Face Paint, Balloons and ‘White Power’: German Neo-Nazis Put On a Pretty Face

I don't want to make light of the situation, which is genuinely frightening, but just on a more shallow note, I think it's absolutely hilarious that these people - THESE people - really think that they are the physical representation of human perfection. Like it actually makes me laugh.

When Merkel decided (the Decider she thinks she is, a la Bush) that it was Ok to allow more than a million unvetted refugees and asylum seekers, consisting mostly of single Muslm men under the age of 30 to enter their country, it should come as no surprise that Germans and other Europeans fear the destruction of their cultures and countries.

Nazis having a party, how sweet. I was hoping for a happy ending, like they all got food poisoning and dreadful stomach upsets or something. Instead, my heart is warmed by those Germans who protest them, and were Naziism to ever return in force it would be in another country and not one that has already been led down the garden path and seen their country reduced to rubble. Fool me once etc.

Wow that is some crazy crazy stuff. I am continually surprised at the ability of human beings to hate. I cannot imagine living a life defined by hate. I pity these people. They disgust me with their beliefs, yet I pity their sad existence.

What’s happening in Germany right now mirrors what is happening in the country I was born in as a second class citizen: the US. The rise of our president, who has himself stated that there are White Supremacists and Neo Nazis who are”very fine people”. In Trump rallies I see many who feel disenfranchised by many who don’t look like them becoming upwardly mobile. The saddest part for this at home for me is this city I was born in, the alleged bastion of liberalism is and has been almost as segregated as apartheid South Africa for my entire life, from neighborhoods to schools to the offices of any big corporate building I’ve ever been in here. We are right to take note of what’s going on in Germany, but we all need to take note of what is transpiring right here at home.

Multikulti Merkel has done more than anyone to swell the size of the Right in Germany. If you suddenly flood a country with an unassimilable million-man underclass, as she did in 2015, don't be surprised when the natives (working-class people, you'll notice) grow restless and become angry.

Wow that looks like loads of fun! Lol.

I grew up in Germany, and as a teenager protested the legalization of the "National Democratic Party, which is a political party of avowed neo-Nazis better known as the NPD." This was in the late '60s. Then as now I'm shocked that people embrace ideas which lack any human decency. I live in the US now where we have our share of rising fascist sentiment. Fear, love for authoritarianism, nationalism, and racism seem to be character traits that favor Nazi ideology. The courage of this article's author should be a guiding light to all of us who oppose fascism.

@Ben..... In many ways i agree with, "not more different than you"...including the continued silence by the "majority" and Christian leaders as Nazi claim the right to kill non-christians and non-whites under the banner "free speech". The Nazi's history and threat of more murder and genocide in both the US and Germany is real.

It appears from the photos that the ideal Nazi is no longer is the tall, blond, athletic Aryan of a Leni Riefenstahl propaganda film. Today's Nazis are short, bald and fat. Are they hand-me-down Nazis?

As the generations that fought or saw others die during the Nazi era themselves die the words never forget are no longer true. There are now more alive who do not remember or think that what happened to lead up to WWII is irrelevant than there are who lived through it. Never again lasts only as long as it takes for the grandchildren to grow up.

These people are reacting this way because they have less than other Germans, living outside the wealthy cities. The immigrants are not taking away from the wealthy but from these folks. Can we really blame either side?

Nations were created precisely because people always wanted to live among people that shared the same race, heritage, language, customs, etc. This assault or national identity will provoke extreme actions and positions everywhere it is tried. It is just a matter of time. Sadly.

Predictable report; predictable response. Not once does the article broach the underlying issue of leitkultur. Not once does the article touch the issue of neo-liberal austerity regimes which are dismantling the economic aspects of social cohesion.

Isn't nazism illegal in Germany? It should be illegal here. Nazis belong in prison or in the gutter...no sympathy for nazis, whether they inhabit the Oval Office or anywhere else.

I'm not always a fan of the column, but incredibly brave reporting here, and highly commendable.

This is a result from the inevitable pushback of globalism, certain cultures don't want to be forced to live with other incompatible cultures, there's nothing right or necessarily wrong about this, it just is. As mass migration continues to unfold we will see more of these nationalist groups grow in power and in size. This is just a very beginning

Kudos to the reporter for his outstanding bravery. I am German, and as such I find it beyond infuriating when people say that we need to listen to those “concerned citizens” who attend festivals like the one described. Since when do we call Nazis concerned citizens? Call them out, hold them responsible, deny them public space and protest, protest, protest.

