---
title: "Germany bans far-right group, raids leaders' homes"
description: "BERLIN, March 19 (Reuters) - Germany banned a far-right group on Thursday and police in 10 states raided the homes of 21 of its most senior members, the interior minister said, stepping up a crackdown on anti-Semitic organisations after deadly attacks by racist gunmen."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "Newsdeck"
author: "Reuters"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/reuters/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-03-19-germany-