If you want to be a member, you always have to carry a knife, worship the Nazi ideology and not be lighter than 80 kilos: This is how the right-wing extremist fighting group “Knockout 51” ticks, against which the biggest blow against the militant neo-Nazi scene in April has been successful in recent years. Now, more and more chilling details about the union are coming to light.
The right-wing extremist fighting group “Knockout 51” from Eisenach in Thuringia wanted to riot with their buddies from Dortmund on August 29, 2020. At the demonstration by corona deniers in Berlin, violent attacks, especially on police officers, were planned. But then the East German neo-Nazis, under their leader Leon R., had to look on as their West German “comrades” armed with hammers and Bengalo fireworks snapped in front of the police.
It is true that “knockout” combatants launched attacks on some officials. But there was no big boom. Later, one of the thugs got angry that they had gone to the demo unarmed. It would have been better to ignite a Bengalo and “flake into the cops”.
According to FOCUS-Online information, this is in the investigative files of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, which carried out a raid against a militant brown network on April 6th. 50 protagonists are on the accused list, four leading members of “Knockout 51” were arrested for forming a right-wing extremist criminal organization. It is the biggest blow against the militant neo-Nazi scene in recent years.
The investigations lead into the fascist hardcore scene. The network therefore extends from eastern Germany via Baden-Württemberg to North Rhine-Westphalia. In particular to the largest West German Nazi hotspot in Dortmund. Consequently also to the splinter party “The Right” around the key figure of the extremist martial arts scene: Alexander Deptolla. According to NRW constitutional protection officers, the high-ranking party cadres are organizing the “Battle of the Nibelungs”, the largest fighting event for brown milieus in Western Europe.
Military sports exercises, gunnery training in other Eastern European countries and street fighting training – the security authorities are watching with concern how militant Nazi organizations are pushing ahead with their coup plans for Day X. It is true that the North Rhine-Westphalia constitutional protection officers have stated that the number of right-wing extremists has fallen by 1.6 percent to 3,875 in the past year. The rate of violent neo-Nazis has remained unchanged at 2,000 people. And the violent crimes committed fell by almost a fifth to 121 cases in 2021.
Nationwide, however, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) has recorded an opposite trend. The number of right-wing extremists rose again by 600 to 33,900, and the proportion of violent neo-Nazis also increased by 200 to 13,300.
Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser warned on Tuesday when the new report for the protection of the constitution was presented that there was a “high level of violence” in the right-wing extremist scene. At the same time, the SPD politician warned of a “high level of radicalization in violent left-wing extremism”. According to the BfV, one in four of the 34,700 activists is violent.
At the same time, state security officials warned that the danger from “Islamist terrorism” remained high. The number of followers fell by around 400 to almost 28,300 people. “The threat in Germany and Europe continues to come primarily from jihadist-inspired or instructed individual perpetrators as well as small groups with simple and easily obtainable means of action.
BfV President Thomas Haldenwang warned “of numerous threats from very different areas for our democracy and the security of the population”. Accordingly, enemies of the constitution acted very heterogeneously: “On the one hand we see those who are united in their rejection of the state, on the other hand we observe self-radicalized individual perpetrators and digital extremism on the Internet.”
This is what happened with Jeremy R. from Essen. The 16-year-old high school student radicalized himself via the internet into hating foreigners and worshiping the Nazi regime. At some point, he began to get supplies to wipe out classmates and teachers at his school using homemade explosive devices and other weapons. He was arrested shortly before his attack in May. Mental health issues also seem to have played a part. In the assassination he also wanted to put an end to his own life.
The politically motivated perpetrators are not only getting younger and younger, but right-wing extremist circles in particular have been trying for years to “instrumentalize anti-Semitic and conspiracy ideological narratives” from the protests against the state corona protection measures for their own purposes, the BfV stated. Recently, the protection of the constitution also found that the flood disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia or Rhineland-Palatinate is also used for crude hate tirades from the right-wing corner.
