A neo-Nazi group, the German People’s Union, failed last weekend in three attempts to organize a rally in small communities in the federal state of Hesse.
In two cases, landlords who were about to make rooms available for the meetings backed off after having learned that their guests were rightwing extremists.
In a third case, in the town of Hauneck, the local authorities banned the GPU meeting.
The leader of the GPU, Gerhard Frey, took the authorities to a local court last week, where it was declared that the ban was illegal.
But the decision was reversed last Friday by a higher court in nearby Bad Hersfeld.
The events in Hesse were typical of an emerging pattern in many towns in West Germany, where protesters and anti-Nazi activists have been trying to prevent right-wing extremists from holding public meetings.
However, one extremist group, the Republicans, has become more and more popular and has largely succeeded in establishing itself as a legitimate, right-of-the-center Democratic Party.
The group has become a problem for the governing Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian ally, the Christian Social Union.
Christian Democratic leader Theo Waigel declared Sunday in Munich that mainstream parties should take into account the increased “national consciousness” among the Germans.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
