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Violence Erupts at the Frankfurt Book Fair

2017 is the year that Neo-Nazis and other white supremacists crawled out from under rocks, and assembled in public.

Festering fascism has produced an immune response in the body politic, and that response has spilled over into trade fairs.

Reuters and other sources report that Neo-Nazi far-right publishers were the focus of protests, and the source of violence, at the Frankfurt Book Fair last week.

From Reuters:

Goetz Kubitschek, a leading light of Germany’s far right, stood in his stall at the world’s biggest book fair on Wednesday, ignoring the hostile glances from activists, politicians and writers close by.

The presence of the firebrand speaker – a regular at rallies that helped push the anti-immigrant Anternative for Germany (AfD) party to its strong showing in last month’s vote – touched a raw nerve at Frankfurt’s annual literature fest.

Across from his position in the city’s fair ground, the anti-extremist Amadeu Antonio Foundation held a vigil to reject what it described as his racism and hostility to democracy.

TheLocal.de has a more detailed report on the protests and counter-protests.

DW has a more detailed report on the multiple acts of protests as well as attacks on protesters:

When protesters began shouting "Nazis out!" Höcke’s supporters retorted with "Everybody hates the Antifa!" They were referring to the radical left-wing anti-fascist movement that has now itself achieved international notoriety. Police were called to intervene. Later in the day, two authors from the right-wing extremist Identitarian Movement were forced to abandon a reading due to loud protests.

'Sieg Heil!'

Those scenes followed a violent incident in which Nico Wehnemann, a member of the anti-political group Die Partei, was attacked after showing up at a right-wing stand to protest. Wehnemann claimed he was punched by a neo-Nazi and then pushed to the ground by private security as police looked on.

His personal details were taken, Wehnemann said, though not those of the man who attacked him. Onlookers are said to have chanted "Sieg Heil!" as Wehnemann was escorted from the premises. Wehnemann later went to the hospital to have his injuries treated and has said he will be pressing charges.

Does anyone know if the far-right publishers were exhibitors at the FBF in previous years? And did anyone protest their presence?

While researching this story, I could not find any reports of protests at past book fairs. This made it hard to gauge just how much these events differ from  before.

Is this a new thing, or are the protests bigger than before?

image by ActuaLitté

 

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Comments


Seth Rich October 18, 2017 um 9:54 pm

Leftists and other cultural marxists are a cancer intent on destroying western society, values and culture. Ask them what they want to replace it – they have no idea. They are hysterical children, governed by emotion, controlled by groups funded by George Soros while sucking on the teat of silicon valley social media.


Maggie October 18, 2017 um 11:56 pm

Oh Seth, good to know. So nowadays if someone is against white supremacists and nazis, they are leftist. Gotcha.

Governed by emotion? Yes, not unlike a bunch of white dudes, crying about how the world has too many brown people. That’s not emotional at all. I hear ya though. Those of us who want to live free from tyranny, fascism and free from a bunch of immature nazis do get emotional about it. I think they used to call it… patriotism.

Chris October 19, 2017 um 2:18 pm

Maggie, the issue is not that we find White Supremacist Disgusting, we are all on board with that. It assaulting people for not doing anything other than expressing an opinion you or I disagree with. I don’t believe you get to hurt people for what they say, that’s called fascism. Its not only illegal, most of us would die for their right to express it, millions already have


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