ExtremismThe KKK is active in Germany
The KKK’s sway on the racist, far-right end of the spectrum has declined as other, more contemporary hate groups have emrged as part of the alt-right. In Germany, however, some violent groups on the right fringe have associated themselves with the KKK. An author of a recent book on the KKK in Germany discusses the danger of the KKK and why it has emetrged on the German right fringe.
The KKK’s sway on the racist, far-right end of the spectrum has declined as other, more contemporary hate groups have emrged as part of the alt-right. In Germany, however, some violent groups on the right fringe have associated themselves with the KKK.
Frederik Obermaier, an investigative journalist at the Süddeutsche Zeitung, one of Germany’s leading daily newspapers, has just written a book on the KKK in Germany (Kapuzenmänner: Der Ku-Klux-Klan in Deutschland [Broschiert, 2017]).
He spoke with Neil King of DW’s podcast WorldLink - the personal stories behind the headlines about the danger of the KKK and why it’s here in Germany to begin with.
Neil King: Essentially, it was the Nationalist Socialist Underground that was responsible for a spree of killings between 2000 and 2007 that put this on the map for you, because you discovered links to the Ku Klux Klan in Germany, and then you started digging…
Frederik Obermaier: Yes. And after our first reports, former KKK members contacted us and told us that there was far more information than we had reported.
They said: here is what we have done and what groups we were a member of in Germany, and we got some internal documents and even videos and audiotapes of secretive Ku Klux Klan gatherings here in Germany. And that’s when we realized that it’s a bigger topic and the public is not aware of it. There are KKK groups active here in Germany.
King: So a lot of the information you have is based on data that was delivered to you by ex-members of the KKK in Germany. How deep did you actually get into the current structure here? I would imagine the Klan isn’t particularly fond of journalists…
Obermaier:Their answers have been quite short. It was basically ‘shut up’ or ‘get away’ or ‘we won’t answer any questions.’ We were able to speak with former members, and we were also able to speak with active members. But we don’t know how many members they have. It might be dozens, we think, but no member of an active group handed us anything like a members list.
