German Police raid neo-Nazis linked to Freies Netz Süd, which collaborates with the DSSS

German Police in Bavaria have raided the Jagdstaffel D.S.T., a neo-Nazi group that regularly travels to the Czech Republic to train its members in the use of firearms. During the extensive police action, officers confiscated 5 800 items, including weapons. Czech extremists from the Workers’ Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti – DSSS) and the Workers’ Youth (Dělnická mládež – DM) collaborate with the German neo-Nazi organization Freies Netz Süd, which is connected to the Jagdstaffel D.S.T.

News server Welt.de reports that the items confiscated from the German neo-Nazis included a revolver, so-called decorative weapons, knives, brass knuckles, munitions, Nazi-themed items, and Nazi propaganda. Charges are now being filed against 19 members of the Jagdstaffel D.S.T. group, who range in age from 20 to 33 and who police say are in contact with the neo-Nazi organization Freies Netz Süd. All of the defendants were released after being deposed.

The raid on 31 different sites in Munich and its environs involved 300 officers. Police say the revolver that was discovered, as well as a flare gun, were being held in violation of laws on weapons possession, and the confiscated munitions probably violate the law on the control of military materiel. Several so-called decorative weapons – real weapons that have been disarmed – also ended up in police evidence. Police are now determining whether the extremists were repairing them to be used for sharpshooting once more. The weapons included a double-barreled gun from WWII.

Detectives are now taking an interest in the extensive collection held by the father of one of the members of the organization. The man, who is a sport shooter, owns more than 50 weapons. Nevertheless, police said he had the required permits for all of them and that they were properly secured at the time his home was searched.

The spokesperson for the Green Party faction in the Bavarian state assembly, Susanna Tausendfreund, considers the Jagdstaffel organization dangerous and says their shooting trips to the Czech Republic are proof of that. Tausendfreund has information that members of the organization have practiced targeting shooting in the Czech Republic on targets representing human figures. Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann also warned last week of the organization’s firearms-training “trips to Czechia”.

The organization Jagdstaffel D.S.T. was established in 2009 in Geretsried near Munich; it was originally called the Jagdstaffel Süd. The group is comprised of a “hard core” of about 10 people and an outer circle of other members. The letters in its name stand for the words “Deutsch” (German) “Stolz” (Proud) and Treu (“Authentic”). According to official estimates, as many as 200 violent neo-Nazis live in Munich.

Czech extremists from the DM and DSSS collaborate with the Freies Netz Süd, as they do with the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD). For example, anti-Romani demonstrations in Ostrava and Rotava (October 2011) and the 1 May demonstration on 2001 in Brno were attended by neo-Nazis from Freies Netz Süd and the NPD.

As the Antifa.cz website has reported, the demonstration in Ostrava was attended by a “prominent” neo-Nazi, Katrin Köhler, an NPD member who is currently a town council member in Chemnitz. Bavarian politician and active neo-Nazi Robin Siener (NPD, Freies Netz Süd) was there as well. Siener spoke at last year’s 1 May demonstration in Brno. His speech there included anti-Semitic and racist statements, as well as insults of Polish guest-workers; he is currently being prosecuted for his statements.

Siener said the following in Brno: “Look at the big European cities, where women are being raped right in the middle of the square…, where this human garbage can commit crime without the local population intervening… When will the nation finally get its rights? … We are sending our blood to Afghanistan, Iraq, or Lebanon, and in return we just get human garbage that no one wants… I ask each of you, how far will it go in our countries before we take up staffs and and torches and run those who are oppressing us and sending us their human garbage here out of the European fortress and send them back to where they came from? We would do best to send them immediately back to Israel or the USA with one-way tickets… We are divided by only two things, the border and language, nothing else…” (See Romea.cz’s reporting on the 1 May demonstration at http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_23d97).

Two busloads of neo-Nazis, most of them from Bavaria and linked to the organizations Freie Netz Süd and the NPD, attended the Rotava demonstration to support it. Several carloads of cohorts from Saxony also made it to the demonstration, which was also attended by the top leadership circle of the DSSS (Vandas, Štěpánek, Kotáb), reinforced by activists from local organizations and representatives of the DM.

Among the most important of the Czech attendees was the chair of the Karlovy Vary regional DSSS, Jiří Froněk. From the neo-Nazis living in Karlovy Vary, there was the stalwart of the neo-Nazi scene, DSSS candidate Pavel “Kevin” Petrů, who is a member of the racist white power band “Hlas krve” (Voice of Blood). The main person besides Froněk who was behind the actual inviting of the German extremists to Rotava was Lukáš Stoupa, who has been a neo-Nazi for many years. He has long been in contact with significant German neo-Nazis. The organization of the two buses from Bavaria for the Rotava demonstration was handled by the neo-Nazi Freies Netz Süd (FNS), whose leading members are in contact with Stoupa.

The FNS was created in 2008 in Bavaria. It is a very active organization in which several local-level cells are associated. Their activities include monitoring their political opponents and physically assaulting them. Many racist attacks have been ascribed to members of the FNS. The core of this organization is comprised of members of the banned neo-Nazi organization “Fränkischen Aktionsfront” (FAF), who also attended the demonstration in Rotava.

One of the top neo-Nazis active in Germany is Matthias Fischer, a founder of the FNS and FAF. Fischer has been active since the 1990s; currently he is active within the Anti-Antifa movement and has been convicted of neo-Nazi activities in the past. He is also the founder of the group “Aryan Hope”, the logo of which is tattooed on his head. Through that organization, he has established contacts around the world, most closely with the Hungarian neo-Nazi scene.

Stoupa was seen in Rotava conversing with Daniel Weigl, a member of the NPD who is also a leading member of the FNS. Weigl is currently on parole for attacking fans of the FC Bayern football club and for giving the Nazi salute. Another important FHS member who was spotted in Rotava was Kai Zimmerman. He is currently working primarily as a convener and organizer of neo-Nazi demonstrations. One of his activities is to follow and videotape the group’s political opponents, and he brought his camera with him to Rotava. In the past, Zimmerman has been convicted of committing grievous bodily harm and disseminating neo-Nazi materials. You can find more details about the collaboration between Czech and German neo-Nazis in our piece from January at http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_3122 .