Rechte Gewalt in Hamburg

Inmates at the British Neuengamme internment camp form a secret committee to help Nazi prisoners escape in the event of imminent war crimes trials or extradition.

A nationalist leaflet is found on a wooden fence. It reads: ‘Achtung! German women and girls, preserve your honour and your Germanness. Do not go with foreigners and not with English soldiers!’

On the train between Hamburg Central Station and Hamburg-Harburg, a woman is wearing a swastika pin on her coat. The conductor and some passengers, including a concentration camp survivor, ask her to remove the swastika. She refuses and is defended by several passengers. The conductor then orders the woman off the train.

The Hamburg-Barmbek tax office still issues income tax receipts with a swastika printed on the form.

The police thwart a bomb attack on the first conference of delegates of the Committee of Former Political Prisoners at the Hamburg Gewerbehaus, now the Chamber of Crafts and Trades.

Letters to the editor published in the Hamburger Volkszeitung draw attention to the fact that National Socialist directives could still be found on forms and notices. For example, signs on several public telephone boxes still stated that Jews are forbidden to use them.

Nazis sing songs glorifying National Socialism in front of the Israelite hospital in Hamburg-St. Pauli. When a passer-by objects, the Nazis attack him and his mother while shouting ‘Beat the anti-fascists to death!’ The police present at the incident did not intervene.

Jubilant supporters bearing Jud Süß film ­director Veit Harlan aloft following his acquittal in Hamburg. After the Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime filed criminal charges, the court found that ­Harlan’s antisemitic propaganda film could not be consid­ered to have ‘abetted persecution’. The presiding judge, Walter Tyrolf, had served as public prose­cutor during the Nazi regime. In that position he sought the death penalty for numerous defen­dants before the Hanseatic Special Court.

Former high-ranking Nazi functionaries, under the leadership of the former Hamburg Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann, found a ‘brotherhood’ with around 200 members. They plan to put undercover Nazis in key positions in all aspects of public llfe.

During the Hamburg parliamentary election campaign, around 40 members of the Deutsche Partei attack two people who are putting up SPD election posters. The victims are seriously injured and hospitalised.

Unknown persons paste over the Rathausmarkt street sign with the name ‘Adolf-Hitler-Platz’, the name of the Rathausmarkt from 1933 to 1945.

An event organised by the SRP with its co-founder Otto Ernst Remer, a former major general in the Wehrmacht, takes place at the Winterhuder Fährhaus. It is disrupted by protests from members of the SPD, KPD and trade unions and ends in a riot. Extreme right-wing parties and organisations continued using the Winterhuder Fährhaus as an event venue until the 1960s.

A crossword puzzle in the magazine Stern (No. 26, 1950) depicts a swastika.

The first local branch of the lobby group Mutual Aid Society of Former ­Waffen-SS ­Members (HIAG) is founded in ­Hamburg.

Founding of the Hamburg chapter of the openly Nazi-oriented Socialist Reich Party (SRP).

An event organised by the Deutsche Partei entitled ‘280,000 German soldiers died as a result of treason by the Red Orchestra’ is banned. Under the Nazi regime, various resistance groups that were allegedly in contact with the Soviet intelligence service were referred to as the ‘Red Orchestra’.

The State Commissioner of the Allied High Commission bans the SRP’s ‘Deutsche Reichszeitung’ and has the publishing house in Hamburg closed down.

Ban and dissolution of the national-socialist oriented SRP by the Federal Constitutional Court.

The Hamburg regional chapter of the anti-communist Bund Deutscher Jugend (BDJ) and its paramilitary Technical Service (TD) are banned. After an armed secret organisation of the BDJ in Hesse is discovered, investigations are also carried out in Hamburg.

The far-right organisations Deutsche Gemeinschaft, the German Reich Party and the German Bloc hold a joint May Day celebration. Many of the participants had belonged to the SRP, which was banned in 1952.

In a pamphlet sent out to all members of the ­Bundestag, Hamburg timber merchant Friedrich Nieland blames ­‘international Jewry’ for the mass ­extermination of Jews. The subsequent scandal greatly ­influenced the declaration of ­incitement to hatred as a criminal ­offence in 1960.

Around 600 people attend an event organised by the Deutsch-Soziale Union, a small far-right party led by Otto Strasser.

Members of the extreme right-wing German Bloc distribute leaflets denigrating the resistance fighters of 20 July at an SPD event in front of the Winterhuder Fährhaus.

A man makes antisemitic speeches in the Hamburg University Library. He then gives the Hitler salute to several people on the street.

The 39-year-old truck driver Georg L. makes antisemitic remarks in a pub in Hamburg-Stellingen, then sings a Nazi song.

Ilse Wolff's apartment build­ing in Hamburg-St.Pauli is graffitied with the slogan ‘Juden raus!’.

Karol Kwiek and Joska Czori want to buy meat to celebrate a christening. The shop owner and several customers throw them out of the shop because they belong to the Roma minority. An altercation ensues in which a police officer shoots both of the men. According to the police, the shooting was in self-defense. An eyewitness contradicts this account. The media do not question the police report and use antiziganist terms to describe an alleged riot that the police put down.

In the university’s housing listings, a young Israeli comes across an offer of a room in Hamburg-Alsterdorf which will ‘only [be] rented to purely Aryan students’.

At the Ohlsdorf cemetery, over 1000 people take part in the silent march for the victims of National Socialism to mark the 16th anniversary of the liberation. The march was organised by the United Working Group of Victims of Nazi Persecution in Hamburg.

During a lecture on kosher butchering methods at the annual general meeting of the German Animal Welfare Association, a participant shouts: ‘Let them go back to where they came from!’ Almost half of those present applaud.

In an article for the weekly newspaper Die Zeit, Peter ­Robert Hofstätter, a ­professor of ­psychology at the University of ­Hamburg, states that the ­extermination of the Jews does not constitute murder in the legal sense.

The Hamburg chapter of the NPD is founded.

200 young people – mainly pupils – occupy a hall in the Blankenese secondary school where an NPD event is to take place.

In the months leading up to the general election, NPD meetings are held every week in pubs, schools and at the university in Hamburg. In protest against the NPD election campaign event at the Allee girls’ school, leaflets are distributed and the slogans ‘We don't want a fascist school’ and ‘NPD? – No!’ are graffitied at the entrance.

At a forum organised by the Action Centre of Independent Socialist Students student protests against the politics and history teacher Ingo Viechelmann are supported. The teacher at the Am Brink school in Bergedorf had made positive comments about Hitler in class and said that the police should use hand grenades against the APO. The pupils demanded Viechelmann's dismissal from the school.

Bomb attack by the Odal Group on the Hamburg editorial offices of ‘Unsere Zeit’, the weekly newspaper of the German Communist Party (DKP).

Attempted arson attack on the ‘Kunsthaus Hamburg’, which is showing the exhibition ‘Leftist Street Art’ by Jewish artist Arie Goral, by the Odal Group. Arie Goral also receives threatening phone calls from the far-right terrorist group.

The administration building of the Jewish community and the synagogue are graffitied with antisemitic slogans and death threats.

Arson attack on the offices of Harburg’s DKP District ­Association.

The family of a former KPD member of parliament is harassed with threatening letters and fake orders placed in their name. In addition, pallbearers appear at their front door to collect a supposed corpse.

The civil engineer Neşet Danış dies in the Heidberg Hospital in Hamburg. He had sustained fatal injuries in an attack on the ­Turkish Workers’ Association by Turkish right-wingers ­associated with the Grey Wolves.

At a forum discussion organised by the NPD and JN at the Willhöden secondary school with around 60 participants, three bouncers are arrested. On their persons are found, among other weapons, an iron bar and a whip. The Marxist Pupils’ Union had distributed a leaflet calling for a boycott of the event. However, the school management had deliberately not informed the students of this in order to prevent protests.

The US-American leader of the NSDAP/AO Gerhard ‘Gary’ Lauck travelled to Hamburg at the invitation of the Holocaust denier and former SS-Sonder­führer Thies Christophersen. In his speech, Lauck called for the re-establishment of the NSDAP, using ‘all the tactical benefits of underground combat’.

The NPD meets for its Reichsgründungsfeier. It held this event annually on the anniversary of the founding of the German Empire in 1871.

The NPD calls the ‘Congress of National Forces’ with the goal of founding an ‘International of Patriots’. 800 to 1000 people from various countries take part. There is widespread counter-protest. As early as 4 August, 2000 anti-fascists demonstrate against the event. On the day itself, disruptions occurred at NPD information stands in various parts of the city and protests with the slogan ‘Nazis out of Hamburg’ are organised against the congress. The police use force against the counter-demonstrators.

The office of the citizens’ action committee Umweltschutz Unterelbe [Unterelbe Environmental Protection] is pelted with stones and the building façade is graffitied with the slogans ‘Haut ab!’ [Get out!] and ‘KPD verrecke’ [die, KPD!] and the Wolfsangel.

The windows are broken during an attack on the regional office of the DKP in Harburg. Between March and June there are attacks on several DKP offices in Hamburg. The Harburg office was hit several times. On several occasions the perpetrators spray-painted swastikas or left propaganda material. The attacks are attributed to the Hansa-Bande.

Graves are defiled at the Ohlsdorf Cemetery. Between April and August 1977 more than 450 graves, most of them Jewish, at six cemeteries in Hamburg are vandalized and gravestones are graffitied with swastikas and Nazi slogans. The attacks are attributed to the Hansa-Bande.

The Hansa-Bande, centred around Michael Kühnen, makes its first appearance. The organisation, which later called itself the Aktionsfront Nationaler Sozialisten (ANS), was at times one of the most active and militant neo-Nazi groups in West Germany. They are responsible for various attacks on DKP offices and cemetery.

While on shore leave in Hamburg, Prayong ­Rungjang, a seaman from Thailand who was suffering from leukaemia, is beaten up by suspected neo-Nazis and badly injured. He dies in September 1977.

An event organised by the DVU with the former Wehrmacht officer Hans-Ulrich Rudel at the Curio-Haus is cancelled at short notice after anti-fascists occupy the building. Over 300 neo-Nazis move to Hamburg-Osdorf and attack anti-fascists protesting there. Several people are injured and have to be treated in hospital.

The outside wall of the ­synagogue at Hohe Weide is graffitied with the phrases ‘Juda verrecke’ [Die, Jew] and ‘In Auschwitz macht die Arbeit frei’ [At Auschwitz, work sets you free].

