Women 'taking over' German neo-nazi parties By Michael Leidig in Vienna
NEO-NAZI groups in Germany are attracting growing numbers of women. They now make up around a third of the membership of far-Right groups and are increasingly preparing the ground for their male counterparts. Because women are seldom active in violent attacks on foreigners, however, the German government has so far refused to acknowledge the problem or the role women play in fascist organisations. A new study published by the Thueringen state interior ministry found that women were enthusiastically campaigning for neo-nazi causes, even forming their own groups to "promote racial purity and National Socialism".
The researchers have discovered that the women tend to be more dedicated to their cause and show more commitment than their male colleagues. Ulli Jentsch of the Berlin Anti-fascist Archive and Education Centre said: "These women meet every week - usually for educational work, they are training themselves in the ideology; on why Germany should be for the German workers and on racial purity. They are organising the political work, distributing leaflets and are involved to a degree that most of the men who are content simply to march would never dream of."
Mr Jentsch said: "Many people think that the women behind the far-Right are housewives raising children. The emergence of neo-nazi groups led by female skinheads, the Reenes, was the first sign of a new departure in the scene and it has accelerated from there. Part of the reason is that younger neo-nazis have been growing up inside a social movement, every part of their life is influenced by this twisted ideology. But increasingly women are not joining just because of their boyfriends or husbands, but from their own initiative."
Women's Kammeradschaft groups have been springing up across Germany. Named after the clubs formed by Nazi war veterans, they enable women to meet and educate themselves about the neo-nazi cause. Mr Jentsch said: "These women see themselves as taking control of their own lives." The internet has played a big part in the growing organisation of the female far Right.
On one group's home page, visitors are told: "An ill-informed wife and mother is of no use to our political movement and to the Volk [the people]. Just as her German forerunners once did, she must now fulfil her duty and offer her services to her people."