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Introduction to the report:
Today, Wednesday morning, German prosecutors issued arrest warrants against 25 individuals suspected of belonging to the "Reich Citizens' Movement" organization, on charges of planning a "coup" to seize power, including military personnel, a leader in the German Alternative Party and a former deputy, while federal prosecutors said that members of the well-known movement In the name of "Reichsburger" they are suspected of "making concrete preparations to violently storm the German Parliament with a small armed group".
This movement of the "citizens of the Reich" sheds light on the neo-Nazi groups that do not recognize the modern German state or its laws, refrain from paying taxes and social benefits, and insist that the "Hitler's German Empire" still exists.
Report text:
Franco was not very lucky when he decided to put his gun under one of the toilets at Vienna International Airport, deciding to return to retrieve it soon, given the axiom that it was impossible for him to pass through it from the airport. The weapon caught the attention of a technical worker, who in turn decided to inform the airport officers of the presence of a suspicious weapon. lying there.
At a time when everyone, especially Europeans, is sensitive to violent "lone wolf" operations, especially in public meeting points such as airports, train stations, theaters, nightclubs, etc., the police decided to do more and smarter things than keeping a gun. Vienna Airport security provided it. With a small sensor that sends signals to identify its owner, so that the gun security leaves its place as it is as a bait for its hypothetical owner when he decides to return to him, if he does so.
Only a few weeks passed until Franco accused the bait, to be temporarily detained and interrogated, saying that he had found the weapon by chance in the garden of an officers' hall in the Austrian capital, to decide to keep it before realizing the difficulty of passing it from the airport, and then leaving it in the toilet.
Once again, the Austrian police became very suspicious of this account, fabricated as they later discovered, and decided to trace Franco's tracks more and more closely.
The investigation journey began, as published by the German magazine Spiegel (1), by obtaining Franco's fingerprints, and sending them to the Federal Crime Police in Germany, his home country, and soon a decade full of complex secrets lurking behind the suspicious German officer was revealed.
Franco's fingerprints matched another person in the southern state of Bavaria, who was none other than a Syrian refugee: David Benjamin.
There are a number of extremist Germans who are already planning "terrorist" operations and then attaching them to the refugees by impersonating them, and the most dangerous thing is that these right-wing circles are present, some of them are in the ranks of the German army itself.
David never knew Arabic, and spoke only weak French, but he submitted his papers to obtain asylum in Germany as a Syrian Christian citizen from Damascus who works in the fruit trade, and he actually obtained the German approval, along with a room in one of the buildings designated for refugees, and about four hundred euros per month.
However, David did not use the room much because he was busy with military service, as his other identity says: Franco, German citizen and soldier.
Did a Syrian Muslim refugee disguised as a Christian infiltrate the ranks of the German army, and plan an armed violence, then, as the suspicions at the beginning went away, and the fears of the European right constantly go away?
For a moment, the answer to the question seemed obvious, but the German federal investigations led them to discover an amazing fact that completely contradicts those suspicions: a real German soldier, Franco, infiltrated the ranks of the refugees, impersonating a non-existent Damascene Christian.
Of course, it is impossible to imagine a German soldier taking advantage of a small room and a small amount of money in Germany to explain the riddle represented by Franco, but some investigations coming from Vienna solved the riddle for the Germans.
Austrian officials found far-right propaganda in Franco's possession, which prompted him to be censored, exposing his extreme racism and xenophobic hate messages with his counterparts via WhatsApp.
Investigations also led to another soldier named Matthias, who is close to Franco, in whose house the police discovered ammunition, grenades and explosives, without yet reaching any clear indications of what each of them intended to do.
However, a matter slowly became clear to the German police: there are a number of extremist Germans who are already planning "terrorist" operations and then attaching them to refugees by impersonating them, and the most dangerous thing is that those right-wing circles are present in some of the ranks of the German army itself.
Bundeswehr: New problems, very old ones
“Any army that does not have some kind of military tradition loses its direction and direction, its stature diminishes professionally, and it becomes exposed to the danger of degradation to a mere technical facility concerned with killing.”