Members of the Hansa-Bande attempt to disrupt a panel discussion on the topic ‘Should Nazi criminals be pardoned?’ in the Markthalle. They graffitied the facade with the slogan ‘Klarsfeld to the gas chamber’. Holocaust survivor Serge Klarsfeld and his wife Beate were known for their commitment to the investigation and prosecution of Nazi crimes.

In the spring of 1977, swastikas and antisemitic graffiti began to appear all over the city. On 1 September, the police arrested Michael Kühnen and Lutz Wegener, whom they had caught in the act. When the authorities searched the premises of the ‘leisure club’ on Eiffestrasse, they found Nazi propaganda and a cache of bladed weapons.

A person selling the left-wing newspaper Arbeiterkampf (today: Analyse und Kritik) is attacked.

Lothar Schulte and Lutz Wegener from the far-right terrorist group Kühnen-Schulte-Wegener break into the Bismarck Garrison in Wentorf, attack a duty officer and steal his machine gun.

The neo-Nazi Michael Kühnen founds the Aktionsfront Nationaler Sozialisten (ANS). Christian Worch, who is still an active neo-Nazi today, also speaks at the inaugural meeting.

Lothar Schulte and Lutz Wegener from the far-right terrorist group Kühnen-Schulte-Wegener break into a Bundeswehr depot and steal two crates of munitions and blasting fuses.

Uwe Rohwer, Lothar Schulte, and Lutz Wegener from the far-right terrorist group Kühnen-Schulte-Wegener taje 66,000 DM in a bank robbery.

Holocaust deniers Thies Christophersen and Erwin Schönborn, along with the later far-right terrorists Karl Heinz Hoffmann and Manfred Roeder, organise an event on the subject of ‘Why paramilitary training?’ The Hansa-Bande also takes part. Anti-fascists block the entrance and srt up barricades along the route to the venue. The police, however, channel the participants through the blockades.

The Bückeburg Trial: Members of the Kühnen-Schulte-Wegener terrorist group Manfred Börm, Klaus-Dieter Puls, Uwe Rohwer, Lothar Schulte, and Lutz Wegener are arrested in February and March, Michael Kühnen in early August. Beginning in May 1979, they stand trial for multiple crimes, including membership in a terrorist organisation.

Under the slogan ‘Nazis out of Hamburg’, 1,300 anti-fascists prevent a 1000-person NPD rally. While hundreds of anti-fascists march through the city centre to the Nazi rally, others take position on site. The right-wingers then withdraw and the remaining eleven NPD organisers are forced to cancel their rally.

Neo-Nazis marched through Hamburg’s main railway ­station wearing donkey masks and brandishing ­placards with the slogan ‘I’m such a donkey I still believe that Jews were “gassed” in German concentration camps’. The rally was designed to garner nation-wide ­attention for the ANS. The extreme right has used donkey masks in its marches ever since.

The district office of the DKP in Billstedt is graffitied with swastikas.

In Hamburg-Billstedt, DKP member Heike Riedel is attacked by two neo- Nazis and suffers several stab wounds. She had ­previously been terrorised with ­threatening letters and with swastikas graffitied on her house.

A man threatens a Jewish homecare nurse with a pistol. She remains physically unharmed.

Neo-Nazis from the far-right terrorist group Deutsche Aktionsgruppe carry out a bomb attack on the Janusz Korczak School, injuring two passers-by. Shortly beforehand, a memorial had been set up there to commemorate the murder of 20 Jewish children, their caretakers and 24 Soviet concentration camp prisoners in April 1945.

A sign at the Kronsaalsweg campsite prohibits travelling Sinti and Roma. In its 1982 situation report, the Rom und Cinti Union e.V. points out that numerous Hamburg discos and pubs also have anti Ziganist admission policies.

Arson attack by the ­Deutsche Aktionsgruppen on a refugee shelter on ­Halske­strasse in Hamburg-­Billbrook. Nguyễn Ngọc Châu and Đỗ Anh Lân died of their injuries.

Members of the paramilitary training group Dems from Blankenese are arrested while carrying out militia exercises at the Höltigbaum military training area. A rifle and ammunition are found in the boot of the leader’s car.

ANS member Friedhelm Enk stabs his gay comrade Johannes Bügner to death. Together with other neo-Nazis, he had lured him out of the Nazi and gay club CanCan in St. Georg, driven him to a field near Stemwarde and killed him.

After an HSV match, around 60 racist skinheads attack several punks. Members of the Löwen are also rumoured to have been involved in the attack.

Members of the Savage Army seriously injure five people at the Klick cinema. The cinema becomes a hotly contested spot. Left-wing groups and young people join forces to oust the neo-Nazis from the neighbourhood.

Members of the Savage Army regularly appear at the Haus der Jugend. They attack immigrant and left-wing visitors and teachers, shout extreme right-wing slogans and graffiti walls and toilets.

The DVU organises a Reichsgründungsfeier with Holocaust denier David Irving. The Savage Army is used as security at the venue.

An employee of the underground railway asks members of the Savage Army to remove extreme right-wing propaganda and is beaten up.

Two Turkish families lose their homes following an arson attack on an apartment building in Hamburg-Lohbrügge.

Members of the Hamburg Löwen and far-right youth gangs raid the Haus der Jugend and attack the immigrant youth gang hanging out there.

Several teachers and doctors receive racist and misogynistic death threats.

Leaflet distributors from the Hamburger Liste für Ausländerstopp [Hamburg List to Stop Immigration] attack the paraplegic journalist Matthew M. with pepper spray after he calls their propaganda ‘Nazi filth’. He then receives threatening phone calls and his front door is graffitied with ‘Foreigners out’ and a swastika.

Poet and activist Semra Ertan immolates herself in a final protest against racism and marginalisation. Two days later, she dies in hospital.

26-year-old Tevfik Gürel dies in hospital from his serious injuries, three days after racists shouting ‘foreigners out!’ beat him up in front of a Norderstedt discotheque.

A man asks 17-year-old Nuran Y. in Hamburg-Kirchdorf-Süd: “Are you Turkish?” When she says yes, he stabs her in the chest with a knife. She survives.

16-year-old football fan ­Adrian Maleika from Bremen dies of his injuries after being attacked by HSV hooligans. Members of the fan club Die Löwen are involved in the attack.

The Wiking-Jugend [Viking Youth] distribute leaflets outside a school in Kirchdorf, in Altona, and at a playground in Osdorf, inviting children and young people to a ‘Gau weekend’. A teacher reports them to the police and subsequently receives threatening phone calls. On the same day, members of the Viking Youth march through Kirchdorf-Süd, armed and shouting racist slogans.

Racist skinheads riot at the ‘Gewerbehof’ recreation centre and plaster the walls with extreme right-wing propaganda. The recreation centre is shut down.

Around 60 armed racist skinheads raid the Haus der Jugend, smashing the windows and shooting flares into the rooms. They demand that the immigrant youth gang Champs be handed over.

A man threatens a DKP chairwoman with a pistol. She remains physically unharmed.

Anti-fascists chase neo-Nazis out of the Wienerwald pub, which had long been a regular meeting place for the ANS and others groups. They distribute information flyers to local residents and the idea of an anti-fascist working group in the neighbourhood is born.

After neo-Nazis threaten the Haus der Jugend in St. Georg, Turkish, Kurdish and German anti-fascists join with youth gangs to protect the building.

20 neo-Nazis in black uniforms march through Blankeneser Bahnhofsstraße and distribute ANS leaflets at the railway station.

Fire is set to a Turkish shop. The crime is attributed to the Hamburger Liste für Ausländerstopp [Hamburg List for Stopping Immigration].

Cemal Kemal Altun, a Turkish immigrant who was politically persecuted in his home country, takes his life in Berlin out of despair when he faced possible deportation. Activists name a square in Hamburg-Altona after him, both in his memory and to criticise asylum practices. The name quickly caught on, and, under pressure from the Kemal-Altun-Platz initiative, the district officially erected street signs with the name in 2012.

Neo-Nazis Thomas Wulff and Karsten R. beat up a 24-year-old punk at Mönckebergbrunnen.

The German-Turkish Friendship Circle and the Bergedorf Antifa group organise an event addressing neo-Nazi developments and far-right recruitment attempts in youth centres.

An incendiary device is thrown at the GAL office in Hamburg-Bergedorf where a women’s group is ­meeting. The women fought their way through the flames to safety.

There are constant protests during the NPD state party conference.

Members of the neo-Nazi Deutsche Frauenbund distribute leaflets with prohibited content. When anti-fascists try to stop them, a neo-Nazi shoots one of them in the face with a gas pistol. The police then arrest the anti-fascists instead of the neo-Nazis.

A cache of weapons is discovered in the flat belonging to a neo-Nazi.

The Wiking-Jugend [Viking Youth] distributes invitations to weekly Heimabende in Jenfeld.

Two racist skinheads approach 23-year-old Shirin and ask her if she is a foreigner. When she answers in the affirmative, they beat her and escape unrecognised.

Mehmet Kaymakçı is beaten to death with a ­concrete slab by skinheads in Hamburg-­Langenhorn.

The windows at the GAL [Grün-Alternative Liste, the name of the Green party in Hamburg from 1984–2012] headquarters are broken. The building had previously been graffitied with extreme right-wing propaganda.

15 racist skinheads drag Ergil Ö. off a bus and beat him up. One of the perpetrators is Uwe P., who is involved in the murder of Ramazan Avcı a month later. At the trial, the bus driver claims not to have noticed anything.

Ramazan Avcı is killed in Hamburg-Eilbek by skinheads from Hamburg-­Bergedorf. He dies from his injuries three days later.

A few hours after the memorial service for Ramazan Avcı, racist skinheads spray-paint racist slogans on the S-Bahn station and attack two Ghanaians. One of them, Bortey K., is seriously injured. One of the skinheads is convicted of causing grievous bodily harm, another is acquitted.

Around 15,000 people proteste against racially motivated terror – one of the first major anti-racist demonstrations in Germany. Ramazan Avcı’s death led to the establishment of the nonpartisan Alliance of Turkish Immigrants in 1986. It was instrumental in the founding of the association The Turkish Community in Germany in Hamburg in 1995.

After an HSV match, neo-Nazis attack 20-year-old Mustafa A. with a knife. He collapses, seriously injured, but survives the attack. When the victim’s father wants to press charges the following day, the police put him off until the next day, claiming a lack of time.

