2010 Dresden anti-fascist blockade

Last updated
The poster used by Dresden Without Nazis to mobilize for the counter-demonstration, in January 2010. Dresden Nazifrei Gemeinsam Blockieren.gif
The poster used by Dresden Without Nazis to mobilize for the counter-demonstration, in January 2010.

The 2010 Dresden anti-fascist blockade, organized by the umbrella group Dresden Without Nazis [1] (Dresden nazifrei), an anti-fascist alliance of several German organizations, was a counter-demonstration against a planned march of neo-Nazis in Dresden on February 13, 2010. The Dresden Without Nazis alliance is supported by anti-fascist organizations as well as politicians from the Left Party, the Green Party and the Social Democratic Party and leading members of trade unions. The alliance coordinated large, peaceful blockades consisting of large crowds of people to stop the neo-Nazi demonstration, a strategy that was successful in preventing the neo-Nazis from marching through Dresden. [2] [3]

Contents

Supporters

The group "No pasaran" ("They shall not pass") is one of the supporters of the Dresden Without Nazis alliance. Dresden 2010 - Avanti.jpg
The group "No pasarán" ("They shall not pass") is one of the supporters of the Dresden Without Nazis alliance.

Supporters of Dresden Without Nazis include local and regional anti-fascist groups, the nationwide anti-fascist associations "No pasarán!" and "VVN-BdA", artists such as Konstantin Wecker and Die Toten Hosen, politicians from the Left Party, the Green Party and the Social Democratic Party and leading members of trade unions. [4]

Activities

Dresden Without Nazis was set up to mobilize against a planned march of neo-Nazis in Dresden on February 13, 2010, [2] the biggest Nazi activity in Europe. [5] The coalition advocated large, peaceful blockades consisting of large crowds of people as a means to stop neo-Nazi demonstrations. [2] Its consensus on the form of action to be taken against the neo-Nazis reads: "We engage in civil disobedience against the Nazi demonstration. We will not escalate conflicts. Our mass blockades consist of people. We are in solidarity with all those who share with us the goal of preventing the Nazi demonstration." [6]

On January 19, 2010, police units searched premises used by the alliance in Dresden and Berlin, and confiscated computers, as well as posters. Politicians of the Left Party and the Green Party criticized the seizure. [7] According to the Prosecutors Office, the slogan "Gemeinsam blockieren" ("Blocking together"), used on the poster, constituted a call to violate the law. [8]

People blocking the planned neo-Nazi demonstration in Dresden on February 13, 2010 Blockade Dresden Hansastrasse 13-02-2010-420px.jpg
People blocking the planned neo-Nazi demonstration in Dresden on February 13, 2010

On February 13, 2010, neo-Nazi groups gathered in Dresden to stage a "mourning march" on the 65th anniversary of the bombing of the city in World War II, which they describe as a "bombing holocaust". [9] Until 2010, the march, organized by the National Democratic Party and the Junge Landsmannschaft Ostdeutschland, was the largest yearly demonstration organized by neo-Nazis in Europe. [4] On February 13, 1945, the city was bombed by Allied planes, resulting in the death of an estimated 25,000 inhabitants, and official ceremonies to commemorate the dead take place in Dresden every year.

Coordinated by the alliance Dresden Without Nazis, which organized several rallies that took place in the area, between 10,000 and 15,000 demonstrators surrounded the train station of the Neustadt district of Dresden, where the neo-Nazi demonstration was supposed to begin. [4] [10] [11] [12] In the city center, an additional 10,000 people took part in a human chain that symbolically protected the city against the Nazis. While about 6,000 Nazis held a rally in a confined space adjacent to the Neustadt train station, more than 5,000 police separated the opposing groups. Police then declared the blockades to be intractable, did not allow the neo-Nazis to march, and ordered them to leave the area by train. [12]

Related Research Articles

Neo-Nazism comprises the post-World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy, to attack racial and ethnic minorities, and in some cases to create a fascist state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Democratic Party of Germany</span> Far-right political party in Germany

The Homeland, previously known as the National Democratic Party of Germany, is a far-right Neo-Nazi and ultranationalist political party in Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Racist Action</span> North American far-left political cells

