Confiscated weapons from “Combat 18” members (archive image). Image: AP
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Right-wing extremism expert to ban Combat 18: “All members were warned”
On Thursday, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer banned the extreme right-wing organization Combat 18. In the morning, the police searched several apartments in the German federal states of Hesse, Brandenburg, Thuringia, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate of suspected members of the group.
Combat 18 was linked to the murder of Kassel government president Walter Lübcke last summer. One of the main suspects, Stephan E., is said to have had contacts with the group.
Did the authorities look away too long?
The German colleagues from watson.de have with the Right-wing extremism expert Christian Fuchs talked about the importance of the group for the right-wing scene and whether the police and the intelligence agency had been watching for too long instead of fighting against right-wing extremism.
Horst Seehofer banned Combat 18 in Germany. What kind of people are they who have organized themselves in this extreme right-wing group?
Christian Fuchs: These are classic neo-Nazis who like the Third Reich and are anti-Semitic and racist. In the UK, they became well known in the late 1990s through attacks on migrant neighborhoods or a pub that homosexuals liked to go to. Their crude idea was that they could drive these people out of the UK by spreading fear and terror. This idea was then adopted by the NSU in Germany, which was demonstrably in contact with “Blood and Honor”.
When did “Combat 18” show up in Germany?
In 2001 there was the first fan magazine for “Blood and Honor”. That was probably the origin of the group in Germany. Activists from abroad and individual local groups had previously visited. But it was only later that they were observed by the intelligence agency. The group was already known across Europe, which means you knew who it was. After the NSU was exposed in 2011, it was also clear to the constitutional protection agency what was happening in the extreme right-wing scene.
The NSU carried out attacks and killed ten people. What is known about the activities of Combat 18?
They had planned attacks, for example in Dortmund, but they were thwarted in time. However, there were also attacks on police officers and political opponents who committed individual Combat 18 members. Thankfully there was never a major attack, but it was planned.
If you knew about these planned attacks, why did it take so long to ban this group?
If you look at the internal documents that we have researched from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, you can read between the lines that it was difficult to understand them as an organization. There was no membership card or register like an association. It was therefore difficult to prove that the offenses were planned as an organization and not just the actions of individual members. After all, you cannot ban the SPD just because one of its members has committed a criminal offense. That was different with the so-called «Islamic State», for example, where the organization always writes that a trailer has committed an attack.
And these “Confat 18” letters of confession didn’t exist?
Combat 18 has never committed crimes. That made it very difficult under criminal law. On the contrary. The group also distanced itself from right-wing extremist crimes such as the assassination attempt on Walter Lübcke. There were contacts between “Combat 18” members and the main suspect in the murder case Lübcke, Stephan E., in Kassel and in Dortmund. “Combat 18” broke away from this because the alleged assassins by Walter Lübcke have actually had no contact with the scene since 2009.
Was the murder of Walter Lübcke a reason why the right-wing scene is now increasingly being attacked?
Absolutely. You can see that in Horst Seehofer’s comments. Many conservatives within the CDU / CSU have woken up and have noticed that right-wing extremism is not only a problem for the left, but can also hit party friends. You understood that this is an attack on democracy and the center of society. The ban proceedings are also a reaction to the murder of Walter Lübcke.
Right-wing extremism expert Christian Fuchs. Image: stephan pramme
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Isn’t it tragic that the NSU could have murdered for over ten years before, but politics only wakes up when one of them is on the hit list?
I find that unfair to the security authorities and politics. The discovery of the NSU led to a large awakening in the security organs. The coordination between secret services and the police was then strengthened and the joint anti-terrorism center in Berlin was set up. You also have to see the success of the police here, for example that the Revolution Chemnitz group, the Bamberg group or the Freital group were unmasked. These have all been terror cells in recent years that could not be acted on because they were discovered early. This has also been a success of this new anti-terror strategy since 2012. Something has already been done, just not against “Combat 18”.
But at the level of Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and also Hans-Georg Maassen, who was head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution until 2018, it sometimes seemed difficult to correctly assess the danger of right-wing extremism.
That’s true. That was certainly a major failure and an incorrect weighting. But you also have to see that Islamist terror with its media-effective attacks after September 11, 2001 caused great fear among the population. It was not only with the authorities that Islamist terror was perceived as the greater danger, it was also received with the people. You just lost sight of the danger posed by right-wing extremism.
How would you rate the measures that Horst Seehofer has announced since the Halle attack last autumn?
It is too early to assess that. I find it strange that it took more than half a year to carry out the ban proceedings against “Combat 18”. All members were warned and their weapons and documents could easily disappear. When you see what the right-wing networks in the Bundeswehr and the police have been exposed by journalists, you sometimes wonder why the security organs didn’t notice it.
How tough is this ban on Combat 18 for the right-wing scene?
It is more symbolic. The group is only a very small group of around 20 people. It no longer has such a big influence and was more of an outdated group. Right-wing extremists now organize themselves in completely different structures. We also know that members of Combat 18 have already found other groups in which they can organize today.