In desperation at the threat of deportation to Ghana, 36-year-old Gabriel D. throws himself out of the window of the immigration office. He survives but is seriously injured. In solidarity with Gabriel D., 250 people demonstrate in front of the immigration office, demanding an unrestricted right to asylum and the abolition of the Aliens Act.

After an FAP meeting in Großensee, FAP and NPD members march through Wandsbek, attack immigrants and distribute racist propaganda.

Neo-Nazis from the HLA and FAP vandalise a children's shop and the Brakula culture shop and leave stickers behind.

A Roma family’s caravan and a tent are attacked with six incendiary devices. HLA leaflets are found on one of the perpetrators.

60 neo-Nazis from the FAP march through St. Pauli chanting racist and antisemitic slogans and try, but fail, to attack Hafenstraße. When the police search them, they find an extensive arsenal of weapons.

Neo-Nazis attack AIDS activist Helmut Zander and torture him in an attempt to extort the names and addresses of people infected with HIV.

On the anniversary of the November Pogroms of 1938, files and membership lists are stolen during a break-in at the office of the Rom und Cinti Union. The perpetrators leave a swastika on the wall.

Armed neo-Nazis, some of whom have travelled from out of town, attempt to disrupt the Rock gegen Rechts event. 70 of them are arrested, but released in the course of the evening.

As a 23-year-old Black woman is working with a journalist on systemic racism, she is attacked by a man and subjected to racist abuse. Passers-by who come to her aid are also injured but are able to restrain the attacker.

Right-wing extremist graffiti is repeatedly found on the grounds of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp memorial.

Racist skinheads attack the Unser Haus youth centre. They smash the windows, injure three visitors and throw one of them in front of an approaching car.

Rudi M., a newspaper ­delivery man in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel, dies of stab wounds after being attacked by the skinhead Christian M., who alleged he had made homosexual advances.

Neo-Nazis meet for paramilitary training.

After the European Championship semi-final, around 250 neo-Nazis and hooligans attack the occupied flats in Hafenstraße. The attack had been planned in advance and was mobilised in the stadium. The residents of Hafenstraße were prepared, however, and successfully defended themselves. Afterwards, the attakers run riot through the Reeperbahn neighbourhood.

A public transport employee greets three ticket inspectors at a train station with the words ‘Heil Hitler’ and the Hitler salute. When a young man, Mustafa G., addresses the inspectors about the incident, they follow him onto the train, hurl racist insults and attack him physically. The Volkshaus der Türkei e.V. and the Bündnis türkischer Einwanderer [Alliance of Turkish Immigrants] call on the Senate to take action in the face of systemic racist discrimination and violence.

Several neo-Nazis gather to disrupt a Turkish celebration, but are chased away.

Immigrant youths prevent a neo-Nazi attack on the Lichtwarkhaus.

Racist skinheads drag 56-year-old Fatma T., an activist from the Deutsch-Türkischen Arbeitskreis [German-Turkish Working Group], out of her car, beat her and throw her in front of a passing car. The driver is able to swerve out of the way. The police advise the victim not to press charges. The working group calls for a demonstration on 12 November to mark the attack and the rise in racism.

On the weekend of 14/15 April, racist skinheads armed with truncheons, gas pistols and incendiary devices make several attempts to attack the autonomous youth centre. Around 100 anti-fascists at the centre successfully defend themselves until the police arrive. The skinheads later beat up a man in the pedestrian zone. On 19 April, 3000 people demonstrate against the neo-Nazi terror.

Immigrant and white teen-agers from Billstedt and Horn team up with anti-fascist groups to organise a demonstration against the neo-Nazi celebrations to mark Hitler's 100th birthday, the far-right violence expected at the event, and the attempts by neo-Nazis to recruit in the neighbourhood.

Neo-Nazis plan big celebrations to mark Adolf Hitler’s 100th birthday. Many immigrants close their shops and keep their children home from school for fear of racist attacks. Immigrant youth gangs and anti-fascists organise counter-events, and offer information and protection. An information hotline is set up and 1500 people take part in an anti-fascist demonstration in Veddel. Neo-Nazis gather in large groups at various locations in the city, but the expected violence does not materialise.

Due to the ongoing right-wing violence in the Bergedorf area, the youth centres Unser Haus and Korachstraße mobilise for the ‘Antifaschistischer Volksauflauf’ demonstration.

Members of a mobile anti-fascist squad raid the home of neo-Nazis Christian and Ursula Worch and steal around 50 folders containing documents about neo-Nazi organisations, including the Nationale Liste, the FAP and the Index. They made the documents available to anti-fascist organisations.

Racist skinheads threaten two young punks with a gas pistol. A 20-year-old neo-Nazi known in the neighbourhood kicks 15-year-old Sandra in the face, causing serious injuries.

A group of around 40 far-right skinheads, some with weapons, attempt to storm a punk rock concert. After the police prevented them from entering, they demolish several cars and beat an 18-year-old woman so badly that she is taken to hospital with severe head injuries.

Four far-right skinheads emerge from a car shouting ‘Rotfront verrecke!’ (die Red Front) and the racial slur ‘Judensau’ and attack two passers-by. One of the victims is able to escape into the entryway of a building; the other is beaten badly, suffering a concussion and numerous lacerations.

Right-wing skinheads attack a passer-by with baseball bats and a flare gun. When the police later search the apartment of a known neo-Nazi, they find the skinheads there, along with far-right propaganda material.

The memorial for the victims of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp satellite camp in Neugraben is damaged and graffitied with a swastika.

Outside a billiard bar known as a neo-Nazi hangout, six hooligans threaten an anti-fascist, rip a Gegen Nazis patch from his clothing, and follow him to the apartment of a friend, where he was able to escape them.

Two racist skinheads attack and rob a passer-by and threaten a driver with a knife. The driver died of a heart attack after the attack.

During a discussion with a far-right teenager, a skinhead pulled a gun on an anti-fascist and threatened: ‘Now I’m going to put you in the ground’.

Racist Skinheads wreck the apartment of a Turkish family in Hamburg-Winterhude.

The British Holocaust-denier David Irving holds a lecture describing the Holocaust as a ‘legend’ and calls for Germany to annex parts of Poland. The secretly organized event had nearly 200 participants.

Unknown persons plaster the area around the Rahlstedt train station with FAP stickers bearing slogans against refugees, homosexuals, and leftists.

During a victory party on the Reeperbahn after the German national football team wins the World Cup, 300 neo-Nazis and hooligans attempt to storm the occupied Hafenstraße flats.

During the night before of German Unity Day, 200-300 neo-Nazis attempt to storm the occupied Hafenstraße flats. Police thwart the raid. Afterwards, the group attacks young immigrants on the Reeperbahn.

Anti-fascist demonstrations against the increasing far-right violence in St. Pauli are organised in response to regular weekend gatherings of neo-Nazis, skinheads, and hooligans at Hans-Albers-Platz. From there they proceeded to attack immigrants and leftists. The media in Hamburg trivialise the situation as gang rivalry.

Neo-Nazis beat up an anti-fascist. When he reports them to the police, they attack his apartment building with Molotov cocktails. In response to the increasing far-right violence in Rahlstedt, especially near the train station and in the pedestrian zone, anti-fascists organised a demonstration on 13 April.

Eight far-right skinheads attack a housing project for immigrants. They throw stones at the housing modules, threaten children, spit on a woman, and yell neo-Nazi slogans.

Two drunk brothers open fire on a hostel for asylum seekers in Hamburg- Langen­horn.

On 20 July 1991 neo-Nazis and other right-wing skinheads attack deliberately ‘Turks’ on board the disco-ship Kogge in Hamburg-Bergedorf. They inflict life-threatening injuries on the 22-year-old Ercan K. Jürgen Rieger represents one of the attackers in court.

25 far-right skinheads chase a young Turkish man, who flees into a restaurant. The skinheads smash the windows with baseball bats, shoot in the air with gas pistols, throw an incendiary device, and riot at the train station. A crafting supply shop catches fire.

A far-right group chants neo-Nazi slogans. When a man criticizes them, they beat him up.

A 25- and a 28-year-old set fire to a refugee housing facility.

In the weeks following the racist pogrom in Hoyerswerda, immigrant, anti-fascist, civic, and religious groups in numerous cities call for demonstrations against xenophobia and racism. In Hamburg, where the central celebration for German Unity Day is being held, 5,000 people march from the Immigration Office to the city centre in a demonstration with the motto ‘Hurrah Germany – no thanks’, demanding the right of residency for all.

A St. Pauli fan and member of the People’s House of Turkey is the victim of a racistattack at a match. In an open letter to the FC St. Pauli board, he demands stadium bans for racists and a crackdown on racist incidents. As a result, the People’s House of Turkey protests against the fact that around 40 neo-Nazis regularly attend matches in the stadium. On 28 October 1991, at the football club’s annual general meeting, the decision is made to ban neo-Nazis from the stadium and to make anti-fascism club policy.

Unknown persons graffiti antisemitic slogans on a school where an initiative against right-wing extremism had been organised.

Unknown persons light fire to a Portuguese restaurant and graffiti swastikas and far-right slogans on the façade.

The inscription on a memorial for prisoners of the Wittmoor Concentration Camp in Hamburg-Lemsahl is vandalized.

Two men destroy the electrical connections on two residential barges used as housing for refugees.

Unknown persons throw burning cardboard into the cellar of a parish house where an African family is living. The family is unharmed.

In order to protest racist violence and the impending tightening of asylum laws, around 80 people found a Resistance Initiative against Racismat the People’s House of Turkey. The initiative calls for streets and squares to be renamed after victims of racist violence: a street after Ramazan Avcı, who was a victim of racist violence, a square after Semra Ertan, who took her own life in protest against everyday racism, and a square after Kemal Altun, who took his own life because he was denied the right to asylum and was threatened with deportation.

The right-wing political party Die Republikaner propagated the slogan ‘Das Boot ist voll!’ [The Boat Is Full!]. Even the centrist media fostered the impression that the ­country was being ‘flooded’ with asylum seekers.

The Derby Guesthouse, serving as housing for refugees, is attack. Refugees are injured and robbed.

Between late 1991 and 1994, police officers from Precinct 11 in St. Georg drove over 130 predominantly Black people, whom they believed to be dealers, to remote locations on the outskirts of the city or in the free harbor at night and abandoned them there. This practice was an abuse of an already questionable policy, the forced removal of undesirables from the city center. In the committee of enquiry into the Hamburg police scandal, witnesses reported several mock executions. Black people were forced to undress and kneel, then an unloaded gun was held to their heads.