(Donald Ebenheim, American military historian)
the theoretical emphasis on domestic leadership and the criminalization of the entire Nazi legacy;
It contradicted the realistic requirements of rebuilding the German army
The German army, known as the "Bundeswehr", was established in the fifties of the twentieth century, after NATO countries agreed that the West German government would establish a military force integrated into the structure of the alliance, to ensure that it would not penetrate into Europe as happened with the Nazi army, known as the "Wehrmacht".
One of the requirements for joining the ranks of the Bundeswehr at the time was that the applicant had a somewhat positive view of the plot of 20 (July) (2) 1944, according to which a group of Wehrmacht officers, led by General Claus von Stauffenberg, planned to assassinate German leader Adolf Hitler, Then take control of Germany and reach settlement with Western countries.
The West German leadership throughout the post-war period had always been concerned with Stauffenberg and his associates as the embodiment of what was called the "Inner Command" or Innere.
Führung) in German, and it is the principle on which the Bundeswehr was founded and still is, and it stipulates that there is no absolute obedience to leaders within the ranks of the army, in contrast to most military doctrines spread around the world, but rather the individual’s submission to his conscience if the actions of leadership contradict the simplest principles of justice and freedom, just as Stauffenberg did in 1944.
However, the theoretical emphasis on the internal leadership and the criminalization of the entire Nazi legacy contradicted the realistic requirements for rebuilding the German army, as the West German leadership in that period found no escape from resorting to some leaders of the Nazi era to draw on their expertise (3), and even some leaders of the SS Waffen organization The armed forces of the Nazi Party itself, especially since the vast majority of German soldiers and officers eventually submitted to Hitler, while Stauffenberg and his associates constituted an exceptional case.
By the end of the 1950s, the Bundeswehr had attracted some 12,000 Nazi army officers (4), three hundred SS Waffen officers, and forty appointed generals, to be able to establish a nucleus for the Bundeswehr, a group that had to influence the nature and culture of The German army, and even its impact appeared in many details, such as naming the names of some "Nazi war criminals" on some facilities and barracks, and the spread of narratives among some referring to what Stauffenberg and his collaborators did as "treason", despite all the political polishing of them after the fall of Nazism.
Stauffenberg with Hitler 1944 (networking sites)
The matter was not limited to those who joined the army, but rather reached military plans and policies that were very similar to what the German military knew throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which is a somewhat logical phenomenon, says Catherine Kleher (5), an American professor specializing in international security policies. The military institution Ultimately concerned with drawing up a strategic doctrine specific to its geographical surroundings, unchanging of course, and appropriate to its gradually changing cultural surroundings throughout history, but it remained with constant features such as apprehension of the Russians, in addition to the great value of German military strategy and tactics during the Nazi period, which is well-known among his enemies. Also, it was hard to give him up so easily.
That "Nazi problem" remained under control in some way, given the strict commitment to the Western alliance, the limited capabilities that the Germans were allowed to obtain militarily, in addition to the deep-rooted popular rejection of Nazi practices, which was reflected, accordingly, on recruits representing all German social strata and post-war culture.
However, this reality did not last long inside the Bundeswehr, as a result of three transformations, the first of which was the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany.
With the reunification of Germany, an entirely new social segment emerged within the German Federal Republic, completely far removed from the political, media and cultural system of West Germany. Certain was completely far from the culture of East Germany, whose people represented about a fifth of Germany's population after its unification.
The second event was the abolition of conscription and reliance on a military force made up of professionals who applied themselves to join the army (6), which severely affected the representation of all segments of German society, and opened the door to an increase in the percentage of those who are naturally enthusiastic about service and military culture, and they are more likely to be from the ranks of the right In addition to the increase in the percentage of representation of the poorer segments due to the advantages that military service gives, and thus the percentage of those joining the Bundeswehr from the population of former East Germany, which currently reaches a third of the army recruits, is a percentage that is placed in the context of an important comparison with their percentage of the population, which is one-fifth.
