"Hitler no longer to be an honorary citizen of Bad Doberan"

Gipfelsoli Infogroup: Right-wing globalization critique must be rejected

Formally, Adolf Hitler is still an honorary citizen of Bad Doberan. He was elevated to this status by town officials in 1932.. Prior to the NSDAP coming to power here, Bad Doberan had been the first municipality to grant Hitler this title.

Heiligendamm, where this year's G8 summit will be convened, belongs to the administrative district of Bad Doberan. The two towns are connected by the Lindenallee (Lime Tree Avenue), which Hitler once praised as "the most beautiful of Germany". The Dammchaussee ('Dam Road'), the road leading into the Lindenallee, was subsequently renamed 'Adolf-Hitler-Strasse' (Adolf Hitler Street).

Shut Down G8!

This Nazi honorary citizenship has already attracted high levels of international attention. From Iceland to Israel, from Russia to Portugal, G8-critics attending the Dissent! network Infotour events have been outraged. At present the Infotour team are on the road in 40 US cities as well as in Turkey, Switzerland, Spain, Greece and Mexico.

As a result of initiatives of the German left-wing party, 'Die Linke', the formal recognition of Adolf Hitler as an honorary citizen Bad Doberan will finally be revoked. However, summit opponents argue that this step does not go far enough.

"The town of Bad Doberan should make an official statement to the international protest movement that it endorses left-wing and emancipatory protest against capitalism and rejects the right-wing globalization critique", suggests Geert Achterhuis of the Dutch Dissent! network.

In Mecklenburg Vorpommern (the region Heiligendamm and Bad Doberan are part of), the NPD ('National Democratic Party', the most successful extreme right-wing party in Germany) is using the G8 summit as an opportunity to circulate their inhumane nationalistic propaganda. Dressed in anti-capitalistic rhetoric, this propaganda demands more privileges for Germans at the expense of refugees and other underprivileged groups.

The NPD has announced their anti-G8 demonstration for June 2nd 2007, parallel to the large left-wing demonstration that will take place in Rostock. Within the German left, a broad mobilization against it has begun.

On February 25th 2007 the NPD attended a "citizens assembly" in Bad Doberan, organised by "Kavala", the special police branch preparing for the summit protests. "Kavala" has been touring the region around Heiligendamm for the past two months, informing locals of planned road closures and bathing restrictions. "No opportunity is missed to warn locals about 'vandalism' and brand left-wing protests or blockades as 'violence prone', explains Adam Jones from the Gipfelsoli Infogroup. Udo Pastoers, the NPD parliamentarian in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, along with 25 other Nazis distributed flyers at the citizens assembly and stayed until the end. Adam Jones is surprised, "Neither Knut Abramowski's [head of "Kavala"] PR team nor the citizens assembly of Bad Doberan seemed to be particularly bothered about this"

[Gipfelsoli Infogroup]

Further (German language) sources:

* Daily Newspaper 'Junge Welt' about the NPD in Bad Doberan:

http://www.jungewelt.de/2007/03-07/007.php
* For a critique of right-wing anti-globalization politics, see for
example:

http://projekte.free.de/lotta/inhalt/nr26.htm
* Kavala praises the citizens assembly:

http://www.polizei.mvnet.de/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=3498&Itemid=265
* Hitler, honorary citizen of Bad Doberan:

http://www.sjd-falken.de/h/hi30dbr.htm
* Dissent! Infotour dates:

http://wiki.dissentnetwork.org/wiki/Infotour
* englishspoken media about G8 2007 (Badespasz pressing mirror):

https://www.jpberlin.de/badespasz/presse/wp/?cat=4

Press Release Gipfelsoli Infogroup
March 9th 2007

http://info.gipfelsoli.org

http://www.gipfelsoli.org

Gipfelsoli Infogroup
Homepage: http://www.gipfelsoli.org

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topic of the post

11.03.2007 03:20

dear mods,

could you please add the topic "g8 germany 2007" to this post instead of "g8 russia 2006"

thanks in advance

ipfelsoli infogroup

Hmm!

