high.

"Nevertheless, two hours are of course too much, especially with reference to what it was about," said the police spokesman.

"The local colleagues really should have reacted earlier."

Well-known meeting point of the right-wing extremists "Steeler Jungs"

The Grend cultural center in Essen-Steele is diagonally opposite a pub which, according to the police, is a meeting place for the "Steeler Jungs", a right-wing extremist group monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

The state youth council said that the pub visitors had massively insulted young seminar participants, among whom were people affected by racism, and who were filming from the conference center and threatened them with a knife blade.

A police spokesman said on Thursday that colleagues in the control center were not aware of this threat.

There was talk of right-wing slogans.

When the patrol arrived around 4 a.m., those still present were warned to be quiet, the police said.

"Indications of right-wing extremist exclamations could not be obtained." The allegations made in the open letter should now be clarified: A complaint had been filed ex officio, it is about the suspicion of a threat and the use of anti-constitutional signs.

"Waiting for help while the right-wing extremists continued to crowd the streets and chanted inhuman and threatening slogans triggered extreme feelings of fear, powerlessness and despair among those affected," says the letter from the state youth council.

The participants would hardly have dared to leave the cultural center all weekend and would not have left their accommodation, especially in the evening.

Those affected must now be looked after mentally

"They noticed: There is a mood here that doesn't feel good," said Maja Tölke, Chairwoman of the State Youth Council.

"And the young people can assess that very well - it's not the first time in their lives that they have been affected by racism." After the incident, the seminar was broken off early.

Even weeks later, the young people in particular would have to be closely monitored.

According to the Grend cultural center, the incident is not an isolated case in the area: "Here, 'Sieg Heil' is very often called," said Managing Director Gemma Russo-Bierke.

Reports have often been filed, but these have come to nothing.

"The experience that you call and it can take two hours is not new," she said.

The open letter addressed to NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul and Essen's Lord Mayor Thomas Kufen (both CDU) states: "Efforts to engage in anti-racism educational work and the creation of safe spaces are nullified by the existence of such places." The police operation must be uninterrupted be informed that the city must do everything possible to ban rooms like the bar.

The Interior Ministry confirmed receipt of the open letter.

A spokeswoman for the city of Essen said that Mayor Kufen had already taken care of the matter while he was on vacation and that an answer could be expected soon after his return.