The Right-wing Extremists Plot to Overthrow the German Government | DW Documentary

Jul 7, 2020 • Amid reports of right-wing extremist activity in the German police and armed forces, radical groups are said to be preparing a coup against the government. The federal Interior Ministry has promised to crack down on right-wing groups.

Concerns are growing about reports of right-wing extremist activity in the German police and armed forces -- but senior officers and politicians seem reluctant to deal with the situation.

Journalist Dirk Laabs has found evidence that far-right conspirators illegally received ammunition from government warehouses, stockpiled weapons, and made concrete plans for a coup attempt -- to be known as "Day X."

The attempt was supposedly to be carried out during a time of national emergency -- like the current coronavirus crisis. Some domestic security experts, including the Left Party’s Martina Renner, are worried about these developments. Renner says this may be the moment that the alleged plotters were waiting for.

In June 2019, several current and former officers of an elite police unit in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern were arrested, suspected of supplying one of these far-right conspirators with large quantities of ammunition. Investigators say that the ammo came from military and police units from all over Germany, including the states of Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia. Authorities in those two states have not yet been able to explain how the ammunition ended up in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Fears about right-wing activity among the German police and military have been growing for years. In December 2019, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer announced plans to expand and strengthen federal police agencies that are involved in the effort to combat right-wing extremism and terrorism.

Growing Alarm in Germany Following Right-Wing Attacks

In June, the fatal shooting of a pro-migrant politician sent shockwaves through the country. This week, there were two more incidents suspected of having right-wing extremist motives. The violence has left political leaders searching for answers

How Worrying Is the Rise of US Right-wing Extremism? l Inside Story

The number of reported hate crimes in the United States rose in 2016, the year Donald Trump was elected president, the second consecutive year the figures increased.

African-Americans, Jews and Muslims were all targeted. Last week a Florida man was arrested after mail bombs were sent to some of Trump’s high-profile critics; and on Saturday 11 people were killed in a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

So, who’s to blame? And does President Trump’s rhetoric fuel the hate?

Presenter: Imran Khan | Guests Gregg Roman, former director of the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh; Glenn Carle, former deputy National Intelligence Officer for transnational threats at the CIA; Stosh Cotler, CEO of Bend the Arc

Sebastian Gorka Says That Right-Wing Extremist Attacks Don’t Exist

Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to Donald Trump, claims that there have been no “real” attacks carried out in the United States by right wing extremists. The available data from independent research groups, the FBI, the CIA, and the Department of Justice say otherwise. But what else would we expect from a man who has disturbing connections to white nationalist organizations?

German Journalist Assaulted Over Column Decrying Xenophobia

THE GUARDIAN: Attackers knocked him to the ground and accused him of being a ‘left-wing pig’

A German journalist has told of being attacked in the street after writing a column about the rise of xenophobia among right-wing extremists in his country.

Helmut Schümann, a columnist for the Berlin newspaper, Tagesspiegel, wrote on Facebook about the assault, reports The Local.

According to his account, he was attacked from behind by a group of people on Friday. One asked: “Are you Schümann for Tagesspiegel? You left-wing pig.” He was then knocked to the ground. » | Roy Greenslade | Tuesday, November 3, 2015

TAGESSPIEGEL: Tagesspiegel-Autor Helmut Schümann angegriffen: Tagesspiegel-Autor Helmut Schümann wurde in Charlottenburg als "linke Drecksau" beschimpft und geschlagen. Immer wieder positioniert er sich in der Flüchtlingsdebatte klar. » | tsp | Montag, 2. November 2015

Metamorphosis: A Hungarian Extremist Explores His Jewish Roots

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Csanád Szegedi was a prominent right-wing extremist in Hungary until he discovered his own Jewish roots in 2012. Since then, he has undergone a radical reinvention and is even learning Hebrew. His grandmother, though, continues to hide her Auschwitz tattoo.

Csanád Szegedi's second life began in the apartment of Rabbi Baruch Oberlander, located above the Synagogue in the Erzsébetváros quarter of Budapest. A mohel -- a circumcision specialist -- had arrived from Israel. And with a single cut, the anti-Semite Csanád was transformed into Dovid, a Jew.

Csanád Szegedi, 31, had been the deputy head of right-wing extremist party Jobbik, which he also represented in the European Parliament. He had made a career of claiming that the Jews sought to plunder Hungary and that they had entered into an alliance with the Roma to turn "pure" Hungarians into a minority in their own country. In public, he would often wear the black military pants and vest of the Hungarian Guard, the banned right-wing extremist group.

But then he learned that his family was Jewish, a revelation that turned his life on its head.

Now, he calls himself Dovid Szegedi, eats kosher, is learning Hebrew and goes to the Synagogue every Friday. "This is my true identity," says Szegedi, who is almost two meters (6" 6') tall. He wears an Italian designer suit, scruffy stubble and a black kippah.

The story of Csanád's transformation into Dovid is one of radical reinvention, and also one of a desperate search for a reliable identity, one which continues to elude Eastern Europe even 25 years after the end of communism. » | Jan Puhl | Thursday, April 03, 2014

Right-Wing Extremism: Germany's New Islamophobia Boom

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Across Germany, right-wing organizations are using anti-Islam rhetoric to further their ideas -- and finding a receptive audience. Now legal experts are debating whether it's time for a new kind of hate-crime legislation.
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Stachus is one of Munich's nicest squares. It is rich in tradition and filled with pedestrians -- and perfect for Michael Stürzenberger's purposes. Hand balled into a fist, he paces back and forth and screams, "The Koran is the most dangerous book in the world." Because a couple dozen people have come to demonstrate against Stürzenberger, police officers in bullet-proof vests are watching over the area.

A decade ago, Stürzenberger, 49, was the spokesperson for the Munich office of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union. But since 2012 he has been active in a splinter party called Die Freiheit ("The Freedom"), of which he was elected federal chairman three months ago. He preaches hate against Islam and compares the Koran to Hitler's "Mein Kampf." For two years now, he's been collecting signatures opposing the planned construction of an Islamic center in Munich. He has already held over one hundred anti-Islam rallies.

The Freiheit leader isn't alone. Several supporters, have joined him on Stachus, some carrying signs such as "No mosque on Stachus," or "Stop the enemies of democracy." Stürzenberger screams that Sharia instructs men to hit women. His voice cracks. "We don't want that in Bavaria!" A retiree asks where he can sign "against Islam."

For most Munich residents, Stürzenberger's verbal assaults are an embarrassment. CSU city councilwoman Marian Hoffman compares his incitements to the "droning speeches of the Nazis." The city government of Mayor Christian Ude, a member of the center-left Social Democrats, is worried about possible conflict during the upcoming local elections. Munich, he says, has become the focus of "experimentation" by radical anti-Islamists with the right-wing populists from Die Freiheit testing whether or not their attacks on the Muslim minority have majority appeal. If Stürzenberger gathers enough signatures for a citizens' initiative against the mosque, it would send a signal across Bavaria and beyond that Muslims are not welcome. » | SPIEGEL Staff | Wednesday, March 05, 2014