Germany Bans Far-Right Demonstrations

B E R L I N, Aug. 12 -- Germany banned two planned marchesby far-right groups today and police made a show of forcein one of the targeted cities to prevent violence amid growingsentiment for a ban on the country’s oldest rightist party.

About 1,000 police were on hand to prevent the NationalDemocratic Party (NPD) from gathering before the ConstitutionalCourt in Karlsruhe, which has the power to outlaw politicalparties. NPD members stayed away.

Germans are increasingly calling for a ban on the NPD in abacklash against racist violence sparked by a bomb attack thatinjured 10 including six Jews in Duesseldorf two weeks ago. Itremains unclear if the far right was involved in the incident.

In interviews released today, Foreign Minister JoschkaFischer and Environment Minister Juergen Trittin, both left-wingGreens, said they backed an NPD ban if it could be justified.

“The NPD is a legal mantle for those who have knitted anunderground web of violence in Germany,” Trittin told theMagdeburger Volksstimme newspaper.

Extremism Not Accepted

Germany’s post-World War Two constitution, written withmemories of Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, allows theConstitutional Court to ban parties opposing democratic rights.

“A constitutional state must apply its powers to signalthat right-wing extremism will not be accepted,” Ernst Uhrlau,who coordinates secret service matters in Chancellor GerhardSchroeder’s office, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

Hoping to preempt violence, lower courts supported a ban ontoday’s demonstrations in both Karlsruhe and Duesseldorf aheadof the anniversary of the death of Hitler deputy Rudolf Hess.

About 150 people held an anti-Nazi march in Karlsruhe andabout 1,000 attended a similar church-backed event in Munich.

The period around the August anniversary has long been afocal point for neo-Nazi demonstrations. Hess hanged himself inBerlin’s Spandau Prison on August 17, 1987.