I toured through much of Germany on a bus & truck tour of a musical. I am African American, so I was a bit concerned as to my reception in Germany, after what I'd learned about WWII and Neo Nazis. But I loved Germany, and had nothing but a kind and warm reception wherever I went. Sure some folks quietly looked at me, as I was not what they were used to, but that was no different than my experience in the US. On any given day, you couldn't turn on the tv without seeing a documentary about WWII and the Third Reich. But as it appears to be the case in the US, there is also a growing faction of folks in Germany who have not learned from their past. Racism is nothing but willful ignorance. It has no basis in rational thought or scientific fact. It reflects the complete insecurity and lack of comprehensive thought of the racist. The man in the article said it perfectly, he feels uncomfortable with people who don't look like him, thus he hates them. That discomfort comes from a lifetime of privilege whereby said racists have never had to question their existence, their identity, or their world view. (Ask any minority, we are faced with the question of our identity and existence every day!) And they hate anyone who calls those things into question -- even if by just existing on the planet with them.

The irony is that you hardly have any refugees or foreigners in the East of Germany, where this event and the awful Chemnitz events occurred, compared to the Western part. It is really hard to understand what these people are afraid of. The East is largely depopulated, so there should be no direct competition about housing or alike. The hate must stem from something else. Many Easterners still feel victims of reunification and lament about it. Everything is unfair and to their disadvantage. Probably result of generations of people educated by a socialist state that prevented any individual initiative and responsibility. (Those with initiative often left in the 1990s to find jobs in the West.) They hate „Wessis“ as well. Now they think have found someone supposedly even lower in the foodchain. It is a disgrace. So is the role of media in Germany btw, which have focused on nothing but streams of refugees coming in at the height of the refugee crisis and continue to put immigration and the „legal infringement“ of Merkel to temporarily open the borders, as a top priority. This is politics through fear, which is never good counsel.

God! I hate racism,ageism,sexism,populism, and all the hate -isms! I know it’s naive but why can’t we all get along? Each and every one of us is going to die someday. That’s a truism! So what’s the point of the hating when loving is so much more satisfying? Hopefully,someday,scientists will be able to identify and erase the hate gene from all human beings. Meanwhile,let’s all try to do better.

As someone coming from Thuringia let me just say that this has been going on for many years. You could have come ten years ago, long before any refugees came to Germany, and seen exactly the same thing. I remember going on anti-Nazi demonstrations back in my high school days. Some people will apparently never learn. What bothers me is the reluctance many people seem to have these days to call Nazis by their name. The center-right politician appeasing to the far right was for me the saddest part of the article. The center-right apparently still think they can channel the far-right for their own good, just as Franz von Papen and his fellow conservatives thought they would easily rein in Hitler in their coalition government in 1933. Oh were they wrong. The center right needs to finally understand that if they play with fire, they'll risk burning the house down. Stoking racist fears and hate will eventually lead to death, murder, and destruction, as it always has.

Respect to you, Mr. Eligon, for covering this story, and to the Turkish brothers calmly running their restaurant right next to the hate rally.

Just a reminder to reporters and photographers: you have not just the ability but an OBLIGATION to report children of Nazis as inherent victims of child abuse (or a given country's legal equivalent), and doubly so if you photograph or interview the children. To do any less is to allow the elder generation of racists to foul the next.

Thank Ms Merkel and the NeoLiberals of the European Union for feeding the flames and stoking the fire. They saw the slow motion invasion of Europe and specifically the social welfare states of Northern Europe as an easy solution to a declining population and a source of cheap labor. As to the concept of multiculturalism, Germany never voted to become a multicultural nation and more than a few Germans are quite aware that a steady influx of ausländers that have a higher birth rate and a native German population with a negative birth rate equals a rather quick and sudden shift in the makeup and culture of the country. Look at the shift in America caused by the change in immigration rules in the mid 1960's until now - it has profoundly changed the makeup of our population and continues to gather steam- a country that was better than 90% Causcasian when I was born in 1961 will be a nation with no majority by the time I retire. That is a profound shift in one lifetime and the Germans are quite aware of the consequences. I am not in any way apologising for or endorsing hatred by any group for another, but many sucked into the AFD are motivated more by concerns regarding the arrival of all these migrants without the explicit consent of the people. The migrants for the most part do not share language, faith, culture, history or the tradition of liberal, tolerant and open society and that is concerning. Germans do not want the banlieues of France around their cities.

I guess the curb stomping the Germans took at the end of WW2 wasn't enough of an object lesson in the evils of racism. That said though the immigration into Germany has helped give people like this political space.

Looking at some of the photos, I thought I was in the South (U.S.). Except that people in the South don't wear lederhosen. Yet.

I'm an American living in Poland. The ONR here is kind of a political cousin of the NPD. The ONR, unlike the NPD, is more widely accepted in Poland, even organizing and leading the 11/11 Independence Day march. Have we not learned from history?