Activists from the People’s House of Turkey call for the street at Landwehr to be renamed in honor of Ramazan Avcı.

Police officers from Precinct 11 force six black men to undress, lock them in a cell, and then spray tear gas into the cell. This assault by a police officer was made public during the Hamburg police scandal in 1994.

Refugee housing is set on fire. The fire department rescues 37 residents; 13 are treated for smoke inhalation.

Neo-Nazis attack an anti-fascist with mace and beat him so badly that he must be hospitalised.

Unknown persons set fire to two prams in the entryway of a refugee housing facility. One woman is badly burned, and three men are treated for smoke inhalation.

The neo-Nazis Stefan S. and Stephan K. attack Captain Gustav Schneeclaus after he called Hitler the ‘worst criminal’. Five days later Schneeclaus died of his injuries. The attackers were sentenced to six and eight years in prison, respectively. After being released, Stefan S. remains active in neo-Nazi circles in northern Germany; in 2017 Stephan K. carries out a bomb attack on the Veddel S-Bahn station in Hamburg.

A coalition of around 1000 anti-fascists, autonomists, peace activists, and the Young Socialists of the SPD demonstrate against fascism.

During an FAP meeting, a 16-year-old FAP member attacks an African refugee on the street in front of the venue.

Unknown persons repeatedly smash the windows of the newly-opened social welfare project Azian for immigrant girls and young women. Many residents in the neighbourhood speak out against the attacks and declare their solidarity with the project.

A 16-year-old anti-fascist is attacked by far-right skinheads and must be hospitalised. On the same day, ne-Nazis beat up an 18-year-old and smash the windows of a nonprofit daycare facility. One week later 250 demonstrators protest the crimes at an anti-fascist rally.

Fire is set to the Italian restaurant Al Dente. The perpetrators graffiti ‘foreigners go home’ and swastikas on the façade. The police do not assume the act was politically motivated.

After a neighbourhood street festival, skinheads attack a group of young people and clash with the police. A passer-by is stabbed and injured.

A 46-year-old man sends faxes with a portrait of Hitler and anti-Semitic death threats to several SPD and GAL district offices as well as to the Jewish Community.

Unknown persons set fire to a refugee housing project that is still under construction.

Five unknown persons throw incendiary devices into a refugee housing project under construction.

Unknown persons throw a viable Bundeswehr training grenade through the window of a refugee shelter. A 13-year-old boy was in the room. According to police reports, he was not injured.

10,000 mourners pay their respects to 10-year-old Yeliz Arslan, 14-year-old Ayşe Yılmaz, and their grandmother Bahide Arslan. Norbert Blüm, Minister of Labour and ­Social Affairs, delivers the eulogy. Afterwards, a demonstration march to Hamburg City Hall. Turkish shops remain closed as strikers express their ­condolences and outrage.

After the fire-bombing in Mölln, more than 300,000 people participate in a candlelight vigil around the Alster. This call to action was initiated by the media, supported by numerous prominent Hamburg citizens and professional organisations. Refugee groups, the Hamburg Refugee Council, the Anti-racist Hotline, and Amnesty International criticised those media outlets and the politicians who were now lighting candles of laying the groundwork for the fire-bombings. They claimed that touting the planned asylum compromise as the solution to the problem was playing with fire and that it would only strengthen systematic racism.

A 53-year-old hurls racial slurs at a German-Ghanan neighbour family while they are playing football with their two small children in front of the house. He threatens that he will go get his pistol unless they leave. The court recognizes the political motivation and sentences the man to a fine of 6000DM for incitement of racial hatred, intimidation, and defamation.

Around 300 Roma from Hamburg want to commemorate the Nazi persecution of their ancestors at the concentration camp memorial site and to set up a refuge for Roma threatened with deportation in light of the planned tightening of asylum laws. The cultural authorities close the memorial and the police prevent the action with a large contingent. The Roma then set up a protest camp in front of the memorial.

Following the racist arson attack in Solingen, in which five people died, an initiative from the People’s House of Turkey calls for a day of strike. Many migrant shops remain closed on this day. Immigrant youths mobilize in schools for a demonstration in front of the town hall. Immigrant pupils make up the majority of the 10,000 protesters. After the police violently break up the demonstration, there are hours of street battles between the police and around 2,000 young people.

Henry Fiebig firing tracer ammunition at an anti-fascist demonstration from his apartment window on Juliusstrasse in Hamburg’s Schanzenviertel district. According to the findings of the Federal Criminal Police Office, Hamburg neo-Nazi Henry Fiebig is one of the two authors of Eine Bewegung in Waffen, the manifest penned under a pseudonym. It called for ­hostage-taking, arson attacks and bank robberies, claiming that the ‘[Nazi] werewolf of the future’ would be an ‘after-hours and weekend terrorist’.

At an exhibition in the Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte about the history of Hamburg from the end of the First World War to the end of the Second, unknown persons grafittied walls with swastikas and left neo-Nazi slogans in the guestbook. Museum employees received threatening far-right and antisemitic letters.

Three men harass another with racial slurs, threaten him with a knife, and destroy his car.

The anti-fascist activists Gerhard L. and Waltraud L. receive anti-Semitic threats by post and telephone for months. Their private data is published in the neo-Nazi Anti-Antifa brochure ‘Index’. After they receive death threats they are put under police protection and the municipal owner of their apartment building agrees to install bullet-proof windows.

For weeks after a TV programme on the Offenen Kanal about the Hamburg uprising and the Ernst Thälmann memorial, the severely disabled anti-fascist Jürgen B. receives threatening phone calls and death threats from neo-Nazis.

On 7 December 1993 Wilfried Sch. stabbs and kills Bakary Singateh on a train, claiming he had felt disturbed by the drunken asylum-seeker. Sch. had a history of making racist remarks at his place of work at the Hamburg environmental authority. The court did not recognise that the crime was racially motivated and handed down a two-year suspended sentence for manslaughter.

Three neo-Nazis brutally beat a 15-year-old Turkish boy, threaten his family and sing Nazi songs.

On the night of 15 January 1994, Dialle D. get beaten up by two drunk men; he wears a cap with the words ‘Don’t give Nazis a chance’. When he goes to file a complaint the following day, he finds out that the assailants are in fact police officers. His passport is withheld at the police station. 12 weeks later he receives an order to leave the country.

A demonstration is organised against the FAP’s National Hotline. Dialling the hotline connects to an answering machine with extreme right-wing propaganda and information about political opponents, and a call to arms against immigrants and left-wingers. The demonstration is supported by numerous left-wing groups and actors such as the Volkshaus, the Rote Flora, the VVN and the Hochschul-Antifa.

Unknown persons set fire to a shelter in which 31 refugees, some from Yugoslavia and Moldova, were living. The 60-year-old, Mirkovic S., one of the residents, extinguished the quickly spreading fire with a garden hose, preventing any deaths or injuries. In the days prior to the incident, far-right skinheads had been seen in the vicinity of the shelter.

Unknown persons set fire to a shelter in which 31 refugees, some from Yugoslavia and Moldova, were living. The 60-year-old, Mirkovic S., one of the residents, extinguished the quickly spreading fire with a garden hose, preventing any deaths or injuries. In the days prior to the incident, far-right skinheads had been seen in the vicinity of the shelter.

During the night, three unknown persons set fire to a refugee housing facility. The residents were able to escape to safety.

Innensenator Werner Hackmann tritt angesichts zahlreicher Berichte über rassistisch motivierte Polizeigewalt zurück. Ein Polizist, der die Vorfälle meldete, wird am gleichen Tag mit dem Tode bedroht und seine Ex-Frau antisemitisch beleidigt. Infolge des Hamburger Polizeiskandals richtet die Hamburgische Bürgerschaft einen Untersuchungsausschuss ein.

The sanctuary of the St. Simeon’s Church and its day-care facility are vandalized and repeatedly graffitied with far-right slogans and threats against Pastor Wolfgang Jähn. Jähn is an outspoken supporter of the humane housing of refugees in the district.

Teachers at the Jahnschule refuse to administer graduation exams for the neo-Nazi Jan Z. The city school authority intervenes and directs them to administer the test.

Der parlamentarische Untersuchungsausschuss zum Hamburger Polizeiskandal legt nach mehr als zweijähriger Arbeit einen Bericht vor. Über 100 Zeug*innen sagten in dem Ausschuss über rassistisch motivierte Demütigungen, Misshandlungen und Gewalt durch Polizeibeamt*innen sowie rassistische und extrem rechte Einstellungen bei der Hamburger Polizei im Zeitraum von 1989 bis 1994 aus. Ein Polizist führte zwei Jahre lang eine illegale Kartei mit Fotos und Personalien von Schwarzen Menschen.

During the night, unknown persons throw Molotov cocktails through the church windows and graffiti the façade with swastikas and SS symbols. The fire does not catch.

Over 4000 people take part in an anti-fascist demonstration against the NPD election campaign. Two neo-Nazis and Anti-Antifa activists are discovered attempting to photograph the participants.

Three teen-age neo-Nazis attack the homeless person Manfred Klein on a playground, kicking him brutally and injuring him badly. The three had been blaring neo-Nazi rock music until the police confiscated their boom-box. In April 1999, shortly before the incident went to court, the victim committed suicide. Despite the extreme right-wing stance of the perpetrators, the court found no political motivation for the crime.

A wheelchair user is called a ‘cripple’ and threatened by two right-wing skinheads. One of them has a swastika tattoo and holds a knife to her throat. When a passer-by appears at the deserted railway station, the two men flee.

From the balcony of his apartment, a man shoots 21 bullets from a revolver into the windows of a refugee housing facility across the street. It is pure good fortune that no one is injured. The man is sentenced to two years in prison on probation for attempted manslaughter.

A demonstration protesting the Wehrmachtausstellung remained banned, after the Hamburg Bündnis gegen Rassismus und Faschismus (Hamburg Union against Racism and Fascism), the trade unions, and the Holocaust survivor Esther Bejanaro called for a protest against it. Instead, 500 neo-Nazis from the Freie Kameradschaften and Blood & Honour demonstrated in Ludwigslust.

500 neo-Nazis demonstrate under police protection against the Crimes of the Wehrmacht exhibition, chanting Nazi and pro-SS slogans. Permits for counter-protests by anti-fascist and union groups were denied.

The Nationalen und Sozialen Aktionsbündnisses Norddeutschland and the NPD combine forces in a demonstration against a caravan village. Freie Kameradschaften (informally organised neo-Nazi groups) such as the Hamburger Sturm mobilise in advance.

