www.ns-verherrlichung-stoppen.tk/material

No National Socialist march in commemoration of Rudolf Hess in Wunsiedel!

Against the myth of German victims -
Against National Socialist hero remembrance
Stop the glorification of National Socialism!

We call on all antifascists to participate in a demonstration and rally on August 20 in Wunsiedel (Bavaria). This demonstration aims to send a strong signal against the annual Rudolf Hess-march, for which fascists from all over Europe gather in order to glorify Hitler’s deputy and thus the National Socialist regime as such. Together with resistance fighters and other antifascists from several European countries, we plan to put an end to this spook and to ensure that August 20 is experienced as a date of broad antifascist resistance.

As in the last years, German and European neo-Nazis plan to demonstrate at Hess’ gravesite in Wunsiedel at the occasion of his day of death. This demonstration, which since 2001 has been allowed to legally take place in Wunsiedel under the leadership of Nazi functionary Jürgen Rieder of Hamburg, was attended by about 4800 persons in 2004. In the history of Hess-marches, now spanning 17 years, this was the biggest attendance so far, a success and satisfactory outcome of many years of campaigning for the NS-oriented movement in Germany.

Rudolf Hess is presented as a „peace-pilot” by today’s Nazis because he flew to Scotland in May of 1941, presumably in order to conclude a peace agreement with Great Britain. The background to this endeavor was to prevent a war on two fronts given the impending attack on the Soviet Union. Reference to the myth surrounding Hess allows Nazis to glorify National Socialism as such: According to their myth, Nazi Germany had been willing to conclude peace and was forced into war by the “criminal Allies”. Thus, the crimes of National Socialism are denied in their entirety and Hitler’s regime is presented as the victim of an international conspiracy.

Against National Socialist hero remembrance

The history of Hess-marches in Wunsiedel begins already shortly after his suicide in 1987 in the Allied Military Prison in Berlin-Spandau. In the years from 1988 to 2000, the annual march on Hess’ day of death not only aimed at glorifying National Socialism, but also at establishing the legal possibility of neo-Nazi marches in Germany. Already in 1991, pressure by active anti-fascists led to a ban of the demonstration in Wunsiedel. In the following years, after the fire bombings and pogroms in Hoyerswerda, Mannheim-Schönheim, Rostock-Lichtenhagen, Mölln and other German cities, pressure on the German state increased to such a degree that Hess’ followers could only mobilize for marches in neighboring countries, e.g. in Luxembourg, Roskilde (Denmark) and Trollhättan (Sweden).

This changed following the campaign of marches initiated by neo-Nazi Christian Worch of Hamburg in 1997. By organizing a Nazi march in some town in Germany almost every weekend, he succeeded in achieving a process of normalization. Especially after two judgments of the Federal Constitutional Court allowing Worch to carry out marches, the Nazis now had the opportunity to march where and whenever they wanted to. Jürgen Rieger used this opportunity in 2001 to announce, in advance, Hess-marches in Wunsiedel for the following ten years.

Nowadays, the Nazis have succeeded in establishing a legal basis for an open homage to National Socialism. The Hess-march is increasingly important for the growth of a Nazi movement spanning different generations and parties. Nazis of all ages, from a variety of social and cultural backgrounds and with partially contradictory political upbringings find a common ground in their glorification of National Socialism. These get-togethers have partially taken on the character of a fair, bringing together ancient SS men, Nazi Skinheads, devotees of Hitler Youth and German Girls’ League in brown shirts or dirndl dresses, hate core fans with facial piercings, revanchists and party functionaries. This attaches to the Hess-march an exceptional importance for the self-image of the Nazi movement.

Another reason for the particular importance of this march is its international participation - in the last years, it was attended by neo-Nazis from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Russia and the United States.

Since 2003, the German Nazi party NPD has also officially participated in the march. In 2004, NPD leader Udo Voigt and Holger Apfel, now leader of the NPD fraction in the state parliament of Saxony, marched at the head of the demonstration alongside Jürgen Rieger, clearly representing the party’s top ranks. Three high-level members of the “Free Nationalists”, Thomas Wulff, Thorsten Heise and Ralph Tegethoff, who in October 2004 presented themselves as new NPD members, also appeared in an exposed role.

The NPD participation in the marches symbolizes the rising societal importance of political forces which openly refer positively to National Socialism and which thus reach political influence. The successes at the state parliamentary elections in Brandenburg and Saxony have presented the radical right with yet new opportunities. Especially the entry into the state parliament of Saxony with a vote of 9.2 % - almost 200.000 people cast their vote for the NPD - has secured an enormous Nazi presence in the media and grants them a tangible influence on public debates.

