Police seize neo-Nazi CDs in raids across Germany

German police seized thousands of recordings of suspected neo-Nazi music during raids across the country carried out last week.
During the operation, more than 200 flats and offices were searched. German law enforcement agencies said they had confiscated around 45,000 recordings, more than 170 computers and 70 weapons.
The raids are part of a long-running investigation led by the Federal Crime Bureau.
The bureau is investigating 204 suspects in relation to the raids. Though no one was arrested, the head prosecutor in Stuttgart, where the operation was based, characterised it as a “significant contribution in combating racist and neo-Nazi subcultures”.
“Music represents the gateway through which young people are lured in,” said Siegfried Mahler, Stuttgart’s chief prosecutor. “Millions of euros of business is done every year producing and distributing recordings of extreme right-wing music.”
Bands such as Landser or Macht und Ehre – whose lyrics glorify the Third Reich and encourage hatred of and violence towards ethnic minorities – have been part of a small, but difficult to eradicate neo-Nazi music scene in Germany.
The production and sale of music that promotes an extremist agenda or incites racial hatred is illegal in Germany.
Mr Mahler said: “Right-wing extremists use music to awaken interest and win support. Using aggressive, xenophobic, anti-Semitic and anti-democratic lyrics, they spread extreme right-wing ideas.”
A police statement said there were 204 suspects, all of whom are between the ages of 21 and 45. No arrests were made at the time of going to press.
Last week’s operation was a continuation of an effort which began in 2007, when the Office for the Protection of the Constitution discovered an online auction house that was selling neo-Nazi music.
Police then formed a task force, which has spent the past two years analysing data concerning some 20,000 sales, 1,000 recordings and 800 registered users from that initial investigation.
“Above all, the point was to uncover the entire distribution structure,” said Carsten Voss, the head of the politically motivated crimes division at the Federal Prosecutor`s Office.
Mr Voss added that the operation was unique in German history.
The person thought to be at the centre of the neo-Nazi music ring was a 34-year-old man from the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg, but police have not released the names of any suspects.
German anti-immigrant, skinhead and neo-Nazi groups staged one of the biggest demonstrations since the 1990 reunification on Valentine’s Day (February 14), drawing more than 6,000 extremists for a march in the eastern city of Dresden.