by Shelby Vcelka

Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, Europe

 

BERLIN, Germany–

Four members of a right-wing extremist group have been arrested in Germany for terrorism charges and procuring explosives. The extremist group, the “Oldschool Society,” was planning to attack asylum-seeker housing, mosques, and members of Salafi, an ultra-fundamentalist branch of Islam. The German authorities conduced raids following intelligence from domestic agencies, the federal prosecutor’s office stated.

The four group members arrested, identified only as Andreas H., 56, Markus W., 39, Denise Vanessa G., 22, and Olaf O., 47, are said to have formed the OSS, which is a relatively new organization. The group started on Facebook, and appears to be an offshoot of the far-right National Democratic Party. Postings on the OSS’s Facebook page feature neo-Nazi symbolism, racial epithets, and references to previous attacks on refugee centers. While not much is known about the OSS’s politics besides the Facebook posts, the NDP’s ideology is similar to neo-Nazism, despite the group’s evasion of any blatant reference to Nazism.

The raids uncovered “pyrotechnic materials with large explosive force” with additional evidence of future attacks against Muslims. Lutz Bucklitsch, a journalist who specializes in right-wing extremist activities in Germany, stated his belief that the group began to plan for an attack within the last four to eight weeks. The OSS had planned to meet within the next week to plan the specifics of the attacks. Police are currently investigating whether or not those attacks were planned to target against any particular groups or individuals.

In recent years, conflicts between radical right-wing groups and Salafists and other Muslim groups have broken out into violent street fights. In 2013, German authorities said they foiled a Salafist plot to assassinate a high-ranking member of a right-wing radical group.

The xenophobic, anti-Semitic and racist shift Germany has taken is a direct result of the rising number of refugees the country has taken in. Because the country is engaged in a larger discussion about immigration, these right-wing groups have seized the opportunity for recruitment and to agitate immigrants and refugees. German authorities have been increasingly watchful of these groups, as the amount of violence against immigrants and refugees have grown profoundly in the past couple of years. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizier noted that the number of attacks against immigrants has gone up from 58 attacks in 2013, to 175 attacks in 2014. No data is available yet for 2015, but the trends demonstrate a significant rise in extremist violence, which will likely continue for this year.

 

For more information, please see:

CNN– 4 suspected right-wing extremists arrested in Germany— 06 May, 2015

WSJ– German Police Arrest Four Suspected of Planning Mosque Attacks— 06 May, 2015

The Independent– Four people arrested in Germany over planned terror attack on Muslims and asylum seekers— 06 May, 2015

ABC– Germany: 4 Arrests in Alleged Plot to Attack Islamic Targets— 06 May, 2015

Daily Beast– In Germany, the Rise of Anti-Islam Terrorism— 08 May, 2015