Finally, the wave of the extreme right that swept Europe about five years ago came as a partial response to the economic crisis within the eurozone, as well as to the Syrian refugee crisis and their influx into Europe. Problems of the Nazi legacy resurfaced within the Bundeswehr at a moment when its representation of German society was less than before, and it was increasing. It has the most groups expressing racist opinions.
The Bundeswehr in the Time of the Right: The Ghost of the Wehrmacht
"There were constant references to the toughness of the Wehrmacht soldiers. Our teachers always referred to that 'Nazi' period when giving us basic training."
(Philip Liesenhoff, researcher with the German Marshall Fund's Europe programme, and former member of the German SS)
Manfred Roeder, a former member of the Nazi German extremist movement in the 1970s and 1980s (1929-2014 AD) (Reuters)
It took two years before the news of the controversial lecture infiltrated the "Spiegel" magazine in 1997, but it quickly drew everyone's attention and sparked a storm of criticism within the Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs in Germany.
It has already happened, and one of those involved in Nazi activities received an invitation to give a lecture in the corridors of the Officers Academy in Hamburg (7), and unleashed talk about supporting Germans in the regions of western Poland, known as "East Prussia", as part of historical Germany.
The lecturer was Manfred Roeder, a former member of the Nazi German movement organization in the seventies and eighties, who was convicted of participating in the bombing incident targeting two refugees from Vietnam, as a result of which he received a prison sentence until the year 1990. However, his activities continued after his release by establishing a new extremist organization aimed at resettling the Russians Of German origin in East Prussia, and in 1997 when the authorities fined him $3,000 for writing the words "lies" and "distortion" on the walls of a museum dedicated to the victims of World War II.
Roeder's lecture was not under the ear and sight of the German military leaders at the Hamburg Academy by mere coincidence or mistake, as it turned out later. Rather, the lecture was not the main problem, but what was revealed at the time was a timid relationship between Roeder's organization and the German army.
The Bundeswehr has been implicated in providing the Röder organization with vehicles and trucks, German officials have said, for use in activities to protect "descendants of German descent" in Russia and central Europe.
From time to time, news such as this appears about the “indulgence” that is being dealt with in the Bundeswehr barracks towards the Nazi heritage, at times in order to contain and benefit from the existing right-wing groups and ensure that they do not move away from the eyes of the authorities at the same time, and at other times to achieve goals related to German politics indirectly, In a clear embodiment of the problem of the geographical and historical continuity of the German entity over the past two centuries, and the political sensitivities related to the political project of that entity on the other hand in the thirties and forties.
In 2003, the former SS commander, Reinhard Günzel, congratulated a conservative MP on his remarks comparing Jews to the Nazis as a kind of historical revision of Germany's traditional post-war positions, a move that was followed by his dismissal from office and the publication of the book "Undercover Fighters" (8). ), in which he glorifies the heroism of the German special forces and their roots in the Nazi period.
Günzel does not seem to be a passing exception, especially in view of the rank he reached. Philip Leisenhoff, a former member of the Special Forces, saw open dealing with Nazi signs and symbols in the ranks of his forces (9), and even some soldiers listening to emerging Nazi bands in Germany.
Even today, the movements of the military leadership seem somewhat sluggish in response to the revelations of their tolerance for the neo-Nazis and their activities in their ranks, which is attributed to Berlin's bias in containing them (Reuters)
In (December) 2016, the German Ministry of the Interior, in its response to a parliamentary question from the Left Party, stated that there were about 600 arrest warrants that had not yet been executed against neo-Nazis (10), of which more than 403 were issued in the first ten months of the year 2016 only, They are notes issued under the "crime motivated by political right-wing".
"The number of neo-Nazis operating underground is increasing in a way that threatens to create right-wing terrorist organizations capable of implementing their goals using violence," says Matthias Quint, a researcher on the far-right.
These are not exaggerations in view of the statistics on right-wing extremism crimes in Germany, which are mainly directed at asylum seekers, as attacks targeting refugee hosting centers increased fivefold in 2015 compared to the previous year, and these organizations are also witnessing an increase in the number of members reaching more than twenty thousand members, and they are They find their way to arms, just like their jihadi counterparts, just by looking at websites.
