Germany dismantles ‘deeply racist and anti-Semitic’ cult that planned to indoctrinate children with Nazi ideology as cops launch raids across the country

Germany has dismantled a “deeply racist and anti-Semitic” sect that officials said planned to indoctrinate children with Nazi ideology.

Investigators launched several raids across the country today as Berlin continues to suppress right-wing extremism.

Officers stormed 26 apartments belonging to 39 members of the neo-Nazi Artgemeinschaft network in 12 states, including Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Brandenburg.

The extremist group consists of around 150 members and has ties to several far-right groups, the Interior Ministry said. All sub-organizations, including the Gefaehrtschaften, Gilden, Freundeskreise and Familienwerk eV, were also banned.

“We are banning a sectarian, deeply racist and anti-Semitic association,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said.

“We ban a sectarian, deeply racist and anti-Semitic association,” said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (photo)

“This is a new blow against right-wing extremism and against the intellectual agitators who still spread Nazi ideologies today,” she added.

“This far-right group tried to create new enemies of the constitution through the disgusting indoctrination of children and young people.”

The neo-Nazi group uses the cover of a “pseudo-religious Germanic belief in God to spread their worldview that violates human dignity.”

“The central goal of the group was the preservation and promotion of its own ‘species’, which can be equated with the National Socialist term ‘race’,” the Interior Ministry statement said.

In addition to the ideology of the racial doctrine, the group’s symbolism, stories and activities showed further parallels to the ideology of the Nazis.

The group instructed its members on how to choose a “true husband” within the Northern and Central European “human species” to pass on the “correct” genetic makeup according to the association’s racist ideology.

People of other origins were demoted, the ministry said in a statement.

Using Nazi-era literature, the association attempted to convert the youth to adopt its racial theories.

Police officers are seen searching a property in Essen as they conducted raids across Germany

It also had an online bookstore that tried to radicalize and attract non-members.

The Artgemeinschaft was founded in 1951 by the old Nazi Wilhelm Kusserow and has been a registered association since 1957. Well-known neo-Nazi lawyer Jurgen Rieger led the group from 1989 until his death in 2009. The group was then taken over by Axel Schunk.

Its members consider the Nordic Germanic race to be superior to others. ‘Struggle is part of life; it is, of course, necessary for all who become, are, and pass away,” according to their “creed.”

Few public events are organized by the right-wing group, although it celebrates Germanic-pagan festivals behind closed doors and often organizes ‘community days’.

The Artgemeinschaft describes itself as a ‘fighting group’ that ‘must fight for the possibilities of a species-oriented lifestyle.’

They use the ‘Irminsul’ – or the ‘world tree’ – as their symbol. According to the Federal Agency for Civic Education, it is a counter-symbol to the Christian cross used by SS genealogists during National Socialism.

Germany has banned a series of right-wing extremist groups in recent months.

Last week it banned the local chapter of the US-based neo-Nazi group Hammerskins, known for its white supremacist rock concerts.

Last week, Germany banned the local chapter of the US-based neo-Nazi group Hammerskins, known for its white supremacist rock concerts. In the photo: The police raid the right-wing group

The group is an offshoot of an American extremist group and plays a prominent role throughout Europe.

Worldwide, members of this association call themselves ‘brothers’ who practice their subcultural way of life. According to the ministry, the group also sees itself as the elite of the right-wing extremist skinhead scene.

In Germany the group has approximately 130 members. During the early morning raids in ten states, about 700 police officers searched the homes of 28 group members. It was not immediately clear if any members were being held.

The core element of the group’s ideology is the spread of a racial doctrine based on Nazi ideology. The aim of the Hammerskins Germany association is to consolidate its right-wing extremist worldview, especially through concerts in which it tries to appeal to non-members in order to radicalize them, the ministry said.

According to a report presented in June by the federal domestic intelligence service BfV, there were approximately 38,800 people in the right-wing extremist spectrum in Germany in 2022 – up from 33,900 in 2021.

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