Marches by Nazi groups in post-war Germany
During the early 21st century, Dresden was the site of some of the largest gatherings of neo-Nazis in post-war Germany. The annual right-wing marches (held at the beginning of February) peaked in 2007 and 2009, with about 6,500 participants. At the marches, a broad coalition of right-wing groups (including Nazis) commemorated the Allied bombing of Dresden at the end of World War II on the weekend after the anniversary of the bombing on February 13, 1945.
In contrast to reactions in other German cities, resistance against the marches from civil society and left-wing groups had been relatively weak. With the emergence of Dresden Nazifrei (Dresden without Nazis), however, Nazi marchers were blocked from marching for the first time in 2010 by thousands of demonstrators; blockades were also mounted in 2011. Nazi marches were prevented entirely in 2012.
Political context.
As part of East Germany, Dresden was in the "valley of the clueless" (Tal der Ahnungslosen) because its citizens were beyond the reach of West German television broadcasts (which citizens elsewhere in East Germany could watch illegally). After German reunification, Dresden continued to be different; while most states in eastern Germany have been governed by coalitions (often involving the former SED, renamed the Party of Democratic Socialism, Saxony was the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
Commemorating the bombing.
The 13 February 1945 bombing of Dresden, which killed up to 25,000 people, has been commemorated. The trauma of the bombing led to a culture of remembrance, with annual events. These events had taken place in Dresden since 1946, earlier than in other German cities. Although their focus has changed several times, the bells of all Dresden churches have been rung on 13 February at 9:50 p.m. since 1946.
Nazi Germany.
Immediately after the bombing, it was used for propaganda purposes by the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda and Joseph Goebbels.
Soviet occupation (1946–1949).
Commemorations during the Soviet Military Administration emphasized a "deliberately provoked destruction of Dresden by the fascist criminals" for which "the political weakness of the German people" was partly to blame, adding that the memorial should not have a spirit of mourning.
East Germany (1949–1989).
Commemorations were then largely taken over by the churches, and the bells of all Dresden churches have been rung on 13 February at 9:50 p.m. Since 1955, the bombing had been used as German Democratic Republic propaganda. John H. Noble, former co-owner of the Kamera-Werkstätten and a survivor of the Soviet gulag, was released in 1955. Noble then wrote books about his prison experiences in Siberia. To damage Noble's reputation, former Saxon Prime Minister Max Seydewitz invented a "Noble legend" that Noble had directed the Allied air fleets with a transmitter in his Villa San Remo in Dresden.
Opposition after 1981.
State commemoration of the bombing was criticized by the opposition, civil rights and peace movements, and churches, because it did not acknowledge German responsibility for the war. In 1981, young people from the church peace movement began commemorations which were independent of the state. They began distributing illegal "Aufruf zum 13. Februar 1982" leaflets in September of that year, and wanted to hold a symbolic candlelight vigil in front of the ruined Frauenkirche to protest against a perceived increase in militarization. Their efforts were suppressed by the Stasi, and the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony offered to organize a peace forum at the Kreuzkirche as a compromise. The 13 February 1982 Peace Forum, with about 5,000 participants, became a highlight of the Swords to Plowshares peace movement; the forum, in turn, was a precursor of the Peaceful Revolution.
"Steine des Anstoßes" ("Stones of Incentive"), in front of the Kreuzkirche's southern portal, was built in 2010 to commemorate the 1982 Peace Forum. Since the Peaceful Revolution in 1989, Dresden city representatives have dealt more directly with the city's war past.
Reunified Germany (1991 – present).
Every year until 2015, a ceremony commemorating the air raids on Dresden was held on the morning of 13 February at the Heidefriedhof cemetery, where most of the bombing victims are buried. Although most right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis had long been prohibited from participating in the wreath-laying ceremonies at the cemetery, the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany was allowed to participate from 2005 to 2014 as part of the Saxon State Parliament.
Neo-Nazi demonstrations (1999–2009).
On 13 February 1990, British Holocaust denier David Irving delivered a lecture to an audience of about 500 in Dresden. His description of the air strikes as Allied genocide encouraged neo-Nazism in the GDR. After German reunification, particularly after 1991, increasing numbers of right-wing extremists used the annual commemoration for propaganda. During the mid-1990s, small groups of neo-Nazis began to mingle among others commemorating the bombing at the Frauenkirche.
In 1999, about 150 neo-Nazis held their first gathering to commemorate the bombing. The following year, the Junge Landsmannschaft Ostdeutschland (JLO) organized its first night "funeral march". For the next few years, the JLO organized a "mourning march" with the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) and the "Freie Kräfte" (Free Forces, neo-Nazi activists who are not party members). From 2001 to 2004, participation in the event increased from 750 to about 2,100 people. 2005. About 6,500 right-wing extremists demonstrated in 2005, falling to about 1,500 in 2007. "Freie Kräfte" members called the commemoration ritualized and hollow that year, and they organized their own regional demonstration in Dresden. It had grown to a "week of action" by 2010, during which Nazis handed out leaflets and engaged in agitprop. A small demonstration was held by the "Freie Kräfte" in 2012, followed by a larger JLO march.
From 2000 to 2009, the "mourning march" was Europe's largest Nazi demonstration; Participation peaked at nearly 7,000 by 2009, with delegations from far-right groups and parties throughout Europe. One factor in the attendance growth was the disruption (or banning) of neo-Nazi demonstrations in Halbe and Wunsiedel. The annual Dresden marches had become a significant aspect of German neo-Nazism.
Anti-fascist protests and political apathy.
