annual report 2011 2

Impressum:

Senatsverwaltung für Inneres und Sport

Abteilung Verfassungsschutz

Klosterstraße 47, 10179 Berlin

Telefon (030) 90 129-0

Fax (030) 90 129-844

info@verfassungsschutz-berlin.de

www.verfassungsschutz-berlin.de

Stand: April 2012

 annual report 2011 3

Transnational Islamist Terrorism

 Increasing threat posed by jihadists who return

 Number of jihadists who leave decreases

Transnational Islamist terrorism continues to threaten Germany and, as a conse-

quence, Berlin, too. This assessment is decisively substantiated by information about
existing jihadist networks and al-Qaida’s strategic target to carry out attacks in Ger-
many as well. In recent years jihadists who return to Germany have posed an in-
creasing threat. They are here to recruit supporters and members for terror-cells to
carry out attacks. Even though the number of Islamists who leave has declined in
recent months, the phenomenon remains a problem. According to information of
Germany’s security authorities some 235 people connected to Germany and with an
Islamist-terrorist background have allegedly received a paramilitary training since
the beginning of the nineties or plan to do so, respectively.

Concrete evidence suggests that some 100 people have completed paramilitary
training or were involved in combat actions in crisis regions. Presumably more than
50% of them have come back to Germany and about 10 people are currently in
prison.

Islamists who return from Afghanistan/Pakistan or who are locally radicalized by

propaganda pose a particular threat. Depending on the commitment and ability,
activities include fundraising, recruitment measures, plots or even perpetrated at-
tacks. Consequently, an Islamist motivated act was carried out for the first time in
Frankfurt, Federal Republic of Germany, on 02. March. In the publicly accessible area
of Frankfurt Airport the 21-year-old Arid U. killed two US-soldiers and injured two
others seriously. Only as the handgun failed to go off, further victims were pre-
vented. Meanwhile the assailant is convicted to life imprisonment.
 annual report 2011 4

Some of the jihadists who left Berlin in recent years still stay in combat zones near
the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan – sometimes even with women and
children. Last year two women and two men came back to Berlin. They were appre-
hended on their travel routes in Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Vienna. Jihadists who left
Berlin in 2011 were not reported.

Matters like Jihad-motivated travel movements used to be dominated by people

who wanted to leave for the purpose of being trained in terrorist training camps and
who wanted to join terrorist combat units. Recently, all this has changed: jihadists
were either arrested in combat zones or on their travel routes. Travel bans were im-
posed when intentions to leave the country were identified. German jihadists were
killed in the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Some of them decided
to go back for personal reasons and others returned on behalf of a terrorist organisa-
tion abroad.

Salafist efforts

 Two Salafist Mosques in Berlin

 Berlin Salafists have a vital role to play in the network across the
whole of Germany

Since summer 2011 Berliners have been playing a decisive role in the Salafists’ Ger-
man speaking network on the internet. The Salafist-Jihad network is composed of
websites like “Salafimedia”, “Ansarul-Aseer” ( the supporters of the prisoner) and
“Millatu-Ibrahim” (Abraham’s community). They include corresponding blogs, You-
Tube-channels, Facebook- and Twitter-profiles as well as chat rooms. The respective
websites pursue different ambitions. In Berlin some 350 people are Salafists and ac-
cording to the assessment of the office for the protection of the constitution ap-
proximately 100 of them are willing to resort to violence.
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There are two Berlin mosques where Salafists are predominantly active: the “As-
Sahaba-mosque” in the Berlin district of Wedding and the “Al-Nur-mosque” in the
Berlin district of Neukölln, which, however, is also attended by many non-Salafist
Muslims. Particularly the so-called “Islam seminars” shall serve the purpose to dis-
seminate a Salafist ideology, but also to maintain contact between the individual
Salafists and to recruit new supporters. So far there have been about 20 “Islam
seminars” in Berlin with well-known Salafist preachers coming from all over Ger-
many. Some 30 to 500 people attended the seminars. Until 2010 most of the Berlin
“Islam seminars” were held in the “Al-Nur-mosque”. Since then, the “As-Ashaba-
mosque” has become the principal venue. In 2011 four out of six identified “Islam
seminars” were organised in the “As-Sahaba-mosque”.

Right-wing extremism

 Autonomous nationalists play a dominant role in the scene

 NPD weakened

The crimes of the group “Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund” (NSU)/“National Social-

ist Underground” revealed a new dimension of violent right-wing extremism. On the
basis of information currently available there is, however, no proof that the terrorist
cell has committed any crimes in Berlin. Evidence that the group was supported from
Berlin has not been confirmed.

