The far-right call their crusade Together for Germany to camouflage their inherent Nazism while organisers deceptively claimed, there are no Neo-Nazis here.
Even better, to the outsider, the far-right group liked to pretend that they don’t even see themselves as Nazis.
Yet, their menacing-looking and thuggish Neo-Nazi platoons were marching through Stuttgart on a normal Saturday morning in March 2025.
Officially registered by an obscure, conspiracy fantasy-oriented and esoteric outfit, their radically anti-democratic rally was openly far right – spiced up with Neo-Nazis overtones. This is all but one reason why local anti-fascists stood in the way of the marching Neo-Nazis.
Taking part in the Neo-Nazi rally were members of a far-right organization called Der Störtrupp – the Shock Squad. The far-right rally was held at the picturesque Stadtgarten in Stuttgart.
Around lunchtime, it became all quiet at Stuttgart’s Stadtgarten which is adjacent to the campus of the not-so-picturesque Stuttgart University and the more pleasing University of Applied Sciences.
Meanwhile, dozens of police vans pulled up, groups of police women and men in police uniform on Schellingstraße in front of the park, were setting up barricades. They gave the impression that the idyllic calm that surrounds the park and university would soon be disturbed.
One of the first far right rally speakers – introduced only as Ralf – was wearing a t-shirt which accused Germany’s public media of running a media dictatorship.
On that Saturday, more than 1,000 far right hooligans were waving German and Reichs-flags. Some were displaying pro-Russian flags and even the traditional peace flag of a white dove on blue background was seen.
The Neo-Nazi rally was smoke screened under the innocent sounding motto of, Together for Germany. On that day, far right rallies were registered in all of Germany’s 16 state capitals.
They came with the usual radical right demands for increased border controls for the protection of the German Volk – in this context, the term “Volk” carries racial-Aryan undercurrents.
In their pro-Putin support, Germany’s far right also demands that neither money nor weapons are sent to the Ukraine.
Worryingly, the far right also attacks – under the cover of the preservation of freedom of expression –Germany’s free press. It follows Hitler’s propaganda boss’ – Goebbels – accusation of the free press as a lying press.
Then as today, the far right’s strategy has best been summed up by Goebbels who wrote in 1935,
it will always remain one of the best jokes of democracy
that it provided its mortal enemies with the means by which it was destroyed.
In other words, German Neo-Nazis will use the democratic right of the freedom of expression until they can destroy freedom of expression and democracy with it.
In the ideology of German Neo-Nazis, Germany’s plurality and diverse range of media mutates into the demand to end what the Neo-Nazis so-called the division of our society.
Perhaps, so that Hitler’s Volksgemeinschaft can be re-established again while non-Aryans are taken away in cattle trains.
The first two far right speakers on the podium at Stuttgart’s Stadtgarten were introduced only by their first names: Andi and Ralf.
Both are loyal far-right combatants of a radical right esoteric and conspiracy-fantasies-driven organisation called Querdenken 711. It is a mixture of stupidity, far right Reichsbürger, and esoteric Neo-Nazis.
The founder of Querdenken 711 is the far right financer Michael Ballweg who believes that Bill Gates and the WHO want to convert Germany into some kind of a health dictatorship.
At the Neo-Nazi rally, speaker Andi was wearing a t-shirt advertising Ballweg’s right-wing merchandise shop.
To mask their Neo-Nazi ideology, speakers at the rally tried to distance themselves from all-too open Neo-Nazism by declaring, we are a peaceful movement in which extremism, violence, anti-Semitism and inhuman thoughts have no place.
Meanwhile, rally speaker Ralf welcomed the adoring crowd of right-wing extremists with friends of the resistance!
Shortly thereafter, he abused Germany’s democratic politicians as politicians of the old parties – implying that the neo-fascist AfD is the new party while other political parties are to be disposed of.
He also accused Germany’s democratic political parties and its members to be only interested in their government jobs.
After that, he conjured up an even more ridiculous myth, namely that Germany’s democratic parties are a “SED 2.0” – a new version of the former East-Germany’s Stalinist party.
At the end of the rally, a man introduced as Uwe rages against any sort of state funding and claims that one trillion Euros are wasted for the ideological destruction of Germany’s economy. He also suggests that AI-drones should monitor Germany’s borders.
In addition, Uwe also speaks about Germany’s media that are forced into line by the deep state. There is a distinct resentment towards public authorities and the state. And just at that moment, a TV camera team filming him and the crowd, are told to fuck off!
Meanwhile, Uwe begrudges the perceived lack of freedom of expression in Germany. He also claims that some media have wrongly placed their beloved Neo-Nazi rally into the Nazi corner. He shouts, Nazis? … I don’t see any!
With this kind of statements, speaker after speaker deny the obvious. Their far right rally is defined by young men with bald heads (skinheads), wearing bomber jackets and black military boots with white laces. Black boots with white laces are one of the prime insignias of Neo-Nazis.
