Berlin’s Neo-Nazis
Posted by Thomas Klikauer
Germany’s Neo-Nazis have renewed their, often displayed, brutalities in recent weeks. They are encouraged by the recent successes of their parliamentarian platoon, Germany’s neo-fascist AfD.
They are also inspired by Elon Musk showing his Hitler-Salute when he appeared at the AfD’s party convention via a video link.
German Neo-Nazis see that the official side of politics – Musk and AfD – support their far right plans for a race-based and deeply anti-Semitic Germany – their beloved Aryan Volksgemeinschaft.
In Germany’s capital city of Berlin, violent workings of Neo-Nazis can be easily seen through a marked shift to the radical right which led to even more vicious attacks, thuggish violence, and criminality.
In one recent incident, it culminated in the hunting down of perceived enemies in the suburb of Berlin-Hohenschönhausen.
To describe the Neo-Nazi assault, local media used the word Hetzjagd – a kind of blood-hound-like persistent hunting where an animal is killed.
On the outskirts of East-Berlin, the renewed Neo-Nazi violence against a group of school students escalated when a violent squad of 15 Neo-Nazis chased several students through Berlin’s streets at night.
Neo-Nazi thugs came in gangs – they are not lone wolfs. The young people who were brutally hunted that night barely escaped.
In desperation, they called the police. When the police – finally! – came, Germany’s so-called emergency services let the perpetrators leave undisturbed.
Historically, the record of Germany’s police force is not the best when it comes to Nazism. In the infamous killer unit known as Reserve Police Battalion 101, the majority of its members consisted of regular policemen. The battalion was part in what became known as the Holocaust by Bullets – murdering millions.
Back in today’s Berlin, the recent Neo-Nazi violence signified a stark reminder of the so-called Baseball Bat Years – defining the brutal Neo-Nazi thugs who were running wild during the 1990s.
In the recent attack which occurred only a few weeks ago in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen, much of what happened during the Neo-Nazi attack was reported by one of their victims – Leon – who, together with two friends was deeply affected by the attack. The attack left Leon very distressed.
Yet, Leon refuses to accept Neo-Nazi violence in his neighborhood. Leon is convinced that the Neo-Nazi hunting of his friends and him was anything but a mere coincidence.
There is a long line of Neo-Nazi crimes throughout post-war German history. And with scores of right-wing extremist killings since 1945, Neo-Nazi brutalities in Germany are never a coincidence.
Instead, Neo-Nazi attacks are a constant feature in Germany’s post-Hitler years culminating in the 1980 Oktoberfest bombing with 12 deaths and in the Neo-Nazi NSU (2001-2010) with 10 people killed.
In Berlin, the recent Neo-Nazi perpetrators came well prepared. At least one of the Neo-Nazis was armed with quartz sand gloves – often used for brutal attacks.
The Neo-Nazi bully squad had been waiting for the 16-year-old Leon in the immediate vicinity of his parents’ apartment and intercepted him there.
The reason for the Neo-Nazi attack is rather clear. Local Neo-Nazis disliked Leon’s pro-democratic political activity at his local school.
Leon’s engagement started about three years ago. Then, he and his classmates decided to get involved in his local community and the school.
Initially, the school students tried to make various topics visible in everyday school life through flyers and by initiating open discussions. In one case, their group supported a teachers’ strike against planned cuts to educational funding.
In June 2024, their otherwise rather tranquil school suddenly found itself in nationwide news headlines. During an argument between two students, one of them was injured with a knife.
Leon recalled that Germany’s extreme right-wing media picked up the event for racist propaganda. He was disgusted by this appropriation for ideological goals.
Leon said, we have said that we find it repulsive that any racists who have nothing to do with our school want to exploit the incident. Instead of spreading hate, his group wanted to facilitate the exchange among the students.
Just before Germany’s federal elections in February 2025, the group organized a general assembly. In the end, 650 students voted on a catalogue of demands.
Among other things, an internal school reporting office for far-right incidents was to be created.
To the healthy encouragement of the group’s initiative also came the staunch rejection of local Neo-Nazis’ open and democratic commitment.
Leon had made himself vulnerable with his public advocacy for a solidarity-based pro-democratic school climate. Suddenly, everyone knew his name and knew what he was advocating for.
Initially, tensions escalated at the end of February. The occasion was an election campaign of the anti-democratic AfD. It took place on the 22nd of February 2025 in Hohenschönhausen.
Leon’s school group supported a counter-protest for democracy and against the anti-democratic AfD. As so often the case, young right-wing thugs came to the neo-fascist AfD’s event on Prerower Platz.
