Ann is very right in her statement that the article sounds like right conservatives speaking about the extremist right. „Spiegel“ *used* to have left tendencies, but the current magazine is different from what it was in the 60ies and 70ies. While long-term readers of Spiegel still tend to view the mag as left-wing or in favour of the Social Democrats, it must be noted that neo-liberal positions have become quite influential within SocDem parties throughout Europe so that SocDem nowadays is quite unlike what it used to be.
There are also a few blunders in the Spiegel article. One of them: the article mentions that Nazis copied strategies and organisational patterns from the left, forming e.g. groups of „autonomous nationalists“. The article then claims these groups also copied the 'anarchist dress code'. There is no anarchist dress code that I know of, and of course these Nazi groups do not copy anarchist strategies etc, but, quite in accordance with their name, of course the *autonomous* left. The German articles got this correct, BTW.
There is also quite a lot of info the article does not mention. First of all, the terrorist gang has been active since the late 90ies when they placed bombs containing explosive material but lacking ignition mechanisms. They were stout Nazi militants and known as such to police and inland secret service. It is quite strange the group managed to go underground while being under observation, and it also has to be taken due note of the fact that police raids of their and other premises in the late 90ies lacked results as apparently explosives etc had been removed by them prior to raids, presumably due to warnings received from persons in public employment.
What became apparent fairly early after the suicide of two of the gang and the arrest of the third person is that the Thuringian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution (i.e. inland secret service operating in the state of Thuringia) has been (still is?) a hellhole of incompetence and right wing extremism up to the very top of the office. The former head of the Thuringian bureau was retired due to several scandals, among them financial irregularities. Among these: he founded a company using an assumed name, and then the Thuringian State Office officially hired this company to produce a film on political extremism in this federal state. Parts of this film have been shown on TV now. The film took quite strange a stand on extremism, insinuating that extremist violence only came from the left, while any right efforts were mere reactions of self-defence against highly violence-prone leftists. High-ranking Nazis were interviewed for the film and claimed they and their groups were non-violent. One of the persons interviewed was the leader of a Nazi organisation and an informer for the State Office who, in the course of several years, received the incredible amount of DM 200,000 for information supplied. Given the usual procedure that informers receive a monthly amount of € 200-300 with irregular additions subject to their providing useful info, one is tempted to conclude he received generous handouts for as much as giving officials the time of the day. As far as these informers were interviewed, they all said they used this money to finance further 'political work'. To call a spade a spade: the extremist right in this federal state was built and promoted with public funding. The film BTW was meant to be used in schools to educate students on current political extremism.
The retired head of the Thuringian State Office now claims he makes a living as an author, BTW. He has published a book with Austrian Ares-Verlag, an extremist right publishing house.
The State Offices for the Protection of the Constitution have long been suspected of being 'blind in the right eye', not only because the number of officials in charge of the extremist right used to be far outnumbered by those in charge of the extremist left (with nowadays those in charge of Islamic fundamentalist groups running a close second), but because those in charge shared extremist right views.
It is also quite evident that employees of several authorities need to be investigated for obstruction of punishment.
Another fact the Spiegel article does not mention: the terrorist gang committed nine murders throughout Germany, using, however, the same gun for all of them, killing migrants in their shops. One of these murders happened in Kassel (fed. state of Hesse) in 2006 where they shot the owner of an internet cafe. As was leaked now, the murder took place while an employee of the Hessian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution was sitting in a backroom of the premises. This person's home was raided, and extremist right propaganda materials etc were secured in the raid. The man also happens to be known to his neighbours by the nickname 'Little Adolf'. Still, his excuses apparently were swallowed hook, line, and sinker, as he is still an employee with the State Office today. Rumours now claim the man was also present at several other murder sites.
To make matters worse, it has been the official version promoted by police, secret service, state and federal governments that there is no extremist right terrorism. Period. In many cases, respective evidence has been played down or suppressed in order to allow the official version of the 'lone perpetrator' with no ties to the extreme right, so that these crimes do not enter the statistics as extremist right crimes. Therefore, the 'official' number of extremist right murders since 1990 amounts to a mere 47, while other counts run up to 137 and even 180 murders committed by Nazis in this country. This strategy, however, already existed before 1990: one of the most spectacular bombings happend in the early 1980ies at the Munich 'Oktoberfest' and took 13 lives, including the person who built the bomb. Despite lots of evidence placing this person in the extremist right scene (e.g. participation in the Hofmann Group, an extremist right militia) who was known for extremist right views and apparently commited the crime in order to put the blame on the Red Army Faction which in his view would result in a high number of votes for Franz Josef Strauss who was running to be elected chancelor, he was officially declared an isolated, misguided young man and his involvement in the Nazi scene was ignored during investigations.
Regarding this serial murder, comments by politicians for years have been quite unanimous in explicitely ruling out a Nazi background. Instead, the murders were said to be connected to racketeering, money laundering, drug deals, or other crimes related to migrant communities. This criminalized the victims and caused further suffering for their families.
The same happened with another assault committed by this gang of Nazi murderers: they placed a nail bomb in a Cologne street with many shops in migrant ownership. Luckily, the bomb did not kill any person, but several were injured badly. Police and politicians once more were eager to put the blame on the victims in the vein described above.
Meanwhile, authorities had to admit several persons were aiding and abetting the Nazi terrorists, e.g. renting appartments in their own names, renting vehicles, passing on special personalized train tickets, passing their own passports to group members etc. Already several days ago, one man living near Hanover was arrested. Some days later, there were reports that this man already turned up in previous investigations re a murder the terrorists committed in the south of Germany where they shot two police officers, killing one of them. Witnesses had seen an RV near the scene of the crime and police found out it had been rented by the man from Hanover (who then let the group use it, as authorities say now). This evidence was not followed more closely during earlier investigations.
Further rumours of more abettors were voiced during the week, so by late Friday/Saturday, the number of abettors has been raised to some 20 persons. This is not just wild guesses, as some persons were listed with their names and home towns. Up to now, none of these persons have been arrested though. Despite laws having been tightened drastically in order to prosecute members and particularly abettors of left terrorist Red Army Faction in the1970ies, there seems to be a certain reluctance :cough: re applying these paragraphs in the current investigations. Authorities do no seem to be overly concerned about these suspects going underground like the terrorists did in the late 90ies, avoiding arrest.
