The Federal Ministry of the Interior has banned the neo-Nazi group “Hammerskins”. Police are searching the homes of leading members nationwide. Some supporters have previous convictions for violent crimes and illegal possession of weapons.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) has dissolved the neo-Nazi group “Hammerskins”. Since this morning, the police have been implementing the club ban and searching for information from WDR and NDR The homes of 28 suspected leaders nationwide. The group mainly performed at conspiratorially organized music events. Along with the “Hammerskins,” the Interior Ministry also banned their support group “Crew 38.”
Today’s raids are primarily aimed at the leading members of the organizations. Officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the state police simultaneously searched the homes of “Hammerskins” officials in ten federal states. The club’s assets are to be confiscated during the searches. The group was banned because, according to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the “Hammerskins” stood “against the constitutional order” and “against the idea of international understanding”. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the “Hammerskins” as “violence-oriented”.
Structures that have been consolidated for decades
The “Hammerskins” have so far been primarily active in the right-wing extremist music scene. They regularly organized clandestine concerts and distributed CDs. The “Hammerskins” are also said to have been active in the area of security services. Similar to rocker groups, the “Hammerskins” are organized in so-called chapters, i.e. regional subdivisions.
The authorities assume there are around 120 followers nationwide, including around 90 full members, who are said to be organized in 13 “chapters”. The accusation: Internally, the “Hammerskins” propagate a racist and National Socialist worldview. The bands that are associated with the “Hammerskins” would also spread racist hate speech in their lyrics.
The “Hammerskins” do not appear in the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) in recent years. However, the group is said to have had consolidated structures in Germany and numerous other countries for decades, and members are well connected in the neo-Nazi scene, including several well-known and active right-wing extremists.
“Battle of the Nibelungs” initiated
According to security authorities, the largest right-wing extremist martial arts event in Germany, the “Battle of the Nibelungs”, is said to have been initiated by the “Hammerskins” in 2013. These events have been banned since 2019. In addition, the “Hammerskins” organized an annual meeting, the so-called Hammerfest, at which numerous neo-Nazi bands also perform.
“In keeping with their self-image as the elite of the right-wing extremist skinhead movement, they maintain contacts with numerous other subcultural right-wing extremist and neo-Nazi organizations,” the Federal Ministry of the Interior most recently said in 2018 in response to a small inquiry from the Left parliamentary group about the group. According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the “Hammerskins” are today the only right-wing extremist skinhead organization active nationwide. However, the group shies away from the public eye and acts conspiratorially in the background.
Violent crimes and illegal possession of weapons
The authorities previously considered the “Hammerskins” to be a violence-oriented part of the right-wing extremist scene. Most recently, according to the Federal Ministry of the Interior in 2018, “individual Hammerskins members” had weapons licenses. Followers are repeatedly caught committing crimes; some have previous convictions for violent crimes and illegal possession of weapons.
With “Crew 38,” the Interior Ministry also banned the support club affiliated with the “Hammerskins.” The 38 in the name stands for the third and eighth letters in the alphabet – C and H, which in turn stand for “Crossed Hammers”. The “Hammerskins” logo is made up of two crossed hammers. With the dissolution of the association, its symbols may no longer be used publicly.
The “Hammerskins” emerged in the USA at the end of the 1980s in the right-wing extremist skinhead scene. Worldwide, the group maintains “divisions” in various countries, all of which are organized into the so-called Hammerskin Nation. In Germany, the “Hammerskins” have been building structures since the early 1990s; one of the oldest offshoots is the “Berlin” chapter.
The ban on the “Hammerskins” that has now been ordered is the 20th ban on a right-wing extremist organization by the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Most recently, three groups were banned in 2020: “Combat 18 Germany”, “Nordadler” and “Sturm-/Wolfsbrigade 44”. For a long time, the “Hammerskins” were considered a competitor to the “Blood and Honor” network in the right-wing rock scene. When Blood and Honor was banned in Germany in 2000, the Hammerskins remained as a legal structure. “Combat 18 Deutschland”, a neo-Nazi organization that was active in the conspiratorial right-wing rock scene, was also banned in 2020.
The “Hammerskins” can file a lawsuit against the current club ban, then the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig would have to decide on it.