antifascist action day in wunsiedel on august 19 2006
no commemoration march for rudolf hess in wunsiedel or anywhere else
Wunsiedel - for many, this town has become synonymous with the yearly commemoration march for Rudolf Hess. 2000 antifascists came together for an antifascist action day last year - the Nazis’ march had been banned a few days before. Most of the Nazis spend the day straying across several highways, holding marches of a few hundred people in cities including Nuremberg, Peine or Berlin. But there was no central Rudolf Hess march as there had been in the years before, with up to 4800 Nazis old and young.
Now the summer is approaching again, and the question comes up of what is up with Hess and Wunsiedel and the Nazis. Some things are certain: Rudolf Hess is still buried in Wunsiedel, the Nazis again want to commemorate him this year, and we will do everything to frustrate this plan. Things are less clear on the judicial front: The Federal Constitutional Court affirmed the ban of the march last year, but also voiced concerns that its legal basis was questionable. Proceedings on the merits of the case will have to determine whether the Rudolf Hess march may take place in general - Nazi lawyer Jürgen Rieger has, in 2001, announced marches for the following ten years. As long as these proceedings are ongoing, there will be uncertainty - especially on the Nazis’ side.
This year just as the last, the Campaign "Stop the glorification of National Socialism!" will hold an antifascist action day, including a manifestation and a demonstration, if there is a central march commemorating Rudolf Hess.
Wunsiedel has both a local group of the fascist party NPD and a so-called "Freie Kameradschaft Wunsiedel". Starting last year, this latter group has been holding regular meetings in the pub "Lokalbahn" in the centre of town. They regularly organize concerts and speeches and send out invitations to a once-monthly "brown night". The continuity of marches seems to yield its brown fruit. In 2001 to 2004, the Hess commemoration marches had the character of an "event", providing a sense of National Socialist identity for Nazis of various nations and fractions.
The Nazis’ commemoration is linked to the person of Rudolf Hess. Convicted as a war criminal and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Nuremberg Trial, Hess committed suicide in the military prison in Berlin-Spandau in 1987. As Adolf Hitler’s deputy and alleged "peace pilot", the Hess stands as a cipher for all kinds of absurd national socialist myths and dreams of "good" National Socialism.
Nazis all year round
The Rudolf Hess march is not the only set date in the calendar of Nazis old and new. The campaign "Stop the glorification of national socialism!" aims at also confronting several other yearly occasions which the Nazis use for attempts to establish large scale marches or to celebrate National Socialist remembrance.
In Dresden, since 1998, neo-Nazis have been marching through the city every year in February on the occasion of the allied bombardment of Dresden. They celebrate a myth presenting the Germans as victims of the war - by charging up the victims of the bombardment against the victims of national socialist annihilation, this myth aims at relativizing the crimes of National Socialism.
In Mittenwald, the "Circle of Friends of the Mountaineers Division" sends out invitations each year to a Pentecost meeting at the Mountaineers’ Monument, commemorating their casualties of World War Two. Crimes of parts of the mountaineers during National Socialism are covered up, connections such as those to the SS flatly denied. Mittenwald is an especially clear example of the continuities still existing between National Socialism and today’s society.
In Halbe, neo-Nazis have been trying for years to commemorate their alleged heroes at the occasion of "Remembrance Sunday" in November. Halbe houses the largest military cemetery in Germany, which contains the graves of about 22,000 Wehrmacht soldiers and members of the Waffen-SS who died in one of the last battles of encirclement of World War Two in the spring of 1945. Under the slogan "Glory and Honour to the German front soldiers", the Nazis try to present them as heroes.
These events are prime examples for the glorification of National Socialism, for the contortion and relativization of German history. The campaign "Stop the glorification of National Socialism!" has set itself the task of confronting not only the Rudolf Hess march in Wunsiedel, but of also showing the connections between these events. In addition to congruencies in their content, it is the establishment of a series of large events which aims at establishing a particularly immersive National Socialist experience.
We will stand against this - in spring, summer, fall, and winter!
19 august 2006 antifascist action day with manifestation and demonstration
starting 9.00 a.m., platz vor dem gymnasium, wunsiedel
for further details: http://www.ns-verherrlichung-stoppen.tk
email: info@ns-verherrlichung-stoppen.tk
18 november 2006 antifascist demonstration and actions
against the national socialist commemoration of heroes in halbe
for further details: redhalbe.de.vu
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