Germany bans Nazi group Artgemeinschaft
Sept. 27 (UPI) -- Germany Wednesday banned the group Artgemeinschaft in a continued crackdown on Nazi organizations.
The interior ministry announced that police conducted raids on 26 apartments, 39 members of the group and the organization's premises in 12 German states.
"With the 'Artgemeinschaft' we are banning a cult-like, deeply racist and anti-Semitic association," said Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in a statement. "This is another hard blow against right-wing extremism and against the intellectual arsonists who continue to spread Nazi ideologies to this day. This right-wing extremist group has tried to raise new enemies of the constitution through disgusting indoctrination of children and young people."
According to the German government, Artgemeinschaft is networked with many right-wing extremist and new-right groups and conveys an ideology largely based on National Socialism.
"Above all, through the manipulative, indoctrinating upbringing of their children and the distribution of corresponding literature, the 'Artgemeinschaft' acted differently, but no less dangerously, than the neo-Nazi 'Hammerskins', which we banned last week," Faeser said.
Artgemeinschaft is allegedly part of the "species community" with a goal of preserving and promoting one's own "species." The government said it equates with National Socialist racist views.
The ban on the group includes all its sub-organizations, referred to as "societies," "guilds," "circles of friends," and the "Familienwerk eV."
Last week the Hammerskin neo-Nazi group was banned as more than 700 police officers raided the homes of 28 members of that group in 10 federal German states.
According to Germany's intelligence agency, about 38,800 people are active in the nation's extreme right-wing political movement.
More than a third of them are considered "potentially violent."