Neo-Nazis from the Hamburger Sturm attempt, to no avail, to disrupt a DGB event, ‘Neo-Nazis in Bergedorf’.

300 neo-Nazis demonstrate in support of evicting occupiers from the Rote Flora and against the alleged collusion of the government with the Antifa movement.

70 neo-Nazis, some of them members of the Hamburger Sturm, demonstrate against the Lola cultural center, where a trade union event about the right-wing scene in Bergedorf had taken place. Five right-wingers who tried to disrupt the event were beaten up. 350 anti-fascists demonstrate against the neo-Nazi demonstration, which had been called by the Aktionsbüro Norddeutschland.

A group of right-wing skinheads chant racist slogans and attack passers-by. The police arrest several of them and find numerous blunt objects and gas pistols.

During an event at the Police Academy on Holocaust Memorial Day, a chalkboard was vandalized with swastikas and racist slogans. At the time of the incident, only police and cadets at the academy had access to the room.

Neo-Nazis attack two visitors at the self-governed youth center Unser Haus e.V.

Neo-Nazis from the Aktionsbüro Norddeutschland, including Christian Worch and Thomas Wulff, as well as the Freie Kameradschaft Hamburger Sturm intend to march through the Schanzenviertel neighborhood and demand the eviction of the occupiers at the Rote Flora. Anti-fascist initiatives mobilize for weeks to organize counter-protest in the district. The march-route is eventually moved to Hamm. A large police contingent made it possible for over 200 neo-Nazis to march undisturbed.

During the alternative Wutzrock festival, a neo-Nazi threatens visitors with a gas pistol.

400 neo-Nazis from all over Germany gather at a right-wing rock concert organized by the Blood & Honour network. The organizer is Torben K., a leader of the neo-Nazi Kameradschaft Hamburger Sturm and among the leadership cadre of the German branch of the Blood & Honour network. Lower Saxony had previously announced that it would not allow concerts sponsored by the network. The Hamburg police explained that it was a private event, as the neo-Nazis had claimed the concert was an engagement party.

The Hamburg Ministry for Home Affairs bans the freie Kameradschaft Hamburger Sturm and its magazine of the same name. One month later, on 14 September, the Federal Ministry for Home Affairs bans the German division of Blood & Honour.

Christian Worch’s planned march ‘Against the lies and agitation of the BILD newspaper’ on 19 August 2000 remains banned. Instead, the event takes place one day later as a rally in front of the Axel Springer publishing house. Around 90 neo-Nazis turn up, while over 1000 people take part in the counter-demonstration under the slogan ‘Fascism is not an opinion, it’s a crime’.

More than 70 neo-Nazis demonstrate in Bahrenfeld against the reporting of the Hamburger Morgenpost. Over 1000 people, mainly young people from the neighborhood, protest against the march, which turns into a gauntlet for the neo-Nazis. Residents drown out the slogans and speeches with loud music.

An 18-year-old girl from an immigrant background is racially abused, pushed to the ground and kicked by three 30-year-old neo-Nazi skinheads on her way to Lehmweg School (now Ida Ehre School). The young woman flees to the school by bus and is taken to hospital.

Four Black people, including a seven-month-old baby, are racially abused and attacked by neo-Nazi skinheads on their way to a New Year’s Eve party. Neo-Nazi Marco G. shoots with a gas pistol and narrowly misses the 20-year-old mother and her baby. Despite the fact that G. had committed the same offense on New Year’s Eve of the previous year, and that he had several previous convictions for extreme right-wing offenses, the public prosecutor’s office does not issue an arrest warrant on the grounds that it was possible that the perpetrator did not intend to harm anyone.

On 27 January, the day of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism, neo-Nazis want to march through Bramfeld. The Federal Constitutional Court upholds the ban on the march on the day of remembrance and reschedules it for the following day. The congregation of the Osterkirche protest by ringing the bells and chanting ‘Nazis out!’ The 120 right-wingers only make it 300 meters before the police break up the march due to the counter-protest of 800 people.

Eight neo-Nazi skinheads attack a 47-year-old homeless man on the train between Hamburg and Buchholz, punching him in the face.

A group of young people throw stones at a refugee shelter.

31-year-old Süleyman Taşköprü is shot dead in his shop. His father finds his dying son. Taşköprü is the third victim in a series of murders to which the right-wing terrorist National Socialist Underground (NSU) confessed ten years later, in November 2011. Until then, the police and media did not recognize the crime as an act of racism.

The right-wing populist Schill Party receives 19.4 percent of the vote in the city elections and forms a governing coalition with the CDU and FDP. Right-wing populist Ronald Schill becomes Minister of Home Affairs and Second Mayor.

Following coalition negotiations with the right-wing populist Schill Party, CDU mayor Ole von Beust announces that the planned relocation of a prison from the site of the former Neuengamme Concentration Camp to Hamburg-Billwerder will not go ahead. For decades, survivors, relatives, and activists had fought for the site to be used as a memorial. The Senate’s rejection sparked international outrage and was withdrawn. Today, the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial is located on the site.

100 neo-Nazis from all over northern Germany gathered at the War Memorial – often called the Kriegsklotz (war clod, block) – under the motto ‘May the glorious deeds of the dead live eternal’ to honor the fallen members of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS. The right-wing terrorist Manfred Börm from the Lüneburg area is among them. 250 anti-fascists hold a protest demonstration.

The 19-year-old Nigerian Achidi John (born Michael Paul Nwabuisi) dies after being forcibly administered emetics at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in order to seize drugs he was suspected of having ingested. In 2006, the European Court of Human Rights declared the administration of emetics to be torture.

Fire is set to the self-governed youth center Unser Haus e.V. Property damage is sustained.

More than 100 organizations call for a rally to protest the right-wing populist Hamburg Senate's migration policy. The German Trade Union Confederation, various migrant associations, social organizations, and neighborhood initiatives supported the call.

The right-wing populist coalition abolishes the office of Hamburg’s Commissioner for Foreigners’ Issues. Ursula Neumann, who had held the office, claims that the parliament apparently wanted to prevent internal criticism, and that Minister of Home Affairs Schill was a racist by definition and that the CDU had his back.

On the 70th anniversary of the Altona Bloody Sunday, neo-Nazis from the Norddeutsche Aktionsbüro install a ‘memorial plaque for National Socialists’ in Walter-Möller-Park. On 17 July 1932, 16 residents and two SA members were killed by police gunfire during a march of 7,000 SS and SA members through Altona. In the summer of 1933, a National Socialist court held the young communists August Lütgens, Bruno Tesch, Karl Wolff and Walter Möller responsible for the killing of the SA members and ordered them executed. A local resident immediately removed the so-called memorial plaque.

In the early hours of the morning, the Bambule Caravan Site is cleared by a large contingent of police. The ruling right-wing populist Schill Party had declared war on alternative forms of housing. Weeks of protests against the eviction followed, with over 20 demonstrations in November and December 2002 alone. Bambule became a symbol of protest against the right-wing populist Senate.

1000 neo-Nazis demonstrate against the Crimes of the Wehrmacht exhibition. German war crimes are openly denied at the march. 6000 people take part in the counter-protest under the banner ‘German perpetrators are not victims! Together against fascism and war!’

380 neo-Nazis demonstrate against the Crimes of the Wehrmacht exhibition. A few days earlier, neo-Nazis disrupted an event organized by the Protestant Academy on the subject of the war of extermination and displayed a banner with the slogan ‘Reemtsma lies ­ truth wins!’

Fire is set to a Turkish food truck. Four neo-Nazis are arrested.

Three neo-Nazi skinheads attack a student in the train between Farmsen and Berne, beating and kicking him.

Around 70 neo-Nazis gather at the invitation of the citizens’ initiative Hamburg Victims Unforgotten. They spread revisionist myths at a memorial service for Hamburg bombing victims.

Under the slogan ‘Freedom of music is freedom of opinion’, 150 neo-Nazis march through Winterhude. At the end, the Dortmund neo-Nazi band Oidoxie from the banned Blood & Honour network plays on a truckbed. The event is a reaction to the banning of a right-wing rock concert by the city of Hamburg in March 2004.

Five men use racist epithets and threaten a Black man. He is able to escape from the train before he is injured.

Right-wing skinheads use racist epithets and rob an Afghani teen-ager.

A group of neo-Nazis attack a man because of his race. The man defends himself with a knife. Neo-Nazis from the Freie Nationalisten group take this as an opportunity to hold a ‘vigil against violence by foreigners’ in Harburg on 8 January 2005, which is attended by around 100 people.

The postbox of an anti-fascist is destroyed using explosives. He had previously been threatened online and by means of graffiti.

400 neo-Nazis attend a right-wing rock concert. The organizers apply for a permit, and the concert is not banned by the police and authorities, even though well-known bands from the banned Blood & Honour network are playing.

30 neo-Nazis show up at an information fair held by various left-wing groups in the auditorium at a school in Harburg. Anti-fascists defend the fair. The police arrive later and escort the neo-Nazis out.

The Hamburg Waffenring, an association of right-wing and extreme right-wing student fraternities including the Burschenschaft Germania Hamburg, organizes a celebration entitled ‘750 Years of Königsberg’. Brandenburg’s Minister of Home Affairs Jörg Schönbohm (CDU) is the keynote speaker for 400 guests.

The neo-Nazis Thorsten de V. and Volker F. open the neo-Nazi shop Odin und Freya, which sells clothing from various extreme right-wing labels. In the vicinity of the shop there are attacks on neighbors and young people with alternative lifestyles. A broad alliance of neighborhood initiatives, businesses, clubs, social institutions, antifa groups, residents, and sports clubs joined together in the campaign ‘Close down Nazi stores!’. Due to the ongoing protests, the landlord terminates the contract with the shop's owner in October 2006.

Two men in the subway call a passenger the N-word and threaten him. They say he should be ‘gassed’ and hit him.

50 neo-Nazis from the NPD, the DVU, and Freie Kameradschaften meet for the annual revisionist ‘memorial service’ for Hamburg bombing victims. The day before, around 150 neo-Nazis participated in a silent march through Hamburg.

In a train between the Veddel and Hammerbrook stations, a group of neo-Nazis attack a young man, hitting him and using pepper spray.

The neo-Nazi Torben K. celebrates what he claims is a birthday party, but is actually a right-wing rock concert by the neo-Nazi band Noie Werte. 300 neo-Nazis attend, they chant banned slogans. The police do not interfere, instead arresting area residents who protest the event.

