Much More Than a Phantom Menace! Assessing the Character, Level and Threat of Neo-Nazi Violence in Germany, 1977–2003

Abstract

Acts of politically motivated violence and terrorism have troubled many European states since the end of the 1960s. A general consensus holds that the most serious dangers and levels of politically motivated violent crime in the last three decades emanated from the left of the political spectrum, while those from the right were often downplayed or underestimated. Why and to what extent did and does far right violence constitute any significant danger? Can such violence be classified and who are the perpetrators? This article sheds light on such questions and focuses specifically on events in Germany where the violence stems largely from an array of small and explicitly neo-Nazi organizations. The article makes a clear distinction between the violent (and under-researched) offences of the self-styled neo-Nazi groups and the activities (which have been well documented) of the larger right-wing extremist political parties, namely Republikaner, Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD) and Deutsche Volksunion (DVU). Neo-Nazi inspired violence came to typify a particularly offensive and alarming feature of German society in the years immediately following unification in 1990, but it was far from new. This article explores militant neo-Nazism and seeks to provide an assessment of this most extreme variant of right-wing extremism since it emerged in its current form in the late 1970s until the end of 2003. In doing so, it accounts briefly for the origins of militant neo-Nazism and its key personalities before turning to chart the neo-Nazi propensity towards violence and even flirtations on occasions with terrorist-style activities. It explores the targets of neo-Nazism and its motivations before giving consideration to how the state has responded to this menace.