SUDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG (Germany)
MUNICH - This Saturday, April 20, a group of right-wing fraternities in Germany will hold what they are calling a “regional conference” in Munich. The extreme right-wing Danubia fraternity has also been invited to attend.
Such a summit might not be particularly noteworthy except that April 20 also happens to be Adolf Hitler's birthday, reports Suddeutsche Zeitung.
The meeting in Munich's Old Town is one of a series planned by the Dachverband Deutsche Burschenschaft, the umbrella organization of German fraternities, which has already been a source of protests in German cities Kassel und Heidelberg, and one conference in Freiburg was cancelled, writes Suddeutsche Zeitung reporter Sebastian Krass.
According to a spokesman, the organizer of the series is Bruno Burchart, a member of a Viennese fraternity called Olympia that has close ties with Danubia. In 2005, Olympia invited British Holocaust denier David Irving to be a guest speaker.
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Hitler in Munich in 1930 (Wikipedia)
The spokesman called the conferences "continuing education seminars to teach young people about issues such as democracy.” Suddeutsche Zeitung says that no information was available about the exact program of Saturday’s event or those expected to attend. The spokesman insists that it is sheer coincidence that the meeting takes place on the day of Hitler’s birthday, and in the German city most closely associated with the Nazi leader. Munich is also currently bracing for a major trial of German right-wing extremist terrorists.
Following a conference a year ago, one Danubia member reported in a fraternity newspaper that a speaker had complained that "Nazi history, women, foreigners and the Vaterland” had become taboo subjects in Germany and stated that resisting this "dictatorship of speech" was a “duty.”
In a recently published report German intelligence services stated that among Danubia’s active members were "individuals with current or former links to right-wing extremists“ and that activists from the Munich Neo-Nazi scene had been known to participate in Danubia events.
Munich police said there has so far been no indication that protests were planned.
