Germany bans Hammerskins neo-Nazi group, conducts raids

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has banned the extreme far-right group Hammerskins Germany, a move prepared for over a year with help from US authorities, her ministry said on Tuesday, reported dpa.

An organization affiliated with the group called Crew 38 as well as Hammerskin's regional branches are also affected by the ban.

Around 700 police officers raided the flats of suspected members in 10 German states, including Berlin and Bavaria, in the early hours of the morning, the ministry said.

The raid was reportedly only directed against suspected leaders. The authorities estimate the number of members to be around 130.

The group stands against the constitutional order and against the idea of international understanding, the ministry said in justifying the move. The purpose and activities of the association were contrary to criminal law.

Concerts organized by the group were used to spread their right-wing extremist ideology, also among non-members, it said.

During raids in the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, police found weapons and the ammunition recovery service had to be deployed, the state's interior ministry reported.

Police confiscated a large number of objects typical of the scene, as well as cash. Objects with the organization's symbols have also been banned.

According to the ministry, the federal and state governments had worked together for over a year to prepare the ban. They also cooperated with US partner authorities.

The German neo-Nazi group is an offshoot of the Hammerskins white supremacist group formed in the US and has existed in Germany since the beginning of the 1990s.

According to the ministry, it is the 20th right-wing extremist organization in Germany to have been banned to date.

Interior Minister Faeser described the latest ban as "a hard blow against organized right-wing extremism," saying it would send "a clear signal against racism and anti-Semitism."

Right-wing extremism is still "the greatest extremist threat to our democracy," she said, adding that "this is why we continue to act with all determination to dismantle right-wing extremist structures."