Germanic species community, weapons and ethnic settlements

As in several other rural areas, ethnic communities are settling in the Lüneburg Heath. This refers to farmsteads, housing projects and settlements, mostly of networks with an ethnic orientation. These are often families who have been involved in right-wing extremist networks for generations. For them, these settlements are a retreat from the right-wing extremist "way of life". Children in particular are supposed to grow up there with as little influence as possible from liberal ideas in a nationalistic and often also National Socialist everyday life with corresponding values, culture and roles.

I have been interested in such refuges for over twenty years. For my dissertation, I spent years researching in Western Pomerania, where I got to know people who lived in such settlements, knocked on doors on the respective farmsteads and usually sought conversation in vain. Accompanying dropouts from these milieus was more fruitful. They told me about their former lives in these communities, their dreams and ideas at the time - but also about the individual ruptures, the violence in everyday life, the ecological ideas about nutrition and the religious superstructure with its references to Nordic-Germanic mythology.

This topic has caught up with me again in recent weeks. I had spoken a few sentences about it to the camera on "Spiegel TV". In a subordinate clause, the keyword "Artgemeinschaft" was mentioned. Strictly speaking, it is called "Artgemeinschaft - Germanische Glaubens-Gemeinschaft wesensgemäßer Lebensgestaltung e.V." - in my eyes a pretty nasty and, to me, quite absurd right-wing extremist sect. As a result, several local public order offices contacted me and asked for information. The reason was always the same: members of this group had official gun licenses and the local authorities needed information so that they could possibly revoke them if a threat situation was identified.

The history of the Artgemeinschaft is quickly told. It was founded in Göttingen in 1951 and is officially registered as an association. It refers to the so-called "Germanic heritage" and wants to preserve it and bring it to life in the here and now. To this end, it uses the term "species", which on closer inspection is a synonym for a clearly biologistic racial concept. In essence, it is again about the idea of so-called "Aryans", who are superior to other species but are currently in danger of being displaced by foreign species and "alien" behavior. I had the opportunity to interview the current chairman, Jens Baur, around fifteen years ago. At the time, he was working for the former leader of the NPD parliamentary group in Saxony and I was researching right-wing extremism in Dresden. He invited me for a coffee in the NPD building in Riesa. He told me about his political ideas and activities in a basement pub and the smoke and fumes of apparently long nights of beer. Back then, he still dreamed of joining the middle class and raved about the "Front National". Today, he heads one of the most radical right-wing extremist groups in Germany. I would have wished him a different path.

However, the inquiring municipalities needed detailed knowledge for their procedures, which I was also not sure about. As is so often the case, Bernd Wagner from Exit Germany, who is still one of the best experts on right-wing extremist structures, helped me out.

One of the weapon bearers' defense strategies was probably that they had come across an Artgemeinschaft event by chance and had been observed. That seemed implausible to me. The Artgemeinschaft is a small elite project and not aimed at the general public. The events are strictly controlled and can hardly be seen from the outside. However, Wagner pointed out one exception: Funerals. Sometimes the Artgemeinschaft provides funeral speakers. In their own circle, they don't mince their words. However, if the mourners are mixed and non-right-wing extremists are also present, the funeral speaker keeps a low profile and does not identify himself as a member of the Artgemeinschaft. This can sometimes be overlooked, but strictly speaking it is not a sectarian event.

My knowledge of membership was also incomplete. I was aware of the so-called "Artbekenntnis" - a kind of racist oath to the ethnic Germanic heritage. It also includes a commitment to the National Socialist idea of the family as the nucleus of the nation and the corresponding education of children in National Socialist values. The group sees itself explicitly as an elite. Accordingly, it does not accept just anyone who wants to become a member, but selects those who have proven themselves in a particularly National Socialist way and who have the appropriate family "racial pedigree".

What I didn't know is that new members are specifically approached and need informal guarantors to confirm that the person is reliable and suitable in terms of the sect's values. This reminded me of the SED's approach in the GDR. There, too, you could only become a comrade if you were nominated by two comrades who vouched for you. New members are ceremoniously accepted into the Artgemeinschaft, reports a dropout. In addition to the public commitment to the "moral law" and the values of the community, there are speeches, folk dances, music and supposedly Germanic food and drink. A "coincidental" or unnoticed membership ("Maybe someone put me on a list...") can therefore be ruled out.

This group also has a strong violent side. The image of the Germanic fighter who fights for the purity and preservation of his species (a more honest term would be "race") is omnipresent in the writings. Violence is also intrinsic to education: children are offspring for the empire and the species. They experience racism and violence as normality from an early age.

It therefore makes sense to also focus on this small group and certainly no weapons belong in the hands of members of this group. I therefore welcome the initiatives by local authorities to address this issue and look forward to the legal disputes that are likely to follow.