11.03.2007 12:59

I used to live near Bad Doberan. I used to get leaflets for far-right parties through my door all the time.

The state of Mecklenburg used to be in the "communist" East Germany, so, the significance of Hitler being a town patron is more akin to archaic bureaucracy (like eating of Christmas pudding on christmas being technically still illegal in England) than any ongoing popular endorsement of Nazism.

A lot of the locals would be a lot more sympathetic to many of the sentiments of of the anti-capitalist/globalisation movements, they have suffered a great deal from the "reunification", but I suspect their experiences of GDR "communism" will lead to a lot of alienation from terminology and concepts that were used as an excuse to imprison and censor them for decades.

The same post-GDR deprivations could also explain a lot of the attraction to neo-nazism/racism amongst the East german youth.

The State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and many of the "new" german federal states have had big problems with neonazism, especially in youth involvement and violence.

As a word of caution, I'd expect trouble to be planned by the far-right in advance, so I'd make a point of being aware that you could be a target for violence and not go wandering off on your own... be sensibly cautious of strangers.

Remember this is the state where they burned out asylum seeekers in Rostock (nor far from the summit site) and Wismar with a shockingly lax attitude from the police.

Besserwessi

A Doberaner response

11.03.2007 13:37

I find it really sad indeed that the authors of this article can't find any better way of attracting publicity for the G8 protests than to intimate that the inhabitants of Doberan are all a bunch of fascists. I for one feel very offended by that - you wouldn't call everyone who lives in Burnley a fascist would you?

In fact there are many people with their heart in the right place living in Doberan and Heiligendamm. People who have been campaigning against corporate sell-off of public amenities, against fascism and bigotry, for the rights of refugees, minority groups etc. (You might have mentioned that there actually no members of fascist parties sitting in the local council.)

This article clearly shows the failure of most of the anti-G8 movement so far to overcome their fear of engaging in a dialogue with the local people. I really don't understand it to be honest. Most people locally are totally pissed off with the G8 already, not to mentioned Kempinski and Co. There's been a long running campaign against the hotel, the closure of the beach, the re-routing of public roads and footpaths, the greenland building of posh villas and golf courses. No one in town is happy that our council is going to be badly in debt because of the G8 - meaning more school closures, less youth facilities, less services for the old.

Please take your blinkers of and start looking for allies. You certainly won't win us over by calling us fascists.

A Doberaner

Doberaner

11.03.2007 14:44

Okay, I guess perhaps some of my own comments could have put more elegantly/accurately.

The problem with right-wing extremism hasn't been limited to Bad Doberan, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern or even the former GDR alone in Germany. Affluent Baden-Wuerttemberg has a big problem too... which also has a large amount of left-wing activists too.

When I said to expect violence to be planned by neonazis, I should have made it clear that these neonazis would be travelling from all over Germany and beyond, not just in Bad Doberan. Maybe I'll be proved wrong and they'll all stay at home knowing that they'll be outnumbered?

And expect the police to less patient/polite than in the UK- yeah I know it sounds like a joke! Oh, and many of them won't speak English.

Like most places in this world 99% of the people in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are nice decent people who wish no one any ill or harm.

I have to admit that I don't know why anyone is making a big fuss about the Hitler thing, it's quite obviously just something that lay forgotten about rather than any significant endorsement of the man being still relevant.

I mean, a lot of Oliver Cromwell's laws never got officially repealled and that doesn't mean we expect anyone to make a public statement denouncing the old tyrant.

Besserwessi

nice locals

13.03.2007 21:02

ciao doberaner,

in the press-release is not mentioned at all that everybody would be a fascist. in contrary to that, it is said that it is very nice seeing socialist party now engaging against it. the press-release is focussing beside that on nazis at the police audience. people did not say, authorities and police liked it, but proposed to make a public statement agains right-wing summit-protest. is that so bad?

solidarity

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