Munich neo-Nazi Karl-Heinz Statzberger was sentenced to six months in prison for incitement to hatred and calls for manslaughter. A Munich district judge sentenced the 42-year-old to imprisonment without parole on Tuesday. Judge Thomas Müller told the accused that he lacked the imagination for a favorable social prognosis. Statzberger is said to have put up posters with the inscription “Hang the Greens” in Munich in September 2021 – in front of the former party office of the Munich Greens on Sendlinger Strasse and near the synagogue on Jakobsplatz.
The central register for the former right-wing terrorist and Bavarian top candidate of the neo-Nazi group “The Third Way” now has more than a dozen entries, mostly relevant criminal records for right-wing crimes. In 2003, Statzberger was involved in plans for a bomb attack by the “comradeship south” on the laying of the foundation stone of the Jewish community center and, as a convicted member of the right-wing terrorist group led by Martin Wiese, was serving a several-year prison sentence to which he had been sentenced in 2005.
Now, photos of the nightly poster campaign that the “base” Munich-Upper Bavaria, which he manages, had put on the internet were his undoing. The poster “didn’t fail to have an effect,” scene lawyer Nicole Schneiders explained in her plea for the second accused, the former chairman of the Nazi group, Klaus Dieter Armstroff. Admittedly, the effect was different than the defendants had hoped for: the criminal police, the public prosecutor’s office and ultimately also the judge clearly identified Statzberger as one of the two activists involved in hanging up the poster.
The former party leader benefits from his empty criminal record
The district court sentenced the 65-year-old current deputy head of the third way to a fine of 7,000 euros. His criminal record, which was still empty, spoke in Armstroff’s favour. The Weidenthaler was party chairman in autumn 2021 and was named on the posters as the person responsible for press law. Judge Müller ruled that it was “absolutely unthinkable” that such posters by a small party were put up in and around Munich, in eastern Bavaria and in Saxony “without the knowledge and will” of the chairman.
The posters appeared in various places in downtown Munich during the federal election campaign at the beginning of September 2021, including near the left-wing scene Cafe Marat, but also in Oberschleißheim, in Petershausen in the Dachau district and in Zwickau in Saxony. The Bavarian security authorities and the Munich judiciary reacted promptly. As early as September 9, the state police chief instructed the police departments in the Free State to remove and secure the posters. In mid-September, the Munich I Regional Court prohibited the right-wing extremist group from posting propaganda against the Greens.
According to the Munich public prosecutor’s office, the posters are an invitation to kill Green politicians. Several of those affected described their feelings at the sight of the posters during the hearing. There was talk of “shock”, “anger” and “terrification”. “I had the feeling that they meant me,” said a witness. Judge Müller told the defendants that the idea that such a slogan could not be punishable was “absurd”. Especially since it is “completely uncontrollable” whether third parties take the request seriously and put it into practice. 3,544 people from Bavaria voted for Statzberger in the federal elections. His lawyer announced after the verdict that he would appeal.