Left-Extremist Endeavours

Skinhead concerts
Foreign skinhead bands as
a magnet drawing
audiences
Right-extremist singersongwriters
played at concerts. During such performances, criminal offences
are frequently committed by members of the audience.
Individual bands and projects focus their activities on the recording
of pieces of music with unlawful content. Since autumn,
for instance, a CD by the new band "Die Härte", entitled "National-Deutsche
Welle", has been on offer both on the Internet
and through "Blood & Honour Scandinavia", the successor of the
distributing firm "NS 88". The CD combines popular tunes with
mostly hate-mongering or anti-Semitic lyrics.
Thus, for instance, the following words were set to the tune of
"Hurra, hurra, die Schule brennt" ["Hurrah, hurrah, the school is
burning"]:
"It’s getting dark; the time for it has come again; there’s a
meeting of the Ku-Klux-Klan. The petrol cans are full; the little
niggers from their beds now pull! Now go and fetch the cross
to please the Klan and please their boss. Let’s play bonfire
games, and that swine goes up in flames. A son is sung with
a snicker. How great, hurrah, hurrah; let’s roast a nigger!"
By contrast to the previous years, the number of skinhead concerts
in which right-extremist bands took part did not increase in
1999. There was a total of 109 events (1998: 128). This reflects
the effectiveness of an uncompromising approach to the imposition
of bans. On the other hand, the average number of concertgoers
increased. While in 1998 more than two thirds of those
performances drew an audience of less than 200, this was the
case with only half of the concerts in 1999: the number of events
drawing more than 600 fans went up significantly. The by far
largest concert took place in Garitz (Saxony-Anhalt) on 4 September,
with an audience of more than 2,000. What actually drew
this large audience was a skinhead band from the U.S. which is
popular among this scene. The great popularity of foreign rightextremist
music bands is also reflected by the fact that concerts
given by such bands - about a third of all events - drew an
above-average number of fans.
Right-extremist singer-songwriters gave performances alongside,
or after, events staged by right-extremist parties, and at balladsong
concerts. One of the best known singer-songwriters is
Frank RENNICKE who was invited to many NPD-sponsored events.
His appearance at events organized by the party "The
Republicans" (REP) gave rise to controversy within that party.
2.2 Marketing of Skinhead Music
The number of dealers in right-extremist music media - often
offered alongside scene-specific articles of clothing and jewellery
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