Right-wing extremism: Martial arts as a weapon (neue-deutschland.de)

If you follow right-wing martial arts groups or nationalistic and violence-fixated hooligans on social media, it is noticeable again and again that they refer to the “day that will come”. This day of reckoning with the “system” they hate is part of their resounding mantra to keep the troops together and happy. More than 10,000 extremists across Europe are stoically training for this day – and tens of thousands of sympathizers support the scene.

The sociologist Robert Claus researches and publishes on the topics of right-wing martial arts groups and hooliganism. Since 2015 he has been working for the “Competence Group Fan Cultures and Sport-Related Social Work”. His new book about the right-wing extremist martial arts scene has now been published by Werkstatt-Verlag. In it, Claus formulates his current findings on the professionalization of physical violence. To this end, he examined, among other things, martial arts events in the MMM (Mixed Martial Arts) scene across Europe. His texts explain the steadily growing international network of martial Nazis. This scene is very well networked: the paths to right-wing hooligan groups, security companies and other Nazi networks are short.

Claus has also attended martial arts events himself and spoke to those involved, dropouts, police officers, journalists, victims and politicians. He has collected explosive and for him not harmless material, which particularly reflects the excellent networking of the scene. He describes in detail how, for example, the Europe-wide “Battle of the Nibelungs” takes place – an event where right-wing extremist martial artists meet their fans. There is also a lot of money involved, tickets cost between 35 and 45 euros, plus merchandise items. Martial arts are used as a weapon: neo-Nazis learn how to deal competently and efficiently with violence. They later use these techniques in street fights, as the pictures from the last lateral thinker demo in Leipzig at the beginning of November show, as hooligans who were recognizable as violent hooligans and drove the police around in front of them in too few numbers. These people are aware of their increasing power and aggressively take every opportunity that presents themselves to raise their profile.

According to the findings of German security authorities, around 150 German neo-Nazis are said to have fought for the Azov regiment (one of 80 volunteer battalions in the local civil war, which is subordinate to the Ukrainian interior ministry) in Donbass. The network grows and grows, the danger it poses for our democracy must not be underestimated.

Robert Claus’ book is both a warning and an invitation to stand clearly against the Nazi structures. The emergence of right-wing networks concerns us all, citizenship and attention are required here in order to show the Nazi spook the clear edge. That cannot be left to the state and its security organs alone. The German police recently demonstrated extensively that part of their workforce sympathizes with right-wing extremist groups and shares their hideous propaganda. Claus leads the way in his exciting book, we have to take over the baton.

Robert Claus: Your struggle – How Europe’s extreme right is training for overthrow. Verlag Die Werkstatt, 224 p., Br., € 19.90.