Until now organised right-wing extremists in Berlin have not yet delivered any
statements on the crimes of the NSU/ National Socialist Underground. Remaining
silent may be interpreted as an attempt to distance oneself as clearly as possible
from members of the group and their crimes and not to be associated with them.
Occasionally, however, cynical reactions were also perceived and presumably even a
furtive sympathy with the terror cell. In this relation a group of right-wing extremists
in the Berlin district of Schöneweide attracted attention when they shouted slogans
in support of the NSU and a local far-right mail order company offered T-shirts show-
ing a skull on a doner skewer and the words /”Killerdöner nach Thüringer Art”/
“Thuringian killer-doner” which is an allusion to the ’Thuringian doner skewer cam-
 annual report 2011 6

paign’ to kill kebab shop owners. It is in particular the decline in parliament- and dis-
course-oriented structures which is responsible for the number of people that has
been decreasing for years. Since 2009 the DVU alone has lost 250 members, a de-
crease which could not be compensated for by any other right-wing extremist or-
ganisation. As a consequence of the fusion between the NPD and the DVU the NPD,
too did not record any increasing membership figures which implies that the number
of some 250 NPD members has not changed.

It is most uncertain whether the chairman of the NPD, who was newly elected at the
beginning of 2012, will succeed in giving the party new momentum. Hence it might
be difficult for him to bridge the gap between a “contemporary radical line” drawn
up by the federal party and the expectations of the regional association featuring
neoNazi characteristics.

As early as two years ago “Autonome Nationalisten”/”autonomous nationalists” con-

tinued to play a dominant role among right-wing extremists in Berlin. Not only by
means of a campaign and high-profile propaganda activities but also by means of
support for the NPD during the electoral campaign were the “autonomous national-
ists” able to prove their outstanding position among Berlin based right-wing extrem-
ists once more. Furthermore, political opponents and migrants who were threatened
as well as a rally which escalated in violence were the most most striking features of
an unchanged high potential for violence among “autonomous nationalists”.

But playing a dominant role among right-wing extremists in Berlin is only in part the
result of their own efforts. As the NPD in Berlin is weakened, in particular, however,
as the network “Freie Kräfte”, which in most cases operates without any structures
and initiatives beyond the “autonomous nationalists”, the latter became predomi-
nant.
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From a total of about 180 adherents of the “Freie Kräfte”-network who are mainly
men, slightly more than 50% are members of the “autonomous nationalists”. The
other 50% is an unstructured group composed of right-wing extremists, who became
associated with the network when they gathered repeatedly for far-right rallies, con-
certs or spontaneous campaigns using spray and posters. Frequently, on the basis of
personal contacts such activities which were organised by the network provided a
first chance to join right-wing extremists.

Left-wing extremism

 Unsuccessful efforts to make social protest an instrument of its own

purposes
 Further use of violence to achieve political objectives

The number of people identifying as left-wing extremists slightly increased to a total

of 2,370 which, as the year before, can be explained by an increasing membership of
the “Rote Hilfe”/”Red Aid”. For the time being the number of action- and violent-
oriented extremists who represent almost 50% of left-wing extremists (1,100) re-
mains at a constant level which is related to intensified efforts to recruit violence-
prone anti-fascists and repressive opponents.

Crimes like arson attacks on cars (in most cases without any extremist motivation)
and sabotage attacks against railway installations will inevitably result in a high level
of public attention – as the general public is affected by such attacks. At the same
time, however, the perpetrators do not find the undivided approval of left-wing ex-
tremists. In particular, the selected targets and the victims of the attacks as well as
the resulting consequences for their own cause are considered to be imprudent and
counterproductive. They do hardly find any support from supposedly like-minded
people, less still from the public at large. But it can not be ruled out that - also in the
future - single perpetrators or small groups will expose themselves with activities
that have such a high-profile media attraction.
 annual report 2011 8

In the case of eviction matters – viz. real estate with symbolic references - gentrifica-
tion opponents will not stop to show violent resistance.

Such a milieu which portrays quite some subcultural characteristics provides au-
tonomists the opportunity to access and mobilise a huge pool of people who are less
organised on the one hand, but who are willing to resort to violence on the other
hand.

A large majority of autonomists, however, are inclined to become associated with

society. They try to make emerging social protest movements like “Occupy” an in-
strument of their own purposes, but they fail because of their “revolutionary” habi-
tus. Occasionally they succeed in taking joint action together with bourgeois forces
to oppose large gatherings of right-wing extremists and to mobilise people who be-
came victims of alleged police violence and brutality, but who were not involved in
left-wing extremism at all.

Currently, however, there are no indications for a new kind of “left-wing terrorism”
despite severe attacks on the city’s infrastructure and the attack launched against a
police station. The increase in violence of left-wing extremists in terms of quantity
can be explained in view of single events that occurred, in particular the eviction of
Liebigstr. 14. The development in terms of quality, first and foremost in the case of
violence against right-wing extremists and police officers, is strictly observed by the
office for the protection of the constitution.

Left-wing extremists who try to use social movements for their own purposes by
addressing legitimate political issues pose a threat to the free democratic basic or-
der. So far, however, such a fundamental change in strategy is not apparent. It
would be more likely to expect that left-wing extremists will continue to use violence
for their political ends.