Anti-Racist Action (ARA), also known as the Anti-Racist Action Network, is a decentralized network of militant far-left political cells in the United States and Canada. The ARA network originated in the late 1980s to engage in direct action and doxxing against rival political organizations on the hard right to dissuade them from further involvement in political activities. Anti-Racist Action described such groups as racist or fascist, or both. Most ARA members have been anarchists, but some have been Trotskyists and Maoists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Dawn (Greece)</span> Greek neo-Nazi criminal organisation

The Popular Association – Golden Dawn, usually shortened to Golden Dawn, is a far-right neo-Nazi ultranationalist former political party in Greece. Golden Dawn rose to prominence during Greece's financial crisis of 2009, becoming the third most popular party in the Greek parliament in the January 2015 election. Its support since plunged, and it failed to enter parliament in the 2019 election. The criminal trial against the leaders, frequently described as the largest trial of Nazis since the Nuremberg trials, lasted more than five years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Svoboda (political party)</span> Political party in Ukraine

The All-Ukrainian Union "Freedom", commonly known as Svoboda, is an ultranationalist political party in Ukraine. It has been led by Oleh Tyahnybok since 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Far-right politics in Germany (1945–present)</span> German politics since the fall of Nazism

The far-right in Germany slowly reorganised itself after the fall of Nazi Germany and the dissolution of the Nazi Party in 1945. Denazification was carried out in Germany from 1945 to 1949 by the Allied forces of World War II, with an attempt of eliminating Nazism from the country. However, various far-right parties emerged in the post-war period, with varying success. Most parties only lasted a few years before either dissolving or being banned, and explicitly far-right parties have never gained seats in the Bundestag post-WWII.

Junge Landsmannschaft Ostdeutschland is a German youth organization, that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has categorized as “right-wing extremist”. Most of its activities take place in the eastern parts of Germany. Its regional branch in Saxony organized the annual marches to commemorate the Bombing of Dresden in World War II until 2012. A Bloomberg report claims it has ties to the National Democratic Party of Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Association of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime – Federation of Antifascists</span> Political confederation in Germany

The Association of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime – Federation of Antifascists (VVN-BdA) is a German political confederation founded in 1947 and based in Berlin. The VVN-BdA, formerly the VVN, emerged from victims' associations in Germany founded by political opponents to Nazism after the Second World War and the end of the Nazi rule in Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Autonome Nationalisten</span> European nationalist militant groups

Autonome Nationalisten are German, British, Dutch, and to a lesser degree Flemish, nationalists, who have adopted some of the far-left and antifa's organizational concepts, demonstration tactics, symbolism, and elements of clothing, including Che Guevara T-shirts and keffiyehs. Similar groups have also appeared in some central and eastern European countries, beginning with Poland, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Romania and Greece and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neo-Nazi marches in Dresden</span> Marches by Nazi groups in post-war Germany

During the early 21st century, Dresden was the site of some of the largest gatherings of neo-Nazis in post-war Germany. The annual right-wing marches peaked in 2007 and 2009, with about 6,500 participants. At the marches, a broad coalition of right-wing groups commemorated the Allied bombing of Dresden at the end of World War II on the weekend after the anniversary of the bombing on February 13, 1945.

The Anti-Nazi League (ANL) was an organisation set up in 1977 on the initiative of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) with sponsorship from some trade unions and the endorsement of a list of prominent people to oppose the rise of far-right groups in the United Kingdom. It was wound down in 1981. It was relaunched in 1992, but merged into Unite Against Fascism in 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-fascism</span> Opposition to fascism

Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were opposed by many countries forming the Allies of World War II and dozens of resistance movements worldwide. Anti-fascism has been an element of movements across the political spectrum and holding many different political positions such as anarchism, communism, pacifism, republicanism, social democracy, socialism and syndicalism as well as centrist, conservative, liberal and nationalist viewpoints.

Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West, abbreviated Pegida, is a pan-European, anti-Islam, far-right extremist political movement. German Pegida believes that Germany is being increasingly Islamicised and defines itself in opposition to Islamic extremism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NOWKR</span>

NOWKR was a radical-left, anticapitalist and antifascist alliance against a ball now organized by Austria's right-wing Freedom Party. The alliance was created in 2008 and ever since has caused uproar among politicians, the media and the police. The group dissolved itself in February 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blockupy movement</span> Movement protesting against austerity

Blockupy is a movement protesting against austerity. The Blockupy alliance includes trade unions and Germany's Linkspartei.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Post–World War II anti-fascism</span> History of movements and networks opposing fascism after WWII

Post–World War II anti-fascism, including antifa groups, anti-fascist movements and anti-fascist action networks, saw the development of political movements describing themselves as anti-fascist and in opposition to fascism. Those movements have been active in several countries in the aftermath of World War II during the second half of the 20th and early 21st century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2018 Chemnitz protests</span> August 2018 extreme right-wing riots in Chemnitz, East Germany

The 2018 Chemnitz protests took place in Chemnitz, in the German state of Saxony. In the early morning of 26 August, after a festival celebrating the city's founding, a fight broke out resulting in the death of a German man and serious injuries to two other people. Two Kurdish immigrants, one from Iraq and the other from Syria, were named as suspects. The incident reignited the tensions surrounding immigration to Germany, which had been ongoing since 2015, and the European migrant crisis. In response, mass protests against immigration were ignited by far-right groups. The protests spawned riots and were followed by counter-demonstrations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caren Lay</span> German politician

Caren Nicole Lay is a German politician. She has been a member of the Bundestag since 2009 and has been deputy chairperson of the Die Linke parliamentary group in the Bundestag since 2017. From 2012 to 2018, she was one of the deputy chairpersons of her party. In November 2019, Lay unsuccessfully applied to succeed Sahra Wagenknecht as co-chairperson of the Die Linke parliamentary group in the Bundestag. She was defeated by Amira Mohamed Ali in a competitive vote.

Gruppe S, named after founder Werner S., was an alleged far-right terrorist group in Germany that emerged on the internet in September 2019 and was dismantled in February 2020 with the arrest of several militants. They are said to have armed themselves in a few months, conducted target practice and planned simultaneous assassinations of Muslims in mosques, prominent politicians and people close to anti-fascist movements.

References

  1. "Neo-Nazi March Blocked in Dresden". JTA Wire News. February 16, 2010. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 "Thousands prevent neo-Nazi rally in Dresden". Agence France Press. December 13, 2010. Archived from the original on January 24, 2013. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
  3. Mueller-Thederan, Dirk (February 13, 2010). "German protesters stop neo-Nazi march in Dresden". Washington Post. Retrieved February 23, 2010.[ dead link ] With information from Reuters.
  4. 1 2 3 Radke, Johannes (February 14, 2010). "Ein Bollwerk gegen die Ewiggestrigen". Die Zeit. Archived from the original on 24 March 2010. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
  5. Reißmann, Ole (January 7, 2011). "Rechtsextreme als Volkszähler". Der Spiegel. Archived from the original on 19 January 2011. Retrieved January 7, 2011. Tausende Demonstranten verhinderten mit Blockaden die größte Nazi-Aktion in Europa. ("With blockades, thousands of demonstrators prevented the biggest Nazi activity in Europe.")
  6. "13.2.2010 Dresden nazifrei. Gemeinsam blockieren". Dresden nazifrei. Archived from the original on 7 February 2010. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
  7. "Polizei-Einsatz gegen Neonazi-Gegner empört Politiker". Der Spiegel. January 19, 2010. Archived from the original on 22 January 2010. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
  8. "Polizei durchsucht Räume von Anti-Nazi-Bündnis". Stern. January 20, 2010. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
  9. "On Dresden Anniversary, Massive Protest Against Neo-Nazi March". Deutsche Welle. February 14, 2010. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
  10. Radau, Lars (February 14, 2010). "Die anständigen Aufständischen". Stern. Archived from the original on 17 February 2010. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
  11. Kohl, Christiane (13 February 2010). "Ein deutliches Zeichen". Archived from the original on 23 March 2010. Retrieved 20 February 2010.
  12. 1 2 Becker, Leon Dische (February 15, 2010). "Dresden's 'Civil Courage' – A City Mobilizes Against Neo-Nazis". Spiegel Online . Retrieved November 18, 2019.