Migrantenschreck, for example, is an example of one of those sites. It is a German site registered in Russia, and provides its users with a service to buy white and light weapons, and even reviews how to use weapons against supposed targets represented by pictures of current German politicians.
The site is run by Mario Ronsch, a neo-Nazi wanted for incitement to violence and who is believed to be in Hungary for selling weapons banned in Germany to the average citizen.
In view of that rising right-wing wave, and its violent historical roots in Germany, the movements of the military leaderships to this day seem somewhat sluggish regarding what is revealed of their tolerance for the neo-Nazis and their activities in their ranks, which is attributed to Berlin's bias to contain them, and to use and tame their energies at the same time, instead of From the intransigence in expelling them and then suffering from the scourge of their later joining extremist groups completely outside the control and oversight of the authority.
At a time when Russia is actually expanding under the auspices of some forms of the right-wing biased towards it in European countries, Berlin may reap some fruits from turning a blind eye to its Nazi right-wing and its historical hatred of the Russians, and even the possibility of using it in eastern and central Europe to combat the agenda of the Russians, just as happened with Rueder's organization.
Nazi threads in Berlin
The "Waffen SS" band in France in 1940 (communication sites)
About three years ago, Holger Apfel, the leader of the National Democratic Party at the time, which was established as the successor to the Nazi Party in Ukraine after the fall of the Nazi regime in 1945, appeared with a delegation coming from Ukraine representing a right-wing party, "Svoboda", and took him on a tour inside the parliament of the state of East Saxony, Its capital is Dresden, where he was an MP there for ten years.
Apfel spoke very proudly of the Ukrainian Fascist Party, which in turn is proud of the Ukrainian soldiers who joined the ranks of Nazi Germany during World War II, and believes that members of the 14th Brigade of the Nazi SS Waffen Organization, made up of Ukrainians during the 1940s, should be celebrated as national heroes in Ukraine.
There is a great distance between power in Germany and the National Democratic Party due to the latter's explicit Nazi positions. However, all attempts to ban the party failed, including a request submitted by all states of Germany last year and rejected by the Constitutional Court (11), indicating the impossibility of the party reaching parliament or winning in any elections, and then the difficulty of overthrowing the democratic system in Germany.
In 2003, the court had refused a similar request due to the widespread presence of German informants within the party, and their contribution to the development of evidence against the party, which the court considered inadmissible.
The Nazi Party continues to exist on the sidelines of political life, but most German parties distance themselves from it, including the right-wing Alternative Party itself, which is more present and moderate than it is at the same time, and rejects the legacy of Nazi racism in Germany, just like the ruling party, despite its disagreement over the policy of receiving immigrants and the existence of the European Union .
However, the party's marginality within Germany does not prevent the expansion of its networks of relations with the neo-Nazis at home, and with the fascist right in the countries of Eastern Europe on the one hand, an overlap that is in favor of eventually containing Russian influence.
When the delegation of the Ukrainian party Svoboda came to Dresden at the invitation of the Nazi Party (12), this was not, in fact, its first visit to Germany. It was preceded in 2013 by another visit at the invitation of the German ambassador in Kyiv, in addition to the party members receiving invitations to attend the activities of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. One of the arms of the Christian Democratic Union, which is chaired by Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Even today, it is impossible to imagine the emergence of German political leaders in one image with the leaders of the German Nazi Party. However, the discordant threads of the German Republic and the Nazi Party at home seem more likely to indirectly intertwine abroad, just as the transformations of German reality in the fifties brought a convergence between the threads of the Nazi regime. The old and nascent West German regime, despite the dissonance of the two agendas.
Germany's historical positions remain unquestionable in its open hostility to the Nazi legacy, but the inevitability of continuity related to its location, history, and relations with its surroundings continues to impose on its institutions a kind of partial containment of some strands of the Nazi phenomenon here and there.
Threads intertwine within its military establishment and its relations with Eastern Europe more than any other space.