The sharp increase in neo-Nazi and exteme rightwing organizations prepared to resort to violence has been detailed by Andres Von Schoeler, Vice Minister for Interior Affairs. He said this phenomenon was dramatized by the discovery of scores of weapons caches in Lower Saxony last month belonging to such organizations.
In written replies to questions by Bundestag members, Von Schoeler noted that a single search among neo-Nazi groups this year netted 29 weapons and 6,000 books or other propaganda publications. In all of 1980 only 205 such publications were found, he said. He noted further that 304 rightwing extremists were found guilty by West German courts this year compared to 207 last year.
The centers of neo-Nazi activities are Hamburg, Bremen, Nuremberg, Munich and the Federal State of Lower Saxony, Von Schoeler reported. The organizations are funded mainly by donations. But since 1979 they have had contacts with similar groups in Belgium, Britain, the U.S., Canada and other countries. According to Von Schoeler, German neo-Nazis also have close contacts with Al Fatah, the military arm of the Palestine Liberation Organization, headed by PLO chief Yasir Arafat.
While the government is not considering a general ban on neo-Nazi activities, there is a limit of tolerance which was manifested last year, when the government outlawed the Wehrsportsgruppe Hoffmann, a neo-Nazi organization that masquaraded as a sports club.
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