2023-09-27 07:41:05
BERLIN (AP) — The German government on Wednesday outlawed a far-right racist group known for its indoctrination of children, while police searched dozens of its members’ homes and other buildings early in the morning.
The Interior Ministry outlawed the Artgemeinschaft group, an anti-democratic association with around 150 members, according to a statement. All of its offshoot organizations, such as Gefaehrtschaften, Gilden, Freundeskreise, and Familienwerk eV, were also banned, according to the ministry.
“We prohibit a sectarian, deeply racist and anti-Semitic association,” said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.
“This is another hard blow to right-wing extremism and (those) who continue to spread Nazi ideology today,” he said. The organization was trying to indoctrinate children and young people with its anti-democratic ideology, he added.
The Artgemeinschaft expanded its Nazi worldview under the guise of a Germanic pseudo-religious belief in gods, the ministry said.
“The group’s central objective was to preserve and promote its ‘species,’ which can be equated with the term ‘race’ of national socialism,” the statement explained.
In addition to the racial doctrine ideology, the group’s symbolism, messages, and activities showed further parallels to Nazi ideology.
The group gave instructions to its members on how to choose a “suitable spouse” within the “human species” of central and northern Europe to transmit the “correct” genetic inheritance, according to the association’s racist ideology. People from other backgrounds were looked down upon, according to the ministry statement.
Police searched 26 apartments of 39 group members in morning searches in 12 states, as well as the organization’s meeting places.
The German government last month outlawed the neo-Nazi group Hammerskins Germany and raided the homes of dozens of its members. It was a splinter of an American conservative extremist group and had great influence in the European far-right environment.
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