Hitler salute and shouts of “Sieg Heil!”
Hundreds of right-wing extremists in security agencies
05/12/2022, 8:50 p.m
The number of right-wing extremists and so-called Reich citizens in the police, armed forces and intelligence services in Germany is larger than previously thought. The protection of the constitution is based on more than 300 people.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution puts the number of right-wing extremists and so-called Reich citizens in the police, army and intelligence services at more than 300. This emerges from a report that the head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, and Federal Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, want to present this Friday. According to information from “Spiegel”, the report, which is around 140 pages long, includes all known cases from the beginning of July 2018 to the end of June 2021.
According to this, there were 138 cases in the federal security authorities in which there was a suspicion of extremism or had already been confirmed. There were 189 cases with the state security authorities. In addition, there were 533 test cases in which such a suspicion was not confirmed. According to “Spiegel”, most of the time it was about right-wing extremist incidents, more rarely about connections between officials and the “Reichsbürger und Selbstverwalter” movement. The Federal Republic of Germany does not recognize this movement and some of its followers are equipped with imaginary ID cards.
The states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Württemberg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony-Anhalt reported most cases in which there was a suspicion of right-wing extremism or had already been confirmed – if you consider the number of employees in the state security authorities, the latter two states are significantly higher the top.
At the federal level, most cases took place in the ranks of the Bundeswehr (83 right-wing extremists and 19 Reich citizens), followed by the federal police (18 right-wing extremists and 9 Reich citizens) and customs (4 right-wing extremists and 1 Reich citizen). Examples of allegations made by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution include shouts of “Sieg Heil!” or showing the Hitler salute, getting involved in anti-Semitic chat groups, racist insults or contacts with right-wing extremist parties.