exclusive
According to information from, around 20 left-wing extremists are considered NDR and WDR currently in hiding. A public search will soon begin to search for one of the leading figures.
It could be the beginning of a “crime scene” episode: police officers are checking a vehicle. They take the driver’s ID card and go back to their car to clarify their personal details. At that moment the driver presses the accelerator and speeds away.
This incident is said to have happened a few months ago: During a police check in East Germany, a left-wing extremist in hiding who was wanted by the police was able to escape. For the investigating authorities it was the chance to finally get closer to the left-wing radical underground. Vain.
20 people in hiding
According to information from NDR and WDR The number of left-wing extremists in hiding has risen to around 20 people – more than ever since the days of the terrorist group Red Army Faction (RAF). More than a dozen of the left-wing extremists in hiding are wanted under arrest warrants, some under European arrest warrants. Some of them are considered violent, some are even considered “threats”.
In addition, according to security circles, there is an environment of supporters who are supposed to make life underground possible. A few years ago, left-wing extremists focused primarily on arson and property damage, but targeted acts of violence against political opponents have increasingly come to the fore.
The possibility that deaths could actually occur is no longer ruled out in security circles. However, it is assumed that those in hiding have a very different risk potential. In the spring, the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, also made it clear that for him right-wing extremism remained “the greatest threat to our free, democratic basic order and security.”
The scene has become better connected
However, in an internal threat analysis, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) is said to have recently increased its warning in the area of left-wing extremism: According to this, the level of activity of those in hiding has not decreased despite the pressure to investigate – in the past, however, this was usually the case with those in hiding. Although the authorities intensified their investigations, the groups continued to carry out actions. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution sees solid evidence of a cell operating underground. However, the people in hiding cannot be compared with the terrorist group Red Army Faction (RAF).
What also concerns the security authorities: In the past year, groups in the scene have apparently networked better. In Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Rhineland-Palatinate, various Antifa groups have come together to form an “Antifascist Action South” (Antifa South) in order to declare war on right-wing extremists “with combined forces”. The long-term goal should be a nationwide Antifa.
According to the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Baden-Württemberg, the group succeeded in “mobilizing a large number of violence-oriented left-wing extremists” on the sidelines of an AfD state party conference in March 2023. 53 police officers were injured in the attacks.
“Education terrorist structures”
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution first identified a new radicalization within the left-wing extremist scene in spring 2020: In an internal analysis, officials noted at the time that the “formation of terrorist structures in left-wing extremism” was possible. The “intensity of violence” has increased. “Apparent ‘red lines’ would be crossed.” Therefore, “the step of deliberately killing a political opponent no longer seems completely unthinkable.”
Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Feaser commented in an interview with NDR and WDR concerned about the willingness to use violence: “We see that a kind of vigilante justice prevails there, but that is not the task of civil society, but the state is responsible for the violence.”
The focus of the current investigation is the environment of the left-wing extremist Lina E., who was convicted by the Dresden Higher Regional Court in the spring – most of those in hiding are said to come from this group of people. At that time, Lina E. and three other men were sentenced to several years in prison for membership in a criminal organization or for supporting it. The judgments are not legally binding. The court considered it proven that the group had specifically hunted down right-wing extremists and had injured them, some seriously, in attacks. The defense attorneys for Lina E. and her co-defendants had demanded an acquittal for their client during the trial.
According to Saxony’s Interior Minister Armin Schuster, the number of people in hiding around Lina E. alone is “a new dimension.” “Anyone who goes underground also becomes more radicalized and that’s why this is a very worrying development,” Armin Schuster told NDR and WDR.
Left-wing extremist The threat went into hiding
In particular, Lina E.’s fiancé, Johann G., who went into hiding, nicknamed “Lücke”, is considered dangerous by the security authorities. The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) classifies him as a left-wing extremist threat. This means that the authorities believe he can carry out a serious act of violence or an attack at any time. He is said to have first fled to Thailand, then traveled back to Europe and has been in hiding ever since.
Johann G. is also said to have been involved with several other Germans in an attack on several right-wing extremists on the so-called “Day of Honor” in Budapest in mid-February. The Dresden Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating this and has already had apartments in Saxony and Thuringia searched several times.
According to information from NDR and WDR A public search for Johann G. will be launched shortly. This means that photos should also be used to search for the person in hiding. There will also be a reward of up to 10,000 euros for information about him. The authorities explicitly warn that he is violent. A request to his lawyer initially went unanswered.
New level of danger
The Saxony State Criminal Police Office (LKA) recently asked the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) for help in the search for the left-wing extremists who went into hiding. The scene is therefore networked across Germany and Europe. The size of the groups involved and the cooperation with foreign suspects would represent a new level of danger. This was intended to increase the search pressure on the target persons who are suspected to be in different locations throughout Germany. However, the BKA has so far rejected this request without giving a precise explanation, as “Spiegel” reported a few weeks ago. When asked, the authority did not want to comment.
In Saxony there is so far dissatisfaction with the BKA’s reluctance. Some of the left-wing extremists who have gone into hiding are believed to have committed serious crimes, and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution warns against underestimating people’s supra-regional networks and willingness to use violence.