Germany 2021 December - Antifascist Europe

Key Developments

In early December 2021, the media leaked an internal AfD chat group. Some of the member’s discussions were about a „Revolution“, „civil war“, and overthrowing the government. (German: https://www.fr.de/politik/afd-bayern-chatgruppe-telegram-partei-mitglieder-nachrichten-umsturz-gewalt-news-91151774.html)

The right-wing open demonstrations of pandemic deniers and vaccination opponents increased in December 2021 in terms of both number of participants and demonstration locations. Demonstrations took place mainly on Saturday and Monday. Especially in eastern Germany, extreme right-wingers were not only involved but organized them. For example, in Cottbus (Brandenburg) where the demonstrations were organized by the AfD and “Ein Prozent”. The front of the demonstration was organised by a black block consisting of Hooligans and Neo-Nazis. Numbers of participants: 04.12.: 1,000; 11.12.: 2,500; 18.12.: 4,000; 20.12.: 3,750; 27.12.: 3,000

The AfD also organized its own demonstrations, for example on December 11, 2021, a demonstration of the AfD youth organization “Junge Alternative” in Berlin with 500 people.
Another example is the AfD demonstration in Nuremberg on December 19, 2021 with 2,500 people.

Particularly in eastern Germany, extreme right-wingers are shaping the image of the demonstrations of pandemic deniers and vaccination opponents in many places. For example, in some cities, activists from the neo-Nazi party “Der III. Weg” or Identitarre are visually at the front of the demonstrations with their banners. At the same time, these demonstrations are also meeting places for extreme right-wingers who know each other only through the Internet. Nazi hooligans running in the front row, in some places, caused clashes with the police or broke through police lines.

The increases in demonstrations of pandemic deniers and vaccination opponents was almost exponential. Demonstrations also took place in smaller cities.
Several demonstrations in the second half of December 2021 exceeded 10,000:

On December 18, 2021 in Hamburg with 11,500 people.
On December 19, 2021 in Nuremberg with 12,000 people
On December 20, 2021 in Saarbrücken with 10,000 persons.
On December 20, 2021 in Rostock 10,000 persons.

In recent months, weapons have repeatedly been found among extreme right-wingers in Germany, underscoring a strong potential for violence. Here are examples from December:

In Zwickau (Saxony) the Police found machine guns on the 9th of December 2021 in the home of a 75-year-old man. (German: https://www.freiepresse.de/zwickau/zwickau/zwickauer-polizei-entdeckt-arsenal-an-selbstgebauten-waffen-artikel11878970)
In Jena (Thuringia) and Berlin the Police found some automatic handguns, silencers, and weapon magazines at the 14th of December 2021 in a home of a 49-year-old man. The Man is suspected of distributing islamophobic flyers in November 2020 and March 2021. (German: https://www.otz.de/regionen/jena/schmaeh-karikaturen-in-jena-fall-geklaert-kripo-stellt-waffenarsenal-sicher-id234093817.html)
On the 15^th of December 2021 in Dresden there was a Police raid against far-right anti-vaxxers. They planned a murder complot against the Saxonian Premier Kretschmer. (German: https://www.zdf.de/politik/frontal/corona-radikalisierte-impfgegner-mordplaene-auf-telegram-100.html, https://www.volksverpetzer.de/bericht/mordplaene-kretschmer-afd/, https://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeitgeschehen/2021-12/michael-kretschmer-mordplaene-dresden-impfgegner-telegram)

At the 29^th of December 2021 Harald Neubauer died, former REP-MEUP and editor of the discontinued magazine „Nation&Europa“. (German: https://trauer.sueddeutsche.de/Traueranzeigen/Harald/Neubauer//0/05-01-2022//0/1/1/1/0)

International Contacts

The newright Newspaper „Junge Freiheit“ publishes at 1th of December 2021 a translation of the text „Why I candidate“ by the french far-right Éric Zemmour. (German: https://jungefreiheit.de/politik/ausland/2021/warum-ich-kandidiere/)

From 3^rd to 4^th of December 2021 in Warsaw gathered 15 far-right and nationalist Parties for the „The Warsaw Summit“, organised by the PiS. Amongst the participants were Marine Le Pen, Marlene Svazek, Santiago Abascal, Matteo Salvini, Viktor Orban, and Jaroslaw Kaczysnki. Parties that took part were „Rassemblement National“ (France), Lega (Italy), Vox, FPÖ, and others. (German: https://de.euronews.com/2021/12/05/eu-skeptisch-aber-ohne-gemeinsame-parlamentsfraktion-rechtskonservativer-gipfel-in-warscha, https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/rechte-parteien-europas-treffen-sich-zu-warschauer-gipfel-100.html)

Jason Miller, chief of GETTR, published on the 17^th of December 2021 a commentary in the right-wing German newspaper „Junge Freiheit“. (German: https://jungefreiheit.de/debatte/kommentar/2021/280958/)

On the 19^th of December 2021 there was a rally of the AfD in Frankfurt/Oder (Germany) and Slubice (Poland).

In the issue of January 2022 of the magazine „Deutsche Stimme“ there was an interview with Guiseppe Provenzale, speaker of „Fuorza Nuova“ (Italy).

Some Articles in December 2021 pointed out that the German Chilean Sven von Storch, the man of the AfD-MEP Beatrix von Storch, is part of a network of the far right. This network includes José Antonio Kast (Chile), Jair Bolsonaro (Brasilia) and Eduardo Bolsonaro (Brasilia). (German: https://lateinamerika-nachrichten.de/artikel/schockstarre-oder-wandel/, https://www.npla.de/thema/tagespolitik/sven-von-storch-vernetzt-die-extreme-rechte-suedamerikas/)