GERMANY: LEFT-WING ACTIVISTS AND NEO-NAZIS CLASH AFTER THE OPENING OF AN EXHIBITION ON GERMAN ARMY CRIMES COMMITTED IN THE NAZI ERA

Record ID: 639649

  • Title: GERMANY: LEFT-WING ACTIVISTS AND NEO-NAZIS CLASH AFTER THE OPENING OF AN EXHIBITION ON GERMAN ARMY CRIMES COMMITTED IN THE NAZI ERA
  • Date: 1st March 1997
  • Summary: MUNICH, GERMANY (MARCH 1, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV ANTI-NAZI DEMONSTRATORS WALKING DOWN STREET, HOLDING BANNERS 0.09 2. SV ANTI-NAZI DEMONSTRATORS SHOUTING "NAZIS OUT" 0.18 3. LV/SV DEMONSTRATION (3 SHOTS) 0.38 4. SV EXTERIOR OF EXHIBITION 0.40 5. SV INTERIOR OF EXHIBITION ABOUT THE GERMAN ARMY AND WAR CRIMES IN WORLD WAR II 0.45 6. SV PEOPLE LOOKING AT ARTEFACTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS 0.49 7. CU PHOTOGRAPH OF GERMAN ARMY (WEHRMACHT) SOLDIER EXECUTING CIVILIANS 0.53 8. CU PHOTOGRAPHS OF WEHRMACHT INVOLVEMENT IN WAR CRIMES (2 SHOTS) 0.59 9. SV PEOPLE LOOKING AT EXHIBITION 1.02 10.LV/SV MAYOR OF MUNICH CHRISTIAN UDE (SPD - SOCIAL DEMOCRATS) ADDRESSING LEFT-WING CROWDS AND CRITICISING THE CHRISTIAN SOCIAL UNION PARTY'S STAND ON THE ISSUE (GERMAN) (3 SHOTS) 1.39 11.LV NEO-NAZIS WALKING DOWN STREET, CARRYING FLAGS 1.44 OF THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY (NAZI NPD) 12.SV OF NEO-NAZIS (2 SHOTS) 1.53 13.SV PEOPLE SHOUTING AT NEO-NAZIS 1.57 14.SV POLICE, NEO-NAZIS 2.05 15.SV PEOPLE SHOUTING AT NAZIS, SAYING "NAZIS OUT" 2.08 16.LV OF NEO-NAZIS 2.14 17.SLV POLICE RUSHING UP STREET 2.20 18.LV/SV POLICE CLASHING WITH DEMONSTRATORS OUTSIDE SHOPS (2 SHOTS) 2.33 19.SV OFFICER PUSHING BACK DEMONSTRATORS, TRYING TO KEEP NEO-NAZIS AND ANTI-NAZIS SEPARATE (2 SHOTS) 2.48 20.SLV/LAS POLICE STANDING OUTSIDE TOWN HALL, KEEPING TWO RALLIES APART (2 SHOTS) 2.58 Initials S3 P3 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 16th March 1997 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MUNICH, GERMANY
  • City:
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVACZHIOJ1E4CDQ684NLPJAD41G4
  • Story Text: Police in Munich have reported scuffles and minor clashes between left-wing activists and neo-Nazis after the opening of an exhibition on German army crimes committed in the Nazi era.

    Authorities said around 6,000 protesters took part in four separate demonstrations on Saturday (March 1) and police erected metre-high steel barriers to keep opposing demonstrators apart.

    Neo-Nazis carried pictures of soldiers and placards reading "We are proud of our Grandfathers !" and waved the red, white and black flags of the National Democratic Party (NPD).

    Left-wingers, who were kept about 200 metres (yards) away from their opponents, blew whistles and shouted "Nazis Out!" and "No one will miss you." Police said they had detained 21 people for offences including wearing outlawed Nazi badges and military uniform. Others were detained for carrying iron bars and wooden poles.

    Munich police chief Roland Koller told the city's Abend Zeitung newspaper in an interview on Saturday that he feared massive clashes would take place between right-wing and left-wing groups but that police would use force to keep them apart.

    The rallies were called after emotions erupted in the conservative southern state of Bavaria over the exhibition, which challenges the notion that ordinary German soldiers had nothing to do with Nazi crimes during World War Two.

    Left-wing groups including members of the major political opposition parties, the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens, organised counter-protests in Munich -- which had the status of "Capital city of the Movement" during the Nazi era.

    Munich's mayor SDP member Christian Ude addressed the left-wing supporters, bitterly criticising the right-wing Christian Social Union for their attempts to block the exhibition.

    The exhibition uses photographs and letters from soldiers themselves to back up its premise that the regular army, as well as the SS units usually blamed for war crimes, participated in mass killings of Jews and other atrocities.


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