A West German court has opened criminal proceedings against six neo-Nazis accused of establishing a terrorist organization as well as committing individual crime. It is the first time in legal history that the chief federal prosecutor has pressed charges against neo-Nazis or right-wing extremists for terrorist activities.
The defendants are former army Lt. Michael Kuehnen, 24, described as the “brains” behind the gang which calls itself the “Werewolf Underground Organization.” He was discharged from the military for neo-Nazi activities; Lothar-Harold Schulte, 26, a former non-commissioned officer, Lutz Wegener, 22, Uwe Rohwer, 42, Klaus Dieter Puls, 37; and Manfred Boerm, 29. All are former members of the new Nazi Party in north Germany, said to have a membership of 200. They are charged, among other things, with raids and burglaries to obtain arms and money to finance terrorist attacks.
TRIAL CONDUCTED IN PRISON
The High Court of Celle in north Germany is conducting the trial behind the walls of Bueckburg prison as a security precaution. It fears that other neo-Nazis may try to free the defendants or commit acts of violence against the court or the jurors. According to the prosecutor, the “Werewolf” gang had detailed plans to raid German Army and NATO installations and to bomb the Berlin wall. The indictment charges them with an attempted attack on a British forces broadcasting service transmitter in north Germany Plans were also found to free Hitler’s former deputy, Rudolf Hess from Spandou prison where he is serving a life sentence, to attack East German border guards and to attack the memorial at the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Members of the gang were instructed to raid arms shops and banks as a test of their “courage,” the charges said.
Schulte and Wegener are accused in addition of raiding the guard room at an army barracks to steal a submachinegun. Later they broke into a Cologne apartment and made off with two rifles, jewels and cash worth 60,000 Marks. In December, 1977, they broke into an army ammunition depot and stole 1000 rounds of ammunition. Two weeks later, they robbed a Hamburg bank of 60,000 Marks in cash. Schulte and Wegener, along with Rohwer, Puls and Boerm attacked four Dutch NATO soldiers at a training camp in February, 1978 and stole their submachineguns and ammunition. The trial is expected to last 25 days during which several dozen witnesses will be heard.
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.