Dear community, I am a German. Dear Mr. Eligon: Kudos for this coverage and your courage to speak to the people I as a German don't want or dare to talk to (but maybe should). To all readers: Unlike Germany, the U.S. ARE already being led by a populist far-right, anti-immigrant, nationalist president. And I still believe that at least 50 percent of Americans are NOT that way, though. Please consider this when you're reading about the latest developments in Germany. It is painfully true that the discussion about refugees has been dominating the public discourse in Germany in the last months. It is true that the populist far-right AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) has been gaining percentage points. But even in regions where the AfD boasts some 30 percentage points, 70 percent of the people DON'T vote for them. Besides, the party "Die Rechte" has not yet gained the 5% needed to become members of parliament and I hope very much they won't. What I want to say is, basically, YES, far-right populism is a major problem and we need to find ways to re-integrate those people into the non-extremist parties by discussion and reason. But NO, dear NYT readers, Germany has not yet become a populist, extremist, far-right, anti-immigrant, nationalist country. We're not being steered by Russia, we're not backing Iranian terrorism, the vast majority is not against black people. Actually, we're not THAT different from you.

The NPD has been the darker brother of the AfD all along, which is why there would have been even more of an outcry from moderate Germans had they been the ones recently voted into the Bundestag. As is, Germany is now at a crossroads of how to deal with this ever-increasing rise of anti-immigrant/anti-foreigner sentiment which is not only limited to the former East German states, but is coming at a time when Angela Merkel, who's blamed for opening up the floodgates in 2015, is in the struggle of her political career to keep her coalition government from coming apart all together. Like most Germans, I too see what's happening now as the inevitable result of too many refugees crowding into the country when there was no clear plan on how to accommodate and integrate them all. And while this problem effects all of Germany, it is especially acute in the East, where unemployment and feelings of inferiority toward the wealthier West has fed into feelings of violence and resentment. When German politicians finally come to the realization that this is a problem that will not go away by simply trying to ignore it; as in the recent case of Hans-Georg Maasen, who refused to to acknowledge angry mob activity in Chemnitz -- the closer we'll get to reining this kind of hatred in. But unfortunately as it now stands, our Nazi past is not too far behind us.

I'm a Jew, a very proud and historically conscious Jew, with a dear friend who is German. I've learned a lot from knowing Klaus and one of these things is that, on an individual basis, I would say Germans are doing a lot better dealing with their history of racism than Americans. I think, all things considered, it was a political mistake for Merkel to let such a flood of immigration into the country so quickly because, as this article shows, the cultural shock strengthened the right. But Merkel's impulse -- to open doors and hearts to refugees -- speaks volumes about how far from its horrid past Germany has come.

Wow, thank goodness Mr. Eligon is safe. His account is chilling, and extremely disturbing.

Kudos to Mr. Eligon for doing this story, which I'm sure was a slightly bizarre experience. It's a little ironic that right wing Germans would think themselves brothers of confederate flag-wavers in the south. Beyond acknowledging a surface sympathy with their far-right political views, I imagine many southern alt-right types would get around to throwing Europeans out of the USA once they got rid of everyone of color, the Jews, and the Catholics.

Years ago, I worked with a woman who had fled from Germany in the 60s. When it was likely that the two Germanys would reunite, she said,"don't ever give Germans too much power. They will abuse it again." I didn't understand her fears then, but I do now.

I had thought that the German people burned off their negative Karma many years ago. Maybe indeed they did so in the Western part. There they bravely and forthrightly faced their past. But it appears that they still have some way to go. Unification has its price.

This had to be an extraordinarily difficult story for you to report on. I admire the courage you showed in taking on this assignment, and the wonderfully thoughtful and dispassionate way you entered the scene and have reported on it. Thank you for your high quality reporting on an important and disturbing story.

This is a chilling report. Thank you for your work.

So the young Germans want to waste time and energy complaining about immigrants, while the immigrants open restaurants. I was in Germany 3 years ago, beautiful country, rich history .. too bad it's being forgotten as they don't seem to remember what that road leads too. The more I read the less I want to go back

Russia couldn’t have designed this program any better. Link legitimate questions about immigration to radical white power groups and behold, you’ve got once fringe group established and legitimized. Good job Russia.

As a Jewish white 67 year old lesbian, I am appalled about what is happening here in the U.S. and around the world. We must find a way to realize we are all human beings trying to live in a world that is safe for everyone.

This is where our contemporary American variant of hatred meets the road replete with the jarring graphic contours of our painful past. They were supposed to wear our Levi's® not wave our painful flags. What hath our shining beacon on the hill wrought.

A brave step by the reporter into the heart of darkness. That this region has had the fewest refugees confirms that lack of contact breeds prejudice. Thank goodness there are Germans who embrace diversity instead of withdrawing in fear.

“I’m filled with hate because there’s always more and more coming. I am not at home when everyone looks different than me.” Have heard this in many different forms and sometimes it is not just people looking differently, it is also them speaking a different language or following different customs.. Growing up in a diverse culture can help overcome this insecurity( which leads to racist/xenophobic feelings ), what else can?

WhatI found disturbing about the photos is that the group protesting the far-right gathering seemed much older than the relatively young people engaged in far-right sympathy. It's only a few photos. But if a tolerant, aging segment population vs. an intolerant younger segment of the population is indeed the trend, I fear for the future of Europe. I'm glad I visited there when I was young.