Resurgence of neo-Nazism as German marchers remember Rudolf Hess

Nazis march with a banner reading ‘Ich bereue nichts’ – I regret nothing –        

 during a demonstration commemorating the 30th death anniversary 

Rudolf Hess

in the district of Spandau in Berlin (Picture: EPA)

A short while ago, it happened at Charlottesville, Viginia; 

United States.  

Now, hundreds of neo-Nazis have taken to the streets of Berlin to

mark 30 years since the death of Hitler’s deputy

Rudolf Hess.

Around 250 white supremacists marched from the Spandau

 suburb’s station to the former Spandau Prison – where Hess, 

an early ally of Adolf Hitler, served out the life sentence 

he was given at the post-war Nuremberg trials for war crimes.

Neo-Nazis commemorate the 1987 prison suicide of 

Hitler’s one-time deputy every year. Far-right marchers held 

up banners reading ‘I regret nothing’, and hoisted the red, 

white and black flag of Hitler’s Third Reich as around 

1,000 police officers looked on.

However, this year’s rally has garnered more attention 

as it was held in the wake of the atrocity in Charlottesville, 

Virginia, in which 32-year-old anti-racist counter-protester

Heather Heyer was killed.

The Nazi rally wasn’t banned, despite the display of Nazi symbols – 

such as the swastika – being strictly forbidden in Germany (Picture: EPA)

They marched from Spandau station to Spandau Prison, where Hess 

killed himself in 1987 (Picture: AP)

The extremists waved the flag of Hitler’s Third Reich as they marched (Picture: AP)

The Nazis were commemorating 30 years since the suicide

of Rudolf Hess (Picture: EPA)

Anti-fascists gathered at the location of the Berlin vigil

 to protest, saying the Nazi rally should have been banned.

‘This is impossible. The whole of German society must

 stand up against this.’‘It’s appalling that in the year 2017,

 Nazis can openly go on the streets for this deputy of 

Hitler,’ Gerhard Sattler, a protester, said.

Photos also show police officers in riot gear violently 

detaining a counter-protester.

Nazis waved the red, white and black flag of Hitler’s Third Reich (Picture: EPA)

Far-right extremists wore Nazi symbols on their shirts as

 they marched (Picture: AP)

Symbols of the Nazi regime – such as the

 swastika flag – are already strictly banned in Germany.

‘I would have been delighted with a ban,’ interior 

affairs senator Andreas Geisel said.  But Berlin’s 

senator for interior affairs said that banning the 

rally would have been impossible to reconcile 

with the political freedoms of a democracy.

‘But we looked very closely at the matter and 

concluded that, unfortunately, arseholes also 

get to benefit from democratic freedoms.’

Counter-protesters hold a peaceful demonstration against the

Nazi march (Picture: EPA)

Several police officers in riot gear detain a counter-protester

demonstrating against the Nazis (Picture: EPA)

People protest against the neo-Nazi demonstration (Picture: Reuters)

Hess was the last war criminal in Spandau 

Prison when he killed himself at the age of 93.

Hess spent the rest of the war in prison in Britain 

before he was convicted of crimes against the peace 

at Nuremberg.  He was appointed Hitler’s deputy

when the Nazis came to power in 1933, a position

he retained until 1941, when he flew to Britain alone

because he believed Hitler wanted him to negotiate

 a peace deal between the two warring countries.