German Police Arrest Five Teenagers in Domestic Terrorism Raid

New York Times

21-05-2025

The police in Germany arrested five teenagers in a raid on a violent neo-Nazi group founded by young people, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday, as the country records the highest number of politically motivated crimes in nearly a generation.
The group, known as the Last Wave of Defense, was started last year and has orchestrated attacks on buildings housing asylum seekers, prosecutors said.
Five male suspects, aged between 14 and 18, were arrested in three states in eastern and central Germany in an early-morning raid on Wednesday, prosecutors said. Three are leading members of the organization, prosecutors said. Three other members were already in custody.
All those arrested on Wednesday, who were identified only by their first names, are suspected of belonging to or supporting domestic terrorist organizations, prosecutors said. Two were charged with attempted murder and arson.
The young men are expected to enter a plea once their trial begins. They were not identified in keeping with strict German privacy laws.
'They all acted as young people with sufficient responsibility,' prosecutors said in a statement.
The authorities also searched 13 properties across four provinces, following a monthslong investigation that included more than 220 police officers. Germany's justice minister, Stefanie Hubig, said it was alarming that all the suspects were minors when they founded the group.
'This is a warning sign and shows that right-wing extremist terrorism knows no age,' Ms. Hubig said in a statement on social media.
Founded in April 2024, the Last Wave of Defense aims to bring about the collapse of Germany's federal democratic government, prosecutors said. Its mission is to destabilize German society by using acts of violence against migrants and groups whom they see as political opponents, in particular those affiliated with the left.
The Last Wave of Defense is among an increasing number of right-wing extremist groups that have become attractive to young people. The groups have proliferated on social media, with names like the Disruptive Squad and Young and Strong, according to reports in the German news media.
Germany recorded a 40 percent increase in politically motivated crimes from 2023 to 2024, tallying the highest number of incidents since the authorities started tracking these crimes in 2001. The authorities found that crimes linked to far-right ideologies had increased by roughly 48 percent from 2023 to last year.
'The biggest threat to democracy comes from right-wing extremism,' Alexander Dobrindt, Germany's interior minister, said during a presentation of the figures on Tuesday.
The crimes recorded include political graffiti or ideological gestures, like the outlawed Nazi salute, as well as violent attacks, like the threats of violence directed at politicians during last year's election campaign. Arson and other violent hate crimes increased by 17 percent to 1,477 cases in 2024.
Prosecutors linked the suspects arrested on Wednesday to several different attacks.
Last October two young men set fire to a community center in Altdöbern, about 50 miles north of Dresden. None of the people living in the center were injured, but the fire caused damage of about 500,000 euros, more than $560,000. Prosecutors described one of those involved in that attack, identified only as Lenny M., as a ring leader of Last Wave of Defense and linked him to other attacks, as well as recruiting new members. He was among those arrested on Wednesday.
In January, two members of the group tried to set fire to a building housing asylum seekers in Schmölln, a town 40 miles south of the Leipzig, prosecutors said. They smashed a window and threw fireworks into the building, though no fire broke out. They also spray-painted right-wing slogans on the building, including 'Foreigners Out,' 'Germany for the Germans' and 'Nazi Territory,' prosecutors said.
Members of the group had also acquired explosives in the Czech Republic, prosecutors said, for a planned bomb attack on another building housing asylum seekers, in Senftenberg in the east of the country.