Protests Lead to Suspension of Neo-nazi Minister of Education

Protests by educators and the public in Lower Saxony have forced the suspension of the newly appointed Minister of Education and Religion of that provincial government. The Minister, Dr. Leonhard Schlueter, is a neo-Nazi and well known publisher of Nazi books.

Following his appointment, the rector and senate of Goettingen University resigned in protest and to enforce a demand for an inquiry into his appointment. They were backed by the resignations of the rectors or directors of three other institutions of higher education in Goettingen and Brunswick and by a student strike in Goettingen.

Dr. Schlueter has taken “leave” pending an official inquiry, which is expected within two weeks. In his own defense, he has pointed out that one of his grandparents was a Jew and, as a result, he was discriminated against by the Nazis. Now a member of the Free Democratic Party, he was a founder of the Socialist Reich Party which was outlawed as neo-Nazi by the Bonn Government.

Jews in Lower Saxony have been asked by the representative Jewish body in Germany to refuse all cooperation with Dr. Schlueter because of his neo-Nazi activities. Men holding Dr. Schlueter’s post in the German states have considerable financial and administrative influence over religious groups.

In asking its affiliated Lower Saxony State Association of Jewish Communities to refrain from cooperating with Dr. Schlueter in all matters affecting Jewish affairs, the Council of Jews in Germany’s secretary general, Dr. H.G. Van Dam, noted that the Jewish community cannot be expected to work with a man who is co-founder of a radical neo-Nazi party and who started a publishing firm especially to disseminate books by such top Nazi chieftains as Rudolf Diels, the founder of the Gestapo.