Trial starts for German neo-Nazi who planned a 'race war'

The trial of a 20-year-old man accused of trying to launch a neo-Nazi terror group began in the German city of Frankfurt on Tuesday.

Marvin E.*, an aspiring carpenter and local politician was arrested in September 2021 following a police raid at his house.

Authorities discovered several self-built "unconventional" explosive devices as well as a racist manifesto and material intended for a recruitment campaign.

Prosecutors say he made efforts to launch a local branch of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division — a racist and antisemitic terror group.

They said he wanted to start a "race war" in Germany "to preserve the white population."

What is Atomwaffen Division?

Atomwaffen — the German word for atomic weapons — was founded in the US in 2015. Several of its members have been jailed for making threats toward anti-racist journalists and activists.

They are also accused of planning attacks against Muslims and Jews, among others, with the aim of starting a "race war" and destabilizing democracy.

Mervin E. had concrete plans to trigger a civil war by 2024, according to German broadcaster ZDF.

At the same time, the suspect was training to be a carpenter and was chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the small town of Spangenberg in the central state of Hesse, ZDF reported.

He had also run on the party's list for a local election. The CDU chief in the town, Jörg Lange told ZDF. "It is difficult to find young, engaged people locally."

On the party's website, they said that they distance themselves from "every form of extremism, racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia."

Germany's neo-Nazi problem

People with connections to the US neo-Nazi terror group were the target of a series of police raids in April last year.

Authorities said recruiters were trying to attract young German men at universities in Berlin and Frankfurt with flyers and internet propaganda.

Germany's new Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called right-wing extremism Germany's "biggest threat" upon taking office in December.

Previous governments have been accused of not doing enough to tackle far-right groups who have been behind a series of assaults, planned attacks and weapons hoarding in recent years.

Germany's federal domestic intelligence agency the BfV estimates that there were some 33,900 right-wing extremists in the country in 2021, of which 13,500 were considered potentially violent.

ab/aw (AFP, dpa)

*Editor's note: DW follows the German press code, which stresses the importance of protecting the privacy of suspected criminals or victims and urges us to refrain from revealing full names in such cases.

While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.