On November 17, 2018, about 450 people marched on a demo organized by far right right organizations in Düsseldorf (German territory, EIE), two anti-fascist counter-protesters were injured by members of the “Bruderschaft Deutschland” (“Brotherhood Germany”, EIE) from Düsseldorf. The fact that nothing worse happened was only accidentally.

Originally published by Düsseldorf stellt sich quer (DSSQ). Edited machine translation by Enough is Enough.

Note: Enough is Enough is not organizing any of these events, we are publishing this text for people across the US and Europe to be able to see what is going on and for documentation only.

A hooligan from Cologen most likely threw a throwing knife at head level in the direction of some counter-protesters and narrowly missed his target. An extensive evaluation of the publicly available video material by DSSQ has brought this previously unknown action to light. “Düsseldorf stellt sich quer” calls for an immediate clarification.

The fact that attacks on counter-protesters were planned was already obvious before the formation of the right-wing demonstration. The numerous far right hooligans, in particular from Dusseldorf, Cologne and Mönchengladbach, agreed on this upfront and acted in a coordinated manner. Only the present police forces seemed to have missed this. After the far right hooligans had already sung slogans like “If we want, we beat them to death!” they attacked. Two counter-protesters were injured in the face and neck by punches of battle-hardened participants of the far right rally were wearing leather gloves. The two injured persons were taken on the account of the leader of the “Brotherhood Germany”, Ralf Nieland, and the “Brotherhood” -Member Miguel Arce Luarca. Both from Düsseldorf. While Nieland could be overpowered by police officers immediately after the attack , Arce-Luarca was initially able to escape his arrest. Only after the far right rally ended he wasd taken into police custody.

At first an incident that happened shortly after Nieland could be arrested by the police remained unnoticed. A hooligan from Cologne most likely threw a throwing knife at head level in the direction of the counter-protesters and the police, narrowly missing his target. At least one well-known “brotherhood” activist who has experience as a doorman, saw the situation. As can be seen on the videos, he tentatively pulled one of his “comrades” out of the throw line. He would be able to name the offender.

Brotherhood Germany

The “Brotherhood Garath”, which has been publicly appearing since 2017 and has meanwhile changed its name to “Bruderschaft Deutschland” (Brotherhood Germany, EIE) and is led by Ralf Nieland from Eller (City district in Düsseldorf, EIE) and Kai Kratochvil from Garath (City district in Düsseldorf, EIE), is trying to build up a kind of “patriotic” vigilante group. Thus, the group has patrolled several times with up to 35 people without police escort in Eller. She posed in front of the S-Bahn station Eller-Süd for a group photo and then showed “presence” in the district. It’s far right members, including the F95 (professional soccer team from Düsseldorf, EIE) season ticket holder Ralf Nieland, are also found on neo-Nazi marches, for example, on April 14, 2018 at the “Europe awaken!” – demo of the Neo-Nazi party “Die Rechte” in Dortmund. Several Neo-Nazi parties – including the “Der III. Weg “(The Third Way, EIE) – try to recrute from the ranks of the “Brotherhood “.

“We demand an immediate clarification of the incidents mentioned, especially the knife throwing. The violence against participants in our protests has become unacceptable at the latest with the events of November 17. But she does not come unexpectedly. Already during the protests against DügIdA 2015 and most recently on August 27, 2018 in front of the Landtag (State parliament, EIE), this development became apparent, “said DSSQ spokesman Uwe Funke. “Therefore, in the run-up to the 17th of November, because we had to protect our participants we pointed out again during so-called cooperation talks with the police (On the German territory police authorities can force people who register a demoto this kind of “cooperation” talks, it’s one of the reasons why there are groups that don’t register demos, EIE) to the extremely high risk of violence by the far right. This is followed by nothing. Apparently, the main problem is still seen as protesting against right-wing demonstrations.”