A right-wing rock concert by the band Schall und Rauch, allegedly a birthday party, takes place.

A passenger threatens a Black ticket inspector, saying he should be ‘gassed,’ then hits and kicks him.

Around 100 anti-fascists prevent the annual general meeting of the Hamburg state chapter of the Mutual Aid Association of Former Waffen-SS Members (HIAG – Hilfsgemeinschaft auf Gegenseitigkeit der Angehörigen der ehemaligen Waffen-SS e.V.) in the Hamburg Chamber of Crafts and Trade.

In a bus, neo-Nazis insult a group of young people with racist slurs. When the group leaves the bus, the neo-Nazis attack them.

A man’s neighbors call him a ‘f***ing Turk’ and punch him in the face.

One day before 8 May, the Aktionsbüro Norddeutschland holds an event ‘with veterans from the Second World War’ in the Ratskeller. Many representatives of the militant neo-Nazi scene attend.

The NPD demonstrates with 200 people in favor of ‘national jobs’. After anti-fascist protests, the neo-Nazis break off their demonstration.

Around 30 neo-Nazis from the NPD and the DVU accept the invitation from the citizens’ initiative Hamburg Victims Unforgotten to a ‘memorial service’ at the memorial. The revisionist and former Nazi officer Klaus Christoph Marloh gives a speech. Because of anti-fascist protests, the police prevent neo-Nazis from Freie Kameradschaften from entering the cemetery.

The owner of the neo-Nazi shop Odin and Freya, Volker F., attacks passers-by, punching them in their faces and spitting at them. He was later fined for these actions. In another trial, F. was found guilty of threatening an area resident. He harassed the woman for months, sometimes in the presence of her child.

The first copies of the ‘Schoolyard CD’ appear in Hamburg schools. The NPD is using the free music CD to appeal to younger voters during the federal election campaign.

The neo-Nazi shop Odin and Freya is forced to close. 50 neo-Nazis gather for a send-off party in front of the shop, and, in the course of the evening, attack young people in the neighborhood. 200 residents gather spontaneously to protest, and it comes to blows.

Neo-Nazis attempt to attack a Jewish man, who is wearing a yarmulke, with glass bottles. He is able to escape uninjured.

20 neo-Nazis attempt to force their way into an event titled ‘Structures of the Right-wing Scene in Hamburg-Wandsbek,’ organized by the DGB Youth and the Hamburg Alliance against the Right. Anti-fascists refused them entry and scuffles broke out. The owners had banned neo-Nazis from the event, but the police claimed they saw no legal basis for expelling them from the venue. Although the police initially stopped the neo-Nazis from causing a disturbance, they then announced that they saw no legal way of keeping the neo-Nazis out. The event had to be cancelled.

The neo-Nazi Volker F. opens a new scene-shop, Unbreakable Streetwear. After anti-fascists make the landlord and the neighborhood aware of the shop’s orientation – by distributing flyers, among other things – the lease is terminated. The shop was closed and the owner evicted in September 2007.

15 neo-Nazis connected to the Hamburger Sturm attempt to attack an anti-fascist information stand. The police prevent them from doing so.

As part of the Citizens’ Initiative for a Safe Bergedorf campaign, extreme right-wingers organize a song evening. The campaign was created by neo-Nazis from the NPD and Freie Kameradschaften to protest the construction of a mosque in the Bergedorf. 50 neo-Nazis take part in the event, and the head of the Hamburg NPD chapter Jürgen Rieger appears as a speaker.

A man from Ghana, on his way home to his family, is chased and beaten by three neo-Nazis. Thanks to a neighbor’s help he was able to escape with only light injuries. At the trial, the perpetrators are defended by the attorney Wolfram Nahrath, a leading neo-Nazi.

15 neo-Nazis celebrate Adolf Hitler’s birthday. The event ends when neighbors call the police.

Three masked neo-Nazis attack a man from Ghana, then follow him.

A 46-year-old dock worker shoots a 26-year-old man in the leg and shouts ‘fucking foreigner!’ at him, claiming that the man was disturbing the peace. When the police search the dock worker’s apartment, they find, among other things, a swastika flag and a picture of Adolf Hitler.

Anti-fascists and journalists draw attention to the neo-Nazi activities and NPD membership of a married couple who are elementary school teachers. As a result, the Catholic elementary school cancels the husband's contract on the grounds that his attitudes are incompatible with a Christian world view. The wife, who works at a state elementary school, is transferred to a school office.

During the night, the objects are thrown through the windows of the Green Party’s office and the entrance is graffitied with anti-Semitic slogans.

A racially-motivated attack occurs on the train. The attackers spit on a man and throw him against the window, while shouting ‘fucking foreigner!’ and ‘Deutschland den Deutschen’ (Germany for the Germans).

The Bürgerinitiative für ein sicheres Bergedorf (Citiziens initiative for a safe Bergedorf), a racist organization, performs a piece of street theater titled ‘Bergedorf 2010: The Last German’, an agitation against the supposed over-foreignization of Germany. Neo-Nazis dress as caricatures of Muslims and place the ‘last German’ in a cage.

Around 200 right-wing skinheads from northern Germany attend a right-wing rock concert. The police are on site with 130 officers, but do not cancel the concert. They argue that the concert has no external impact. They only intervene when around 50 anti-fascists gather at a nearby street-crossing to protest. They are pushed back by police officers.

A passenger insults a taxi driver with racial slurs and attempts to strangle him.

1300 neo-Nazis intend to march through Barmbek on Labor Day. Over 10,000 people stand in their way. Despite the protest, the police allow the march from Alte Wöhr via Rübenkamp to Ohlsdorf. Journalists and counter-demonstrators are attacked and injured during the march.

After a grill party, several dozen members of the neo-Nazi Weiße Wölfe Terrorcrew riot. A police officer is severely injured.

Stones are thrown through the windows of the Pinneberg Jewish Community Center.

During the European Football Championship, members of the White Wolves Terror Crew sing the first verse of the German national anthem, burn a Turkish flag, and commit racially motivated attacks.

The Thor Steiner shop Brevik opens in Hamburg’s city center. Because of the constant anti-fascist protests, neo-Nazis can only enter the shop under police escort. The shop closes after only three weeks.

A group of 20 neo-Nazis attempts to disrupt an event at the Brakula culture center. Anti-fascists and police prevent them from doing so.

17 Muslim graves are vandalized.

The police search the home of Jürgen Rieger, chairman of the NPD, and find, among other things, racist propaganda material and an assault rifle.

Four men shout ‘Heil Hitler!’ and attack a drunken man, shove him to the ground and punch him in the face.

When a building caretaker refuses to allow an NPD functionary to put campaign material in the tenants’ postboxes, a neo-Nazi attacks him with pepper spray.

At a stoplight, a neo-Nazi puts a racist NPD sticker on the window of a car driven by a Portuguese man. When the driver confronts him, the neo-Nazi pushes him to the ground. The driver suffers a cerebral hemorrhage.

Members of the Weiße Wölfe Terrorcrew attack a woman because of her race.

450 neo-Nazis from all over Germany attend a concert by the right-wing rock band Kategorie C – Hungrige Wölfe.

The memorial plaque for the Hamburg-Wandsbek concentration subcamp is graffitied with swastikas. In the following weeks, the memorial plaques are first damaged and then stolen.

When a man with a child in a baby carriage attempts to enter a subway train, he is verbally attacked with a racist slur. A Black woman follows the perpetrator, who also insults her racially and punches her in the face.

A blind woman is dehumanizingly insulted, grabbed and held fast, and threatened with rape.

When three NPD functionaries, including Thomas Wulff, attempt to put up NPD posters in front of his shop, the shop owner protests. They proceed to spit on him and kick him in the abdomen. One of them also threatened him with an axe.

An Iranian man is shown the Nazi salute and verbally attacked with antisemitic and racist slurs. When he confronts the perpetrator he is thrown to the ground.

The neo-Nazi shop Tønsberg is opened. The Glinde Citizens’ Initiative Against the Right protests for years, sometimes with daily vigils. The shop is finally closed on 31 January 2017.

Before Stefan N., an internationally sought neo-Nazi with contacts to the Weiße Wölfe Terrorcrew, can go underground in the Hamburg region, police arrest him at the Hamburg-Harburg train station. He is carrying a loaded gun when he is arrested.

Around 1400 runners participate in the ‘Run against the Right’ around the Outer Alster, a protest action against the Nazi march scheduled for the following day. Organized by the marathon section of FC St. Pauli, the run has taken place every year since then to raise funds for anti-fascist and anti-racist work in Hamburg.

The Nazi march ‘Day of the German Future’ is attended by 500 neo-Nazis from the NPD and Freie Kameradschaften from all over Germany. Thanks to anti-fascist blockades, the route through Wandsbek is rerouted several times and shortened to a total of 1.5 kilometers. The Hamburg Alliance Against the Right had previously organized a demonstration with over 6,000 people and called for the march to be blocked. Thousands of people form a sit-in blockade under the bridge on Peterskampweg, which is cleared by the police using water cannons so that the neo-Nazis can continue their march.

Thousands attend the rally organized by ‘Hamburg shows its Colors’ bearing colorful cards to protest the neo-Nazi ‘Day of the German Future’ march taking place in Wandsbek. An alliance of parties, trade unions, churches, religious communities, and sports associations had called for the counter-event with music, information stands, and a stage program.

Members of the Weiße Wölfe Terrorcrew act as security at an NPD stand. They attempt to threaten and attack anti-fascists.

A group of young men abuse a taxi driver with racist slurs and attack him physically.

A man in a subway train repeatedly performs the Nazi salute, insults Muslims, and spits on two women who he believes are non-Germans.

A group of young men insults gay men, threatens them with Tasers and blinds them with spotlights.

Unknown persons break the windows at the Magnus-Hirschfeld-Zentrum, a counselling, culture and youth center for the queer community.

The door to the synagogue in Pinneberg is destroyed on the 75th anniversary of the November pogroms.

Several men shouting ‘Seig Heil!’ enter a fast food restaurant and threaten an employee because of his race.

After several meetings of the Committee on Internal Affairs, the Senate publishes an 80-page report on the conclusions the Hamburg security authorities drew from the NSU complex. From the perspective of the family of the murdered Süleyman Taşköprü and numerous critics, key questions remain unanswered.

A man is racially insulted as a ‘fucking Black man’, pulled by the hair and punched in the face. According to witnesses, one of the two perpetrators also tried to stab him with a screwdriver.