Anti-German initiatives such as Antifa enjoyed little popular support; their focus on attacking Nazis conveyed little understanding of the civilian air-raid victims, and they were perceived as disrupting the official commemoration. Their most notable act was a 2006 blockade by several hundred demonstrators of the Carola Bridge, forcing the Nazi march to change its route. The left-wing protests were not endorsed by the Christian Democrats, Dresden and Saxony's dominant political party at the time, who seemed to tolerate the growth of right-wing extremism. They tended to ignore the Nazis, opting for a silent commemoration of the bombing victims.
When the Free Democratic Party's Ingolf Roßberg became Lord Mayor of Dresden in 2001, he invited clubs and associations to take coordinated action against right-wing extremist public events and expressed support for the White Rose. Roßberg appointed a commission of historians to determine the actual number of victims of the Dresden air raids, and encouraged civic engagement through official action. According to the CDU's Kurt Biedenkopf, however, the Saxons were immune to right-wing extremism; Biedenkopf's statement to the Saxon State Parliament encouraged right-wing extremist tendencies and blocked civic engagement against neo-Nazis. The commemoration ceremony continued to include members and supporters of the neo-Nazi NPD.
2009 counter-protest.
In 2008, national anti-fascist groups and left-of-center parties concluded that the annual Nazi march in Dresden was no longer a regional issue; it had become the largest gathering of Nazis in Germany. The groups organized a national protest against the Dresden march and formed the No Pasaran coalition; "no pasaran" ("They shall not pass") was an anti-fascist slogan which originated during the Spanish Civil War. "This year, we have federated as a preparatory alliance to approach the issues of 13 February in a new way," announced one anti-fascist group in the alliance. The coalition sought to distance itself from the anti-German protesters: "We won't stand for the cheap celebrating of war dead". Instead, it aimed to organize a "big antifa demo organized together with antifascist organizations from all over Germany on 14 February 2009".
Left-of-center parties including the Green Party, the Social Democrats and The Left and their youth organizations, the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), the Protestant church, the Jewish Congregation of Dresden and several liberal foundations formed the Geh Denken ("Go and Remember") alliance. It sought a "clear stop to right-wing extremism" in a "peaceful and non-violent way". The alliance collected 200 initial signatories for its call to action, and 10,000 people signed the call during the campaign.
On 14 February, No Pasaran organized a demonstration of between 2,500 (according to the police) and 4,000 peaceful antifascists (according to the organizers) from across Germany in Dresden's inner city. The demonstration was closely monitored and accompanied by the police. At the end of its route, the demonstration unsuccessfully tried to break through police lines to join the Geh Denken demonstrations. With batons and pepper spray, police kept the antifascists and Nazis apart after the demonstration.
Not far away, 12,000 people gathered when three demonstrations organized by Geh Denken joined at the Schloßplatz for speeches and performances. Among the protesters were Social Democratic chair Franz Münthefering, Greens chair Claudia Roth, The Left chair Gregor Gysi, and German Association of Unions head Michael Sommer. During a major election year, politicians wanted to demonstrate their opposition to neo-Nazism.
Evaluating the day, a No Pasaran group mentioned a "moldy aftertaste" despite a "successful mobilization". Geh Denken called the experience "simultaneously successful and bitter", and the police "suppressed protests along the Nazi route". Both alliances acknowledged that they had not stopped the Nazi march, and Geh Denken dissolved.
At the end of the day, a group of 40 neo-Nazis attacked anti-fascist demonstrators traveling home from the counter-demonstration at a highway rest stop. One protester, a 42-year-old union member, sustained a fractured skull after he was repeatedly kicked by the neo-Nazis. Geh Denken reported "at least" four assaults by neo-Nazis that day on counter-demonstrators.
Dresden Nazifrei (2009–2012).
The failed intervention against the Nazi march in February 2009 set the stage for the Dresden Nazifrei alliance in early December of that year, which was announced at an "action conference" organized by No Pasaran. The conference made a public call to block the next Nazi march: "We will use the tactic of mass blockades in which everybody can participate to prevent the Nazi march", and called for the creation of a "framework to plan and coordinate the necessary actions". The alliance of over 50 groups included the No Pasaran alliance, local citizens' groups, liberal parties such as The Left, the Greens and factions of the Social Democrats, unions and youth organizations. In a press release, Dresden Nazifrei said: "Our blockades are a form of action in which people experienced and those inexperienced in protest, young and old people, can participate simultaneously". During protests on 19 February 2011, a group of 200 neo-Nazis attacked an alternative housing project while police stood by.
First blockade (2010).
During the weeks before the march, police searched the offices of Dresden Nazifrei groups in search of posters. Police shut down the German Dresden Nazifrei homepage (which moved to a .com address), and ordered private travel companies to cancel buses for demonstrators. The moves by Saxon authorities backfired; over 2,000 people and more than 600 groups signed the call by Dresden Nazifrei to block the march.
The 65th anniversary of the bombings was in 2010 and, given the 2009 conflicts, city authorities were under pressure to react to the threat of another large Nazi demonstration. The Dresden government set up the Arbeitsgruppe 13. Februar (13 February Working Group), which included major parties, congregations and civil-society organizations. The group encouraged Dresden residents to form a human chain around the city center which would, according to Mayor Helma Orosz, "remember in depth and forcefully the horrible events in 1945 and to protect the city against violence and extremism".
Meanwhile, Dresden Nazifrei mobilized its followers for the announced mass blockades. On the early morning of 13 February, over 100 buses from more than 50 cities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland arrived in several large convoys; over 30 buses traveled together in a convoy from Berlin. The buses brought demonstrators as close as possible to the neo-Nazi gathering points. After getting off the buses, the demonstrators formed groups which split into smaller groups to avoid police lines on their way to pre-arranged blockade points. About 12,000 peaceful protesters blocked the streets around the Nazi gathering point at Neustadt train station with four large blockades and several smaller ones.
Although the police