The Immortals (neo-Nazis)

The Immortals were a campaign that was carried out by neo-Nazis and Germany found widely application. In this case, a flash mob was formed similarly a number of up to 300 participants, who, led a march by wearing white masks, mostly at night, then with torches, which was dissolved after a few minutes. This method was first used by the Spree lights, a grouping within the prohibited in June 2012 resistance movement in southern Brandenburg. This was followed by a media staging rallies over the Internet, which sought to achieve a broad impact.

Occurrence

In their startling performances at folk festivals or parades at night the extreme right-wing activists usually wore white theater masks. They moved in procession of about fifty to a hundred people in goose- step through the terrain and chanted right-wing slogans. Most of them disappeared as suddenly as they had come. In particular, the nightly performances reminiscent of torchlight processions of the Nazis.

By masking should be prevented individuals with concrete actions or statements can be blamed for. The intention therefore is similar to those of the Black Bloc of the autonomous nationalists.

Propaganda

The nationalist ideology expressed in the speech of the supposedly imminent " national death " and the medial reclaimed action model of the grouping. Your actions, they documented in professionally made videos that they spread on far-right websites. They also use social media platforms for distribution.

Only at 21 places there were to ban such marches, usually with a few dozen participants. Since the videos were edited, it works for the audience, however, as was the number of participants have been significantly higher. The images suggest, as thousands marched through the streets with a view to abolishing democracy.

Formation

The torch marches of the immortals go back to the Spree lights, a far-right grouping Brandenburg within the so-called resistance movement in southern Brandenburg, whose members were partially active in the NPD's youth organization Young National Democrats. " Democrats bring us the national death " was their slogan. In a position paper they wrote: "It's about propaganda - propaganda, which unambiguously identifies the system as a reason for this and renames that our people goes to meet his death. "

The group first met in 2006 in Lübbenau. Other early gigs were held in Bautzen, in Altenburg, in Frohnburg and in Kohren- Sahlis, near the manor, which operates the neo-Nazi Karl -Heinz Hoffmann as extreme right-wing educational establishment.

The form of action, flash mobs weißmaskiert perform is not a right-wing invention. It was borrowed from the actions of a left group called The superfluous.

The remarkable thing was the Immortals, the Potsdamer political scientist Gideon Botsch, " that the far right has opened up new media and new forms of action and so partly their marginalization can break something by the mainstream. "