40 neo-Nazis and right-wingers demonstrate against a refugee center. Over 600 people protest against the march and block part of the route. After the demonstration, one of the demonstrators threatens counter-demonstrators with a knife.

Hamburg tax official Kim-Alexander M. sets fire to a house where six Iraqi refugees were to move in the following day. A few hours before the attack, he and other racist neighborhood residents stormed the office of the administrative official responsible for placing refugees and pressured her about the plans. One resident had already threatened to flood the house and make it uninhabitable. M. receives a suspended sentence of two years from the Lübeck district court.

The deputy chairman of the AfD, Alexander Gauland, speaks to 170 people at an event organized by the Staats- und Wirtschaftspolitische Gesellschaft e.V. (SWG). The audience includes Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck as well as other guests from the extreme right.

Members of the Identitarian Movement occupy the balcony of the SPD party headquarters. They spread the conspiracy narrative of a ‘Great Replacement’ on banners. In the same year, the Hamburg fraternity Germania invites the Identitarian Movement to joint military sports exercises.

At short notice, the convention center is chosen as a shelter for 1,200 refugees. Under the banner of ‘Refugees Welcome’, many Hamburg residents welcome the new arrivals and support them with language courses, counselling, and clothing donations. The clothing donation drop-off in the convention center eventually becomes the Hanseatic Help e.V. aid organization.

Three neo-Nazis call a man the N-word and punch him.

Neo-Nazis and hooligans plan to march through Hamburg city center under the slogan ‘Day of German Patriots’. The national demonstration is organized by long-standing neo-Nazis around Thorsten de V., who had long been active in the FAP and the Blood & Honour network. Over 600 groups call for a protest against the march. The Federal Constitutional Court confirms the ban on the march. Alternative events in other cities are also prevented by the police.

A Muslim woman wearing a hijab and her brother are subjected to racist abuse. The perpetrator tries to tear off the woman's headscarf and punches her brother in the face.

The northern German regional branches of the AfD call for a demonstration in Hamburg under the slogan ‘Against political failure! Stop the asylum chaos!’. Among the 240 participants are neo-Nazis from the NPD and Freie Kameradschaften as well as from a network of völkische Siedler. More than 1,000 people organized a spontaneous blockade to prevent the demonstration from taking place. The march is canceled and a rally is held instead.

A Syrian refugee is attacked with a broken bottle.

An Eritrean refugee is attacked with a gas pistol shooting steel pellets. His face and head are injured.

Unknown persons flood a house into which a refugee family was to move. The faucets were turned on and drains blocked in the cellar and on the ground floor.

A man hurls racist abuse at a person, threatens them with the words ‘You fucking foreigner, you asylum seeker, I’ll shoot you in the leg’ and hits them on the head with his handgun.

21-year-old Gambian Yaya Jabbi dies in custody after police arrest him for possession of 1.65 grams of marijuana. The Hamburg justice authorities classify his death as a suicide. His relatives, friends, and activists from the Initiative in Memory of Yaya Jabbi doubt this assertion.

Two unknown persons insult a taxi driver as a ‘fucking refugee’ and hit him.

Three young refugee men on their way back to their accommodation from a snack bar are attacked by a man with a knife. One of them is critically injured and requires emergency surgery. Local residents had been campaigning against the refugee center since 2014. A pub regularly frequented by neo-Nazis is located near the scene of the crime.

After local residents used a car blockade to prevent tree felling for the construction of a refugee shelter, anti-racist activists call for a ‘chainsaw massacre.’ The activists symbolically saw at a tree and demand ‘real solidarity with the refugees.’

Fire is set to an empty villa where underage refugees are to be housed. The police find the remains of car tires and fire accelerants. Swastikas had been found on the interior walls of the house in April.

The Staats- und Wirtschaftspolitische Gesellschaft e.V. [Society for State and Economic Policy] holds an event with the historian and AfD politician Stefan Scheil. His theories on the causes of the Second World War are widely regarded as historical revisionism in contemporary history scholarship. The neo-Nazi Thomas Wulff is in the audience. The society claims to pursue a conservative educational policy, but has been spreading anti-Semitic and revisionist content for years.

A motion by the Left Party in favor of a parliamentary committee of enquiry into the NSU murders is rejected by a majority of the SPD, CDU, Greens, FDP and AfD in the Hamburg parliament.

The walls of the toilets in the central reception center for asylum seekers are graffitied with ‘Heil Hitler’ and SS runes.

A man calls two people homophobic names and threatens them, says that they should be ‘gassed’ or shot.

In a pub, a man expresses antisemitic fantasies of mass murder. When another customer confronts him, the man punches him in the face.

A man rides his bike to the central reception center for asylum seekers, chants racist slogans, and shoots several times into the air with blank cartidges.

Unknown persons throw stones at the windows of a central reception center for asylum seekers. The center is attacked several times in the following months.

The Barmbek-Uhlenhorst-Hohenfelde-Dulsberg regional committee submits a resolution calling for the neo-Nazi shop Nordic Company to be closed. All parties represented on the committee support the resolution, with the exception of the AfD. The shop closes in January 2018.

Two employees of the Thor Steinar shop Nordic Company and another man threaten an anti-fascist who had taken part in the protests against the newly opened neo-Nazi shop the previous day. The man holds a knife to her neck and pushes her against a wall with the words ‘Antifascist c**t, I’m gonna stab you’.

On the site of a planned refugee shelter, water pipes and valves are manipulated in such a way that the construction site is partially flooded twice.

Bullet holes are discovered in the office windows on the grounds of the Central Reception Center for asylum seekers.

Local residents protest against the construction of a refugee shelter by erecting a coffin with the inscription ‘Victims of red/green narrow-mindedness’ (the colors refer to the SPD and the Green Party) . There had been racist protests against two other sites in Eppendorf. The first shelter in the district, accommodating 102 refugees, was not opened until May 2020.

The police seize weapons and ammunition during a search at the home of a Reichsbürger.

Unknown persons attempt to set fire to the refugee shelter. Traces of fire are discovered on four shutters. No one is injured.

Alexander Wolf, deputy chairman of the AfD parliamentary group in Hamburg, confirms that he published a songbook entitled ‘Schlachtruf’ [Battle Cry] in 1994, which also contains songs sung by the Hitler Youth. Wolf was a member of the extreme right-wing fraternity Danubia during his time as a student in Munich.

The NPD distributes clothing to some German homeless people, touting their action as ‘winter aid’ and using it to promote their racist agenda on social media.

Stephan Kronbügel detonates an explosive device filled with screws on the train platform in Veddel. At least one person is injured. In 1992, Kronbügel and the neo-Nazi Stefan S. killed Captain Gustav Schneeclaus. Despite Kronbügel’s criminal record, the police did not investigate the bombing as a politically-motivated crime. Hamburg media trivialized the perpetrator as a ‘drinker’ and ‘ex-Nazi’. The Hamburg district court, on the other hand, considered a right-wing motive for the crime to be very likely and sentenced Kronbügel to ten years in prison for attempted murder in October 2018.

A woman is insulted by a man as a ‘dirty Asian whore’, spat at and threatened with a knife, which he holds to her face. When she tries to flee, he hits her from behind on the head.

With the slogan ‘Merkel must go’, 60 right-wingers and neo-Nazis gather for a rally under the guise of a citizens’ protest. Like the Pegida demonstrations in Dresden, which took to the streets every week to protest Muslims and refugees, the protests are to take place every Monday. They call for the borders to be closed and for deportations. In the following weeks, the size of the rallies increases to up to 300 people. The protests continue until November of 2018.

The Initiative in Memory of Yaya Jabbi renames a nameless traffic island at Parc Fiction to Yaya Jabbi Circle and installs a memorial plaque. The Altona district office has it removed again immediately.

For the first time, the Hamburg AfD calls for a ‘Merkel must go’ rally. These rallies are regularly attended by neo-Nazis, hooligans, and extreme right-wingers from the NPD, the Identitarian movement, and fraternities. One participant carries a poster with the words ‘Die, Merkel’. The right-wing rally is moved from Gänsemarkt to Dammtor due to the constant counter-protest of more than 1,000 people.

On a bus, a man perpetrates a racially-motivated attack on a child.

On the day the verdict is announced in the Munich NSU trial, thousands of people take to the streets across Germany under the banner of ‘No closure’ and demand that the investigation into the NSU complex must continue. In Munich, the survivors and victims lead the demonstration. Over 1000 people demonstrate in Hamburg-Altona. The demonstration ends on Schützenstraße, the street where Süleyman Taşköprü was murdered by the NSU. Two memorial stones were placed there in 2012.

A 63-year-old man shouts antisemitic slogans on a Number 4 Line bus and attacks a woman with a knife. She suffers serious injuries to her face.

The NPD mobilizes against refugees with an unregistered information stand in the immediate vicinity of a refugee shelter and distributes an inflammatory video. It contains footage from a refugee shelter that suggests that those who filmed it had been inside the shelter. The AfD also uses the footage.

Various weapons are seized from a suspected Reichsbürger.

AfD supporters tackle a man who had swept flyers off an AfD stand in a spontaneous protest. AfD member Ulrich L. holds a knife to the man’s throat and threatens him with the words ‘I’ll slash you’. The victim suffers cuts. L. is sentenced to a fine for threats and negligent bodily harm.

Almost 180 people attend the 11th ‘Merkel must go’ rally, including Holocaust deniers and neo-Nazis from the NPD and the Blood & Honour network. An AfD official from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania speaks alongside a founding member of Pegida. The Gänsemarkt is surrounded by around 10,000 counter-demonstrators.

One man insults another on the subway, calling him as a ‘shitty dago’, then beat him and pushed him off the train.

The NSU Monologues is performed at the sold-out Deutsches Schauspielhaus. This documentary theater play presents the voices and experiences of relatives of the NSU murder victims. Afterwards, survivors and victims of racist violence from Hamburg, Mölln, and Duisburg speak.

Three racists insult and attack a 31-year-old Egyptian man at a bus stop at night. The men kick him in the back, knocking him to the ground, and then beat him with a telescoping baton. He is seriously injured and has to have an operation on his spine.

Organizers of the ‘Merkel must go’ rallies attempt to revive the right-wing protests with the slogan ‘Deutscher Michel, wach endlich auf’ (German Michel, wake up at last). The keynote speaker is journalist and Pegida activist Michael Stürzenberger, who was convicted of incitement to hatred. Around 120 people attend the rally.