At the rally, Neo-Nazis proudly display t-shirts imprinted with Germany’s Imperial Reichsadler, Hitler’s Iron Cross, t-shirts with Wehrmacht (Hitler’s army), and Stalingrad 43.
Three days before the nationwide far right rallies, a German newspaper called Tagesspiegel and a TV channel called ZDF reported on right-wing extremist groups that have been forming all over Germany since last summer and are aiming primarily at recruiting young people to the ideological course of Neo-Nazism.
Meanwhile, Germany’s secret intelligence service in two East-German states – Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Lower Saxony – have found strong links between far-right rally organiser and the predecessors of Germany’s Nazi skinheads of the 1990s.
One of the new groups is the aforementioned Der Störtrupp (DST). The DST had about two dozen of its fighters at the Stuttgart rally.
On 4th August 2024, in a secret chat room, one DST member posted a photo of Adolf Hitler with the words Juden Nacht – implying to kill Jews, tonight.
Also turning up to the far right Stuttgart rally was the far right Unitas Germanica. Its members like to violently attack Germany’s LGBTQIA+ community. Also present was the Pforzheim Revolt – another Neo-Nazis squadron formed in Germany’s southwest.
Networked through the Internet, these Neo-Nazis act in the real world – often violently and brutally. Many of them are associated with the Neo-Nazis party Die Heimat – formerly NPD and before that as Hitler’s Nazi Party, the NSDAP.
The Heimat has, of course, it own youth organization call Young Nationalists – moving from Hitler’s HJ to modern day’s JN.
Most of the obviously far-right rally participants were young and male. Some were, apparently, underage expressing the typical Neo-Nazi look of the baseball bat years. Among Germany’s Neo-Nazis, the standard far right outfit remains recognizably popular.
In response to the right-wing rally, an organisation called Stuttgart gegen Rechts or “Stuttgart Against the Far Right” had called for a protest rally of democratic forces. Their call was joined by various anti-fascist groups throughout the south-western state of Baden-Württemberg.
Once at the rally, everything happened quickly: information and instructions were called out by megaphone, the anti-fascists poured out and surrounded the city garden while being secured by police and barricades. Their goal was to block the way to the city garden and to prevent the planned rally of the right from taking place.
The Neo-Nazis were drumming at the front, the thugs of the “Störtruppe” were chanting, if you don’t love Germany, get out! and criminal Antifa get out!
Out! a woman of the esoteric far right was screaming. Immediately behind her, the thuggish squad of the Störtrupp was marching – all with extremely short hair dressed in menacing black DST sweatshirts.
Among them were young men displaying Germany’s Imperial Eagle and the number 88. In Neo-Nazis coding, 88 stands for the eighth character in the alphabet (H). 88 = HH or Heil Hitler – the Hitler salute.
Other sweaters showed White Power insignias. Another young man proudly sported the White Power hand sign to the camera.
Despite all of this, democratic forces achieved a partial success. Just under a quarter of an hour after the Neo-Nazi march started moving, it came to a standstill. Anti-fascists had succeeded in blocking the streets in front of and behind the Neo-Nazi march.
It took another quarter of an hour for the police to decide to lead the Neo-Nazi rally through a detour to Stadtgarten where the Neo-Nazi rally ended early.
On that day, hundreds of police officers were trying to keep the Neo-Nazis and Germany’s democratic forces away from each other.
In the end, Germany’s authorities – that have a rather doubtful history when it comes to Hitler’s Nazis – drew a positive balance.
One official said, we have succeeded in preventing major clashes between rival participants by cleverly re-routing one group.
On the other hand, pro-democratic demonstrators had little praise for the police. The Association of Rally Paramedics had accompanied the counter-rally against the Neo-Nazis.
According to its press release, it had treated 32 patients, four of them had to be handed over to the emergency service or a hospital.
The police had arrested around 30 people. They were released after the completion of what the police called, police measures.
Two days later, the police noted that 40 criminal offenses had occurred – including illegal disguises, insults and assaults, physical attacks and resistance to officials, as well as violations such as using far right symbols of far-right terrorist organizations.
Beyond that, a few lessons can be learned from a rather normal Neo-Nazi rally in normal Germany:
- Neo-Nazis Cooperate: Overall, the successful cooperation of Germany’s esoteric right, corona deniers, Reichsbürger, other far right groups and Neo-Nazis played an important role.
- Recruiting the Youth: German Neo-Nazis were able to fill a political vacuum of disgruntled and disaffected youth from which they could recruit young people.
- Online platforms: Neo-Nazis were able to successfully use online platforms. This played a major role in organising their far-right rally.
- Political Climate: Probably the even more important role was played by the shifting of Germany’s political climate to the right.
- Accepting The Right: There continues to be a widespread popularity and acceptance of far-right and Neo-Nazi attitudes in German society – a steady mainstreaming of fascism.
- Neo-Nazis are Less Dogmatic: Ideological contradictions – which were unbearable for older Neo-Nazis – today play only a subordinate role when it comes to radicalising young people.