Against the myth of German victims

The reaction of German society to this new strength was consistently helpless. Actually, a serious reaction to the seditious acts of the neo-Nazis would not seem very believable: The oft-demanded “political struggle” with the radical right fails because the Nazis only drive to an extreme debates already existing in the midst of society. This can most clearly be seen in the debate concerning the term “bombing Holocaust” used by Saxonian NPD Representative Jürgen Gansel, in the context of the day of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism, to refer to destruction of Dresden. This term led to nationwide outrage and even fueled a debate on the possibility of a second attempt to have the NPD outlawed by the Constitutional Court. What was not discussed in this context is that historian Jörg Friedrich, highly praised by mainstream media, had already equated the perpetrators to their victims in his bestseller “Der Brand” (“The Firestorm”), calling Allied bomber squads “Einsatzgruppen”, referring to burning air raid shelters as “crematories” and to the “extermination” of Germany’s civilian population.

Friedrich’s bestseller, together with documentations of prominent TV historian Guido Knopp on the “fate” of German “Heimatvertriebene” (expellees from Eastern Europe) and series of articles in the popular magazine “Der Spiegel” HeimHeim on Stalingrad and the “Heimatvertriebene”, started a broad debate in which Germans are mainly perceived as victims. The historical context, the war of extermination in the East, the industrialized obliteration of the European Jews, are either not noticed at all or relativized in this debate. Political responsibilities are obscured, as is the fact that the German population had for a long time profited from the dispossession and mass murder of Jews and the pilferage of neighboring European countries.

The second aspect of this revisionist discussion can be seen in the debate concerning the German military deployment in the former Yugoslavia 5 years ago. At that time, it was exactly the German responsibility for the annihilation of the European Jewry that was used as political and moral legitimization for the deployment of German troops in the Balkans. Acting more and more self-confident after reunification and the replacement of the Christian-Democrat government, Germany not only wanted to show the world that it had come to terms with National Socialism; it also felt morally entitled to shape the world according to its notions, using military force if necessary.

The reaction of Germany’s political elites to the Hess-marches mirrors the evolution of their self-image. The Christian-Democrat Kohl administration still felt pressure from the German and international public because of Nazi crimes and thus always took pains to present Germany as a state which stood against neo-fascism, racism and anti-Semitism. This influenced not only the administration’s foreign and European policy, but also its strategies in dealing with neo-Nazis. The inauguration of the Social-Democrat/Green Party Schröder-Fischer coalition, which due to the involvement of its protagonists in the student movement of 1968 did not feel an equal pressure, led to the establishment of a new self-perception of the German state as per se anti-fascist. Proceeding from the assumption that Germany had come to terms with National Socialism with regard both to ideology as well as persons involved, they felt they could now justify international military deployments by reference to Germany’s responsibility towards history.

60 years of liberation from fascism

The unwillingness of the German establishment to confront the radical right, which would necessitate confronting racism, anti-Semitism, nationalism and its own perception of history, inevitably leads to its inability to react to Nazi provocations, such as an announced NPD demonstration through the Brandenburg Gate mocking the 60th anniversary of liberation, in any way other than a further restriction of the right to assemble and other democratic liberties.

The 60th anniversary of liberation is more than a mere historical event. It presents us with one of the last opportunities to come together with survivors of National Socialism, with active opponents and resistance fighters. The fight against fascism is far from over, the lessons of National Socialism have still not been learned by German society and politics. Our responsibility towards the victims of National Socialism calls upon us to resist against racism, anti-Semitism, nationalism and militarism. Each of us bears the responsibility to ensure that fascist will never again have power and influence in Germany.

We know that we can only stop fascist propaganda if we engage in an open debate, pervading all of society, concerning underlying values and ideology. However, we also know that we can successfully stand against the Nazis if we stand together. If we consider the resistance against the National Socialist Hess-march as part of an all-embracing fight against fascism and barbarianism, for a peaceful co-existence of people on the basis of solidarity, we can in the long run not only prevent the Hess-march, but also contribute towards a truly antifascist and solidary society.

Let us therefore transform the day of Rudolf Hess’ death into a day belonging to the anti-fascist movement and the fight against fascism and for a liberated society.

Stop glorification of National Socialism!

August 20, 2005, 9.00 - 19.00

Antifascist Action Day
Demonstration and Rally
Cultural Program, Speeches by resistance fighters and others

Kampagne: NS-Verherrlichung stoppen!
c/o Buchladen Rote Straße
Nikolaikirchhof 7
37073 Göttingen
Email-Kontakt: info@ns-verherrlichung-stoppen.tk
Web: www.ns-verherrlichung-stoppen.tk