William Tonou-Mbobda, a student from Cameroon, checks himself into the hospital because he is suffering from mental health issues. On 21 April 2019, he is forcibly restrained by three security guards and collapses. After five days in an induced coma, William Tonou-Mbobda dies. Activists and family members suspect that those involved were motivated by racism and demand an investigation of his death. A preliminary investigation of the attending physician and three members of security is dropped in August 2020 due to a lack of evidence.

The Ida Ehre School is evacuated after a bomb threat with a right-wing background. The AfD Hamburg had previously claimed that teachers at the school were promoting or tolerating radical left-wing positions. This claim was picked up by the media nationwide. What in fact had happened is that pupils had used stickers from an Antifa group on a pinboard created as an art project for the European elections.

A visitor to the annual Harbor Party sets fire to the hair of a sleeping homeless man.

Jemand versucht, die Regenbogenfahne, die ein Mann um den Hals trägt, in Brand zu setzen.

The Hamburg state rabbi and a board member of the Jewish community are spat at, insulted and threatened by a 45-year-old man in the foyer of city hall foyer as they leave a Senate reception for Holocaust survivors.

A person is insulted with a transphobic slur and spat at.

Around 70 right-wingers come to the ‘Deutscher Michel, wach endlich auf’ (German Michel, wake up at last) rally. In addition to AfD functionaries, the participants include well-known neo-Nazis such as Bernd Tödter, who had previous convictions for racially motivated crimes, and members of the Aryan Circle Germany Kameradschaft that he founded. Also taking part is Tony E., who, together the Gruppe S., planned assassinations of Muslims, politicians, and anti-fascists and was convicted in 2023 as the ringleader of the right-wing terrorist group.

The NPD Hamburg organizes a solidarity rally for the former SS-guard at the Stutthof Concentration Camp, Bruno D., who had been charged with aiding and abetting the murder of 5230 people. At the trial, survivors report testify to the daily abuse, executions, and the gas chamber in the Stuffhof Concentration Camp. The court found D. guilty and sentenced the 93-year-old to two years' probation.

A woman is racially insulted and kicked so hard that she falls to the ground.

One day after the racist attack in Hanau, hundreds of people come together to commemorate the nine victims and demonstrate against racism. A right-wing YouTuber provokes people on the sidelines of the memorial event by relativizing the racist motive of the perpetrator.

With the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, people begin networking to protest the German government's infection control measures. They arrange meetings via social media and meet up to go for walks and meditate together on Jungfernstieg. They trivialize the dangers of the pandemic and spread conspiracy theories. Their meetings mark the beginning of the Querdenken [lateral thinking] movement in Hamburg.

The Stolperstein in memory of Renata Rahel Drehmel is vandalized with red paint. After it was laid in August 2019, unknown persons cut out her name and later destroyed the stone completely. Renata Rahel Drehmel lived on Gärtnerstraße with her non-Jewish husband Fritz and her son Werner. When Fritz died and deportation was imminent, she attempted suicide several times and was admitted to the hospital. She died in Berlin in 1943. Werner was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto at the age of 14 and later to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. He survived and emigrated to the USA.

Around 800 covid deniers gather at the Rathausmarkt under the slogan ‘For our basic rights’. On the following Saturdays, hundreds, including Reichsbürger and representatives of the AfD and NPD, attend rallies where conspiracy theories are spread. Journalists are repeatedly threatened and prevented from doing their work.

A 12-year-old boy is called the N-word by two men. As he tries to flee, the men grab him and beat him.

Two men accost a group of children on the bus and call them racist names. When the children exit the bus at the station, the men follow and physically attack them. They punch a 12-year-old girl in the face.

More than 700 covid deniers attend a conspiracy-theory-laden rally organized by the Hamburg initiative Querdenken 40.

A sign on the railway embankment in Curslack, commemorating the prisoners of Neuengamme Concentration Camp and designed by pupils from the Curslack-Neuengamme primary school, is graffitied with the word ‘lie’.

During Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, a 29-year-old man attacks a Jewish student in front of the synagogue with a folding spade. The student suffers a head injury. The attacker is carrying a note with a swastika on it.

Unknown persons spray-paint right-wing slogans on the neighborhood school during the night.

Covid deniers organize motorcades through Hamburg, calling themselves ‘Freedom Drivers’. Over 200 cars take part in the parades, which take place regularly until June 2021. Anti-fascists on bicycles try to block the cars, leading to clashes and attacks on the cyclists.

Unknown persons tear down portraits that were hung up to commemorate the victims of the racist attack in Hanau.

Around 500 covid deniers gather at an ‘Enough is enough’ rally. In addition to AfD officials, 40 neo-Nazis and hooligans take part, including Thomas ‘Togger’ G. from the ‘Merkel must go’ marches. After the rally, G. comments on a call-to-arms message in a chat group with the post ‘I’ll be there in Hamburg and lots of comrades’.

Several right-wing incidents at the Hamburg fire department become public. Five employees are alleged to have put a swastika on the computer screen of an immigrant colleague. Another employee allegedly spread racist content in an extreme right-wing chat group. The fire department initiates disciplinary investigations and measures.

Two men hurl racist insults at a 15-year-old boy in the subway, kick a 66-year-old woman in the head, and give the Nazi salute several times.

More than 10,000 people attend a demonstration against the German government’s infection control measures during the covid pandemic. The demonstration starts at the Kunsthalle. After November 2021, the Kunsthalle demonstrations, as they came to be known, take place every Saturday. In addition to New Agers, covid deniers and anti-vaccination activists, many of the demonstrators are Reichsbürger, AfD functionaries, and neo-Nazis. Right-wing symbols, conspiracy theories, and revisionist comparisons of the covid countermeasures to the Nazi era characterize the demonstrations.

The chairman of the Hamburg AfD parliamentary group and other party officials take part in a Kunsthalle demonstration with 10,000 participants. Neo-Nazis from the Junge Nationalisten and the party Der III. Weg form a joint block under the banner ‘The system harms the people, not the unvaccinated!’

With the slogan ‘Solidarity and enlightenment instead of conspiracy theories’, more than 5,000 people demonstrate against the weekly Kunsthalle demonstrations by opponents of the covid countermeasures. Their demonstration ‘Against compulsory masks and other covid containment measures’ on the same day was banned by the police. Nevertheless, around 3,000 covid deniers gather in the city center and come together for two alternative rallies in Barmbek and Mundsburg.

A demonstration against the covid countermeasures with 3,000 participants in Barmbek spreads conspiracy theories. More than 50 neo-Nazis from the Junge Nationalisten and the small party Der III. Weg form their own block. The organizers had expressly tolerated their participation in view of their common opposition to the covid countermeasures.

At a right-wing anti-vaxxer demonstration, the neo-Nazis Martin F. and Torben K. ambush a group of young anti-fascists who are at a counter-protest. They try to push a 17-year-old into the castle moat. He suffers a head injury.

Around 2,500 covid deniers march from various starting points to converge at the Inner Alster. Alongside Russian flags, protesters carry placards and signs with references to conspiracy narratives, such as those from QAnon or the Great Reset. They demand an end to the government and so-called ‘mainstream media’. Speeches spread disinformation about vaccinations.

A car drives past the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial. The driver honks the horn and the passengers give the Nazi salute.

The police search the home of Mike H., the administrator of the anti-Semitic Telegram channel ‘Jewrassic Liars’, which disseminated hateful content and welcomed anti-Semitic crimes.

The neo-Nazi Marcel J. is arrested. On social networks, he had used the symbol Z to support the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, posted pictures of himself with an assault rifle, and planned to go to war for Russia. He was sentenced to three years in prison for condoning criminal acts, possession of weapons, and attacking a journalist after a Querdenken demonstration.

During the night, unknown persons spray 106 swastikas on the walls of the two neighboring schools. High school students organize a demonstration with the slogan ‘Students against the right’, in which over 100 people participate.

A 22-year-old cinema employee is racially insulted by two guests and pelted with popcorn. After they are banned from the cinema, they ambush the man after work and threaten him.

An anonymous complaint is received against a police officer. The officer, who was often assigned to schools, had shared posts from extreme right-wing media and websites on his private but publicly accessible Facebook account for several years. Following the complaint, the officer is transferred.

On the subway line 1 between the Jungfernstieg and Steinstraße stops, a man hurls racist insults at a woman and threatens her. Another passenger intervenes and leaves the train with the perpetrator, who then flees.

A new motion by the Left Party for a parliamentary committee of inquiry into the NSU complex is rejected by all other parliamentary groups in the Hamburg Parliament. However, a motion by the SPD and the Greens for an investigative committee of academics is accepted. Compared to a committee of inquiry, this has fewer powers and, for example, does not have the right to question witnesses.

Neo-Nazi Ulf M. shoots through the closed door of a neighbor’s apartment with the intention of killing her. Only by chance are she and her mother-in-law physically unharmed. M. films himself committing the crime and comments his actions. He had terrorized the young woman and her partner for weeks. He had also threatened young refugees. He shared racist, anti-Semitic and Nazi-glorifying propaganda in chat groups. M. was known in the neighborhood as an extreme right-winger, but no one intervened. In December 2023 he was sentenced to seven years in prison for attempted murder.

An employee of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial expels two well-known neo-Nazis from the site. They had announced on social media that they wanted to shoot a video there.

Unknown persons slash the tent of the Ohlsdorf Peace Festival. The festival for the commemoration of the bombing victims of the Second World War was first held in 2009. Its presence at the memorial has since prevented neo-Nazis from holding revisionist commemorations at this location.

Police search of the home of a man who had posted pictures of Hitler in a messenger group. They seize an arsenal of weapons including dozens of firearms, hundreds of knives, and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition.

A man hurls racist insults and threats at a 12-year-old girl as she is waiting for the subway.

After a solidarity event organized by the German-Israeli Society following the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, two employees of the State Antisemitism Commission are attacked by two unknown persons. They snatch an Israeli flag from the women's hands and punch and kick them.

A 14-year-old girl wearing a niqab and waiting for the bus is racially insulted by a 40-year-old man and punched in the face. She flees on foot to protect herself.

A Black family from Ghana is attacked by a neighbor. He sticks racist pictures with death threats and the AfD logo on their front door, dumps rubbish on their welcome mat, and burns their baby carriage. After the crime becomes public, thousands of people show solidarity with the family and protest against racism in the neighborhood. The public prosecutor’s office closes the investigation after only a short time.