D3.1 Country Report | April 2021
Author: Julia Glathe, Freie Universität Berlin
Ten years after the discovery of the NSU, the threat of far-right movements remains as serious as ever before. The fact that thirteen people were killed by right-wing terrorism in 2019 and 2020 clearly demonstrate the brutality of the far right, which on a daily level manifests in racist violence throughout the whole country. As the report has shown, current right-wing terrorism builds on organizational structures of radicalization that have developed since the early 1990s. The ideological roots go even further as the self-designation “National Socialist Underground” demonstrates. At the same time, we are observing changes in the nature of far-right terrorism. Moreover, racist chat groups in the police, a terrorist network in the military and a democratically elected far-right party now under surveillance by the domestic intelligence agency show the complexity of structures that make right-wing terrorism possible. Against this background, severe strategic shifts that confront institutionalized racism and consequently fights right-wing terrorist structures are urgently needed. Given the entanglement of far-right networks with the police and the military, a substantial shift in regard to security authorities is necessary. The Cabinet Committee for the fight against racism and right-wing extremism as well as the observation of the AfD as a suspected extremist case by the domestic intelligence agency are important steps into the right direction.