At the same time, state security officers are observing increasing networking between leading brown cadres in West and East Germany. For example, some of the main players from the Ruhrpott moved to Saxony and Thuringia due to the growing persecution pressure from the local police. Conversely, in August 2020, the combat group “Knockout 51” from Eisenach sent thugs for a demonstration march by the party “Dierechte” in Dortmund’s Nordstadt. An emissary from Eisenach also laid a wreath on the grave of Dortmund right-wing extremist Siegrid Borchard, known as SS-Siggi. At anti-corona demos with like-minded people from NRW, it was apparently about clapping leftists and “bulls”. After an argument in Leipzig, a fellow Dortmunder edited a video of the fight at the protest march.
According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, Leon R. is one of the leading networkers. The Eisenach pub owner and leader of the “Knockout 51” thug gang is said to have been propagating the fight against politically left-wing opponents and police officers since spring 2020 at the latest. In wiretapped telephone calls, overheard conversations from vehicles and evaluated telegram chats, R. dreamed of uniting hundreds of violent neo-Nazis under a new leadership. This troop should be deployed nationwide for demonstrations or violent attacks. In early 2021, the accused spoke about weapons while driving a car. Also in the bugged car was a high Thuringian NPD official and city councilor from Eisenach.
Leon R. is also said to have maintained close ties with the NPD Federal Vice Thorsten Heise. The ex-comradeship leader, who has several relevant previous convictions and who also now lives in Thuringia, organized numerous Nazi concerts with up to 1,000 spectators.
The NPD in Eisenach made its party headquarters “Flieder Volkshaus” available for the martial arts exercises of “Knockout 51”. There the leader Leon R. is said to have given out the slogan to use cutting and stabbing weapons in conflicts against leftists. Each member should carry a knife with them at all times. Applicants had to meet certain requirements: They were supposed to commit to the National Socialist ideology and couldn’t weigh more than 80 kilograms. The “knockout” candidates should also have clubbed a so-called “robo-cop” at least once. A riot police officer in riot gear.
Those who weighed less than 80 kilograms had no chance of being accepted. Any absence from the training sessions was also sanctioned. In Eisenach and elsewhere, the knockout thugs beat up a number of men they believed to be on the left. Attempts were made to turn Eisenach into a Nazi district, and finally the group began to drive around. During one of the patrols, Leon R. boasted that Eisenach had the upper hand. In the narcotics scene, no one wants stress with them. Neither “the guns” nor “the drug assassins”.
In that phase, Leon R. is said to have forced attacks on left-wing opponents. The background was attacks from the Antifa scene around the activist Lina E.. Alleged left-wing extremists had attacked the “Bull Eyes” pub of the “knockout” leader with explosives and butyric acid attacks. After that, Leon R. and leading NPD officials around Thorsten Heise announced that they would not fall back on the defensive, but would remain on the offensive.
Leon R. knew the who’s who of the militant scene: According to the federal prosecutor’s office, he is said to have been involved in the right-wing terrorist association “Atomic Weapons Division Germany” (AWDD). The AWDD is a German offshoot of a “terror sect” (“Spiegel”) from the USA, which wants to help the “white race” to victory in a civil war.
Furthermore, traces of Leo R. lead to members of “Combat 18”. This should also include Dortmund extremists. On January 21, 2021, the Eisenach Nazi thugs met with several Combat members around their leader Stanley R. in Holungen, Thuringia.
C18 stands for the first and eighth letters of the alphabet. Means: “Adolf Hitler’s combat troops”. The militant group made the headlines three and a half years earlier. At the time, the anti-terrorist unit GSG9 had arrested a group of twelve Combat 18 supporters at a border crossing in Upper Franconia. The neo-Nazis returned from a two-day shooting training session in the Czech Republic, and one of the suspects was later given a suspended sentence for illegally importing ammunition.
Combat 18 stands for the concept of “leaderless resistance”: neo-Nazis willing to use violence are supposed to join forces in small autonomous cells, set up weapons depots and commit terrorist attacks without orders from the “leadership”.
