Germany bans neo-Nazi group after nationwide raids on homes, clubs

The German government has banned a far-right, racist group known for its indoctrination of children, as police raided dozens of homes of its members and other buildings.

A statement from the German interior ministry on Monday said it has banned the Artgemeinschaft group, an anti-democratic association with around 150 members and described it as a "cult-like, deeply racist and anti-Semitic association".

All of its sub-organisations, including the Gefaehrtschaften, Gilden, Freundeskreis, and Familienwerk eV, were also banned, the ministry said.

“We are banning a sectarian, deeply racist and antisemitic association," Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said.

“This is another hard blow against right-wing extremism and (those) who continue to spread Nazi ideologies to this day,” she said, adding that the organisation had attempted to indoctrinate their children and young people with their anti-democratic ideology.

Under the cover of a pseudo-religious Germanic belief in gods, the Artgemeinschaft spread its Nazi worldview, the ministry said.

“The group's central goal was the preservation and promotion of one’s own ‘kind,’ which can be equated with the National Socialist term 'race',” according to the statement.

In addition to the ideology of racial doctrine, the symbolism, narratives and activities of the group showed further parallels to the Nazis' ideology.

The group gave its members instructions on how to choose a "proper spouse" within the Northern and Central European “humankind” in order to pass on the “correct” genetic makeup according to the association’s racist ideology.

People of other origins were degraded, the ministry said in its statement.

In early morning raids across 12 states, police searched 26 apartments of 39 group members as well as the organisation's clubhouses.

Last week, the German government banned the neo-Nazi group Hammerskins Germany and raided the homes of dozens of its members.

The group was an offshoot of an American ring-wing extremist group and played a prominent role in the far-right scene across Europe.

There were some 38,800 people in the right-wing extremist spectrum in Germany in 2022, according to a report presented by the BfV federal domestic intelligence agency in June -- up from 33,900 in 2021.

The number considered potentially violent also rose from 13,500 to 14,000.