Yet, Leon’s group made things difficult for local Neo-Nazis. They were challenged when their recruiting ground was taken away from them.
And that is one reason as to why Neo-Nazis took such a massive action against the pro-democracy group.
Virtually all of this is the result of a recent alignment of extremely right-wing party politics (the AfD) and Germany’s Neo-Nazis. The neo-fascist AfD increasingly manipulates young people to corral them into their neo-fascism orbit.
To manipulate young people, the neo-fascist AfD has a habit of placing far right political content specific to the living environment of young people on their online platforms. Worse was to come.
Between autumn 2023 and spring 2024, an even more hardcore Neo-Nazi outfit called the Third Way launched its so-called schoolyard offensive – driven by the party’s youth squad, the National Revolutionary Youth.
Scores of young Neo-Nazis distributed neo-fascistic flyers in front of Berlin and Brandenburg schools. Adjoining this, the neo-fascist AfD is explicitly staging itself as being close to Germany’s youth.
This is not a new far-right strategy. Hitler’s NSDAP was already by no means a party of old men.
Even the neo-fascist AfD’s unofficial Führer Björn Höcke and his ideological bedfellow Maximilian Krah – who thinks that Hitler’s SS were good people – showed up.
Subsequently, the neo-fascist AfD rolled out their usual Leni Riefenstahl like propaganda. It features propagandistic far right photos and videos that were shared on the AfD’s far right online platforms.
Recently, entire networks of young Neo-Nazis were found by Germany’s officials on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.
In Berlin, for example, two Neo-Nazi outfits are particularly active: Deutsche Jugend Voran (onward German youth) and Jung & Stark (young & strong). Its members like to attend extreme right-wing rallies throughout Germany.
Worse, these new Neo-Nazi formations do not shy away from violence – rather the opposite is the case. Eventually, and only after several Neo-Nazi attacks on people, house searches of involved Neo-Nazis took place in October 2024.
Recently, it became known that the Berlin prosecutor’s office has filed charges against a 24-year-old Neo-Nazi.
Meanwhile, there is a rather dangerous mixture of right-wing/Neo-Nazi youth culture that is met by the neo-fascist AfD – rather successfully. This became particularly prevalent during the 2025 election campaign with Hohenschönhausen being one of the targets of Neo-Nazis.
To counter the rise of Neo-Nazis, Leon’s classmates were often among the young people present at such events. Shortly after detecting the engagement of Leon’s pro-democracy group, local Neo-Nazis created a new group profile on Instagram.
This far right anti-democracy group presented itself as a representation of the right-wing youth in Hohenschönhausen.
The online activities of this new Neo-Nazi network were conspicuously focused on the group around Leon. Threats and attempted intimidation started to accumulate in the school environment.
Pro-democracy posters of Leon’s group had been torn down. And three masked Neo-Nazi men had appeared at one of their public meetings.
Eventually, Leon himself became the target of the Neo-Nazi invasion. At the school and the surrounding neighborhood, posters were pasted with his name, his phone number, and a photo of him. This was followed by a request to stay away from the radical left.
Leon’s parents, in turn, watched as strangers on the street tried to locate the apartment’s doorbell. Shortly after, Leon noticed a graffiti of his last name and the threat Verrecke! – die a wretched death.
On the night of the 7th to the 8th of March 2025, a group of Neo-Nazis of different ages got together in order to intimidate and bully local students because of their pro-democratic political activity.
As so often in Germany, the police were of no help to Leon and his friends. The police did even worse during the NSU killings when they came looking everywhere for the killers, except where the Neo-Nazi killers came from: Germany’s far right Neo-Nazis.
Until today, the police’s action of looking the other way while the NSU killed ten people is presented as merely a failure.
Leon even described how it took only almost ten minutes for two emergency services to arrive. There were some Neo-Nazis present who had been sneaking around the policemen.
Next time we’ll get the shit ticks from your school, Neo-Nazis told each other.
Nevertheless, and despite multiple requests, the police did not record any personal details of the Neo-Nazis until an editorial deadline in the news forced the police to act.
Meanwhile, there are numerous offers of help after Leon made the incident public. Even in Hohenschönhausen, many people do not want to sit idly by and watch a growing right-wing threat.
At the same time, Leon sees the situation as a confirmation of his commitment.
The far right wants to win people over at his school. They are alarmed when their recruitment ground is taken away from them and this is one of the reasons why the Neo-Nazis are taking such a massive action against Leon’s group.
For this reason, a progressive and better organized grassroots network at schools is still urgently needed.
Photo: The sticker reads: “Skinheads – white and proud” (source)
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