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Asgaard security company: Wehrmacht slogan at headquarters

2020-09-18T08:58:57.670Z


The German security company Asgaard presents itself to the outside world as serious and professional. Photos, videos and social media posts show, however, that employees of the company sympathized with the Nazi era.


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You are military, highly trained and highly professional: The German security company Asgaard offers personal protection in areas of tension and crisis - and recruits former Bundeswehr soldiers and police officers for this.

One of their biggest orders: Securing the diplomatic representation of an Arab superpower in Iraq.

While the company protects Muslims in a Muslim country, Dirk Gaßmann, one of Asgaard's managing directors, seems to sympathize with right-wing ideas.

In photos that are available to SPIEGEL and the ARD political magazine Kontraste, and which were apparently taken at a company party, you can see Gaßmann posing with the bust of a Wehrmacht soldier.

Laughing, he seems to be pointing right at the Iron Cross on it.

 In 2015 he posted a comment on Facebook that Islam is and will remain "the problem".

Another time he explains that all countries that have tried to introduce "multi-culture" have failed or have been "taught better by bloody civil wars".

And under the discussion about forbidden Wehrmacht sliders in the Bundeswehr, Gaßmann invites: "Bobsleighs, you can keep singing in Baghdad, no problem."

It is not difficult to believe Gaßmann's comment when you know pictures of an Asgaard branch from 2017.

A slightly shaky amateur video was leaked to SPIEGEL und Kontraste, which is supposed to show the company's Iraqi headquarters.

With the help of Asgaard's Facebook posts, it is not only possible to verify that the video was actually recorded at Asgaard's headquarters at the time - but also where its location was: in the middle of Baghdad's green zone, only around 500 meters from the United Nations Office and not even one kilometer from the Iraqi Foreign Ministry.

The video also shows the interiors of the Asgaard office.

They are decorated with the Reich war flag, imperial eagle, space, designations in Gothic script and the Wehrmacht slogan "Don't complain, fight". 

When asked by SPIEGEL, Gaßmann vehemently denied: "At no time have employees of my company made benevolent comments in my presence about symbols of the Nazi injustice state. I myself never did this myself."

And: "My company holds regular applicant meetings. People with recognizable extremist backgrounds are not invited." 

But online research shows that a long-time employee of Asgaard, who is friends with Gasßmann on Facebook and who interacts with him, shares right-wing extremist content.

In a comment he regrets that the "pure white race" only makes up a few percent of the world's population, shares a "White Lives Matter" graphic, maps of Germany with the borders of the Third and German Empire - and a meme it says: "I am German - if I write what I think I would be in jail tomorrow." 

Matthias D. also took part in a meeting at Asgaard's German headquarters in July of this year.

The Rostock public prosecutor's office is investigating the Bundeswehr soldier.

The charge: preparing a serious act of violence that endangers the state. 

Matthias D. was not the only noticeable guest at the Asgaard meeting in Hamm - the police officer Thomas S. was also among the participants.

Photos show him in Baghdad and heavily armed in Asgaard uniform.

There was also a picture of the policeman on the company's website, but it has since been taken off the Internet. 

According to information from SPIEGEL and Kontraste, an investigation is underway against the Hessian official.

He is accused of illegally researching police databases for a security company from North Rhine-Westphalia.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2020-09-18

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