Trial against Nazis in Dortmund: For the time being for the last time on the big stage

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Right-wing extremist in combat boots (archive)

Photo: Bernd Thissen / dpa

A trial against ten defendants accused of sedition has started under a disco ball in a Dortmund event hall.

The men are said to have chanted during a demonstration in September 2018, among other things: "Anyone who loves Germany is an anti-Semite."

The process takes place in the Dortmund FZW, the abbreviation stands for Freizeitzentrum West and is a bit misleading, because the leisure center is a veritable club. The location, says district court spokeswoman Nesrin Öcal, was chosen because the ten defendants were supported by around 20 defense lawyers, and there was also a need for corona-compliant space for the public prosecutor, spectators and the public. The judges sit on the stage; downstairs, on the actual dance floor, the accused and their lawyers as well as the public prosecutor are seated, spectators and the press sit near the bar. The ventilation system hums from the anteroom into the hall.

Robert Rutkowski streamed the sentence at issue here on the Internet at the time. He is 57 years old and, according to his own statement, has been accompanying right-wing extremist demonstrations in the region since 2016. »Back then, I couldn't really listen, I had to take it out of my own protection concentrate on what was happening around me, «says Rutkowski today.

The parade in the dark in the Marten district of Dortmund was already the second on that evening of September 21, 2018. A few hours earlier, around 100 right-wing extremists had marched through the Dorstfeld district, and according to Rutkowski, it was 70 to 80 in Marten afterwards. Little police were on site, says Rutkowski. On the same evening, a raid against clan crime took place in Dortmund's north town, North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul was there, the extremist demonstration a few kilometers away was more or less under the radar, and there was another journalist on site in addition to Rutkowski.

They saw imperial flags, burning pyrotechnics, then heard the unbearable sentence that led to this process of sedition.

For the Dortmund right-wing extremists, the evening of September 21, 2018 must have been a complete success from their point of view.

Generating public attention through outrageous appearances - that was the means of choice for the extremists of the city in the years before to document their nationwide importance in the scene.

Two examples:

• In 2014, shortly after the splinter party "Dierechte" entered the Dortmund city council, its representatives wanted to know how many Jews live in the city.

• In 2016, right-wing extremists occupied a church tower in downtown Dortmund at a Christmas market on a Friday evening, set off pyrotechnics and distributed leaflets.

  The pastor, who had the presence of mind to ring the church tower bells to drown out the extremists, was later sued by the right.

Following the demonstration in 2018, Rutkowski received a certificate in Gothic script.

It was an "honorary appointment" as "Propaganda Commissioner" with which "Dierechte" honored him "at the same time for his outstanding achievements for the party".

Signed by Michael Brück and Sascha Krolzig, then party chairmen in Dortmund and not charged in this process.

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Photo: DER SPIEGEL

The times as a clock and role model for the nationwide scene are now a thing of the past for the Dortmund right-wing extremists. Several heads are warped, Michael Brück, for example, to Chemnitz. The right-wing extremists in Dortmund have not become much less in terms of quantity, but their effectiveness has noticeably decreased - which, among other things, was a result of the demonstration in September 2018, Rutkowski believes. The attention had put pressure on the city, the countryside and the police. According to the Dortmund Police President Gregor Lange, the exclamation "Whoever loves Germany is an anti-Semite" is now banned from demonstrations in the city. There are detailed action plans for right-wing extremist demonstrations at the police, also due to the preparation of the demonstrations from September 2018.

The ten defendants, mostly born after 1990 and more followers than heads of the scene, all appeared this Monday.

When the trial day begins shortly after ten o'clock, it is over quickly.

As spokeswoman Öcal explains, the defense lawyers were provided with the files due to a court failure, but did not receive CDs with the video material.

After a request by the defense lawyers, the court suspends the main hearing, the trial is to be continued on November 8th, again in the FZW, the defense lawyers will receive USB sticks with the video material to be on the safe side.

Incitement to hatred is imprisonment for between three months and five years, and seven days of trial were scheduled.

Now there should be at least eight.