Germany bans neo-Nazi group founded in UK

Germany on Thursday moved to ban Combat 18, a neo-Nazi group founded in the UK.

Horst Seehofer, the German interior minister, issued an order banning the group’s German chapter and prohibiting the display of its name or logo in public.

The move was widely expected after the chief suspect in the assassination of a German politician last year was linked to the group.

“Combat 18 Deutchland is directed against the constitutional order as it is essentially related to National Socialism,” the interior ministry said in a statement accusing the group of racism and anti-Semitism.

“Today's ban is a clear message: far-Right extremism and anti-Semitism have no place in our society,” Mr Seehofer said.

More than 200 police officers took part in raids across Germany on properties linked to the group’s leadership, seizing mobile phone, computers, weapons and Nazi memorabilia.

Combat 18 was founded in Britain in 1992 as a militant wing of the British National Party (BNP).

Its name is a coded reference to AH, the initials of Adolf Hitler: the first and eighth letters in the alphabet.

The group is still active in the UK and was named on a police counter-terrorism watchlist distributed to teachers and doctors earlier this year.

Combat 18 material was found at the home of James Healy, the man convicted of assaulting the columnist Owen Jones in an unprovoked attack earlier this month.

Combat 18 Deutschland, the German chapter of the group, has been linked to the assassination of Walter Lübcke, a local politician from Angela Merkel’s party, last year.

Stephan Ernst, the chief suspect in the murder, reportedly had links to senior figures in the German group, although claims he attended a secret Combat 18 meeting a few months before the killing turned out to be false.

Mr Ernst initially admitted killing Lübcke and said it was in reprisal for the politician’s support for migrants. He later retracted his confession and claimed it was a second man who pulled the trigger.

Although it is the group’s suspected links to the killing of Lübcke that appear to have prompted the ban, Mr Seehofer also cited its attempts to promote its “inhumane” beliefs by producing and distributing neo-Nazi music.

Members of the organisation are known for wearing black T shirts or jackets with the insignia C18.

Wearing the group’s name in any form will be illegal under the ban.

Combat 18 has links to Blood & Honour, another neo-Nazi group founded in the UK, which has been banned in Germany since 2000.