Nazi Side Effects - In Bed With The NPD

You can find the NPD headquarters in Köpenick, East Berlin, but you won’t find it on Google Maps. Security issues have forced them to remove the location. The building is one of your regular post-war reconstructs except this one features a steel door, metal-plated windows and a teeny tiny CCTV camera, which, when I arrived, had just been ripped off the wall.

The NPD have some followers, but they have a lot more haters.

With just a little over two weeks to go to the federal elections, the headquarters are as busy as a head shop before a bank holiday weekend. I met Steffan Lux, the press spokesperson for the NPD. He has a soft spot for English geography, has had his head kicked in about eight times and is so liberal that he would even have sex with a Turk. From behind and biting the pillow, I’ll bet.

Being Irish abroad means people just assume you’re English. It’s depressing. After saying hello, Steffan started to tell me about his time there.

Steffan Lux: You know I don’t mind English food. But the quality is all about the cook. If it’s Jamie Oliver in the kitchen, then he can cook anything.

Do you think the riots that happened in London could happen here in Berlin?
When I was in London in the 80s with university, our group organisers told us we were forbidden to go south of the Thames as it was too dangerous. They killed a foreign student in Brixton in that time. But the British class society shocks every German. Karl Marx destroyed that idea for us. Those riots wouldn’t happen here. We have an underclass. We have problems with Turkish, Arabs and Kurds, but they get financial aid from the state and that keeps them from rioting. This money is so high that we have no mass trouble.

The Turkish and Arabs you’re talking about are actually second and third generation Germans, and are entitled to state money like every other German. The Kurds who arrive here are generally asylum seekers, and as a signatory of the Geneva Convention you’re obliged to take care of them, no?
Yes, but the system is abused by these people and because of this they don’t start riots like in London. In London they fight poor people with police, but in Germany we give them money. Many of the migrants are criminals and in gangs but the German police don’t work like the British police. They’re not so brutal.

I know a lot of white Berliners abusing that same system, too. Plus your party is famous for its bad book-keeping.
We can’t control what the media say about us.

What’s the best result you guys can get in these elections?
Up to 6 percent, overall. Definitely we’ll get around 4, but 6 is our highest hope.

What do you think your appeal is?
We say what citizens tell us, that’s our motto. The anti-fascists always cry when we do but we’re a political party, we’re not banned. They have to listen to us. Full stop.

Is it dangerous to be an ‘outed’ member of the NPD?
I’ve been attacked very often. Back in the 80s it was much worse. Every time we had a conference, the anti-fascists would come along to beat us up. I remember one time we were outnumbered 30 to 800. But all the men from the NPD are good fighters.

So do people just join the NPD to get into fights?
In the past more, now not so much. I used to be a football hooligan when I was a young boy. That’s where I learned to fight.

Are you a Nazi?
No, come on.

But a lot of Nazis follow the NPD?
Maybe some of them do, but they don’t vote for us.

Who joins the NPD now?
The majority of our members are poor. In the 1980s our members were old men who had been Nazis in the Second World War. But today we have a lot of young people in the party. Kids and teenagers who have problems with immigrants in their schools.

Is it true that you get a lot of them to join by offering them alcohol?
No, we offer them protection in their schools. The multicultural society hurts the poor Germans in schools and so they come to us for support. In these situations we have attacked the migrant gang leaders in the schools.

You attacked them?
Members of our group have. And they were sent to prison.

Your recent election posters make reference to the Holocaust. Are you for real?
It is pure provocation. We say it with a little humour. As a small party with not much power this is the only way we can get noticed.

How can a German nationalist party joke about the Holocaust?
Well ‘gas geben’ means give it gas, like full speed. That’s what we mean, you think it’s about the Holocaust.

Aren’t you worried about going to prison?
I’ve been there before. I spent 15 days in a French prison after a football fight.

Would you have a problem dating a Turkish person?
No, I wouldn’t.

What about an Arab?
I don’t know.

What have you got against them?
Their view of humanity and how they treat each other makes me sick.

In your campaign ad you say “the boat is full”. What’s the solution, then?
Cut the financial aid and then the Kurds and the Arabs and the problem groups will go. Other foreigners with qualifications – that’s no problem. Even in the Third Reich there were two or three percent foreigners.

Irish people aren’t a problem group. You can stay.

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY CONOR CREIGHTON

Previously in this series: Nazi Side Effects - Introducing the NPD