Neo-Nazis Lashing Out At Authorities Shooting In Germany Fuels Fear Crackdown May Cause Backlash

The fatal shooting of a police officer in Germany has increased fears that a crackdown on neo-Nazi groups has caused the groups to splinter and go deeper underground - with some preparing to fight back.

Prosecutors say 24-year-old neo-Nazi Kay Diesner, who goes on trial Friday charged with shooting and killing Officer Stefen Grage at an autobahn rest stop in February, fits a feared profile: a loner who armed himself to lash out against the state.

“The neo-Nazis are behaving more and more like leftist groups with their autonomous cells,” chief prosecutor Guenter Moeller said. “Or like the Werewolves in the Third Reich,” he added, referring to Hitler supporters who resisted U.S. occupation after World War II.

Police said Diesner confessed to a crime spree that began Feb. 19 with the shooting of a leftist bookstore owner in Berlin and ended Feb. 23 with Diesner opening fire again with a pump-action shotgun on Grage and his partner, Stefan Kussauer.

Diesner, who will be tried in the northern city of Luebeck, is charged with murder and four counts of attempted murder and could face up to life in prison.

Diesner claimed he was acting in self-defense against the police officer, Moeller said, and has described himself as a “freedom fighter” and a “prisoner of war.” His court-appointed attorney refused to discuss the case - said to be the first shooting of a German police officer by a neo-Nazi.

The shooting on the autobahn between Hamburg and Berlin capped a series of clashes with the law that began for Diesner in 1990, when he drifted into one of several neo-Nazi-occupied apartment houses in east Berlin.

He became close to neo-Nazi leader Arnulf Priem, whose National lternative group was banned in 1992. He also had ties to another neo-Nazi group, the White Aryan Resistance, which has links to groups in Sweden and the United States.

At the time of his arrest, Diesner belonged to no group and apparently acted alone, Moeller said.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution noted in its latest report that while the number of known neo-Nazis is declining, the number of groups has increased.

Local, constantly shifting cells of a dozen or so members are being formed with “informal links” via mobile phones and the Internet, it said, making them harder to trace and combat.

Ingo Hasselbach, a former neo-Nazi leader who pulled out in 1993 and wrote a book about his experience, said government actions against far-right groups are creating a “persecution complex” that could cause other neo-Nazis to lash out.

“He’s not the only guy of his kind,” Hasselbach said of Diesner, his former protege, in an interview with Der Spiegel newsmagazine. “A few more time bombs are ticking there.”