In Dresden, Germany, some 4,000 anti-fascists demonstrated today against an annual march of 6,500 neo-Nazis, the biggest procession of its kind Europe-wide.
Already at the beginning of the demonstration by the Antifa-coalition 'No Pasarán', scuffles with the police broke out. Shortly before the scheduled arrival at the endpoint of the demonstration, there was massive assault by the police forces, so that the demo had to be disbanded.
'No Pasarán' had expected 2,000 participants – 4,000 came. The Antifa mobilisation was a remarkable success. However, despite 4,000 Antifas and thousands of other demonstrators of the bourgeois coalition ‘Go Think’, the Nazis could march in Dresden, however, largely without interruption
Like every year, now the ‘after-show’ has begun. Small groups of both sides are in the city and the police is, as always, completely overwhelmed.
Why Dresden?
From 13 to 15 February 1945 the city of Dresden was bombed by British and American air forces. Today, more than sixty years later, the commemoration of the bombing in Dresden is a central part of German politics of history and culture of remembrance. Every year on the morning of the 13th February there’s a mourning ceremony at the Dresdner Heide cemetery. It unites the Dresden civil society, senior politicians of all parties and Nazi functionaries and activists.
The 13th of February in Dresden became a symbol immediately after the bombing raid in the second word war, a symbol which has been misused in any direction. It was produced by Goebbels' ministry of propaganda using body counts drastically distorted upwards and fake reports, which partially are being kept unquestioned until today. Far beyond Nazi-circles people have been working on the myth of Dresden for decades, and still do. During the cold war the GDR (German Democratic Republic) tried to introduce the bombing as an argument against the western politics of FRG (Federal Republic of Germany) and NATO. After the German reunification Dresden was used to foreground the German war dead, as public debates on the aerial warfare show. Books like „Der Brand“ in which airstrikes on Germany are placed on the same level with the Shoa, staged the break of taboo for the purpose of offender-victim inversion.
Until today, the Nazis try to relativise history, in particular the Shoa, and politically capitalize on the myth of Dresden. That is shown by their annual activities during the commemorations at the cemetery „Heidefriedhof“, and by the Nazi-procession in the evening of every 13th of February. They try to connect with the citizens through the common element of mourning.
Such importance of Dresden to the Nazis is no coincidence: The adaptability to parts of the citizens, the climate dominated by a regional association of the right-wing Christian Democratic Union party, an apparently Nazi-friendly regulatory agency, a scarce civil involvement and the initially poor anti-fascist resistance has kept the Nazi-march up for so long.
Since 1998 the number of participants of the Nazi-demonstrations has been increasing. This was ignored in the beginning, and around the year 2000 the Nazis even achieved a public participation. After the city government and the media draw the border between themselves and the Nazis, it became a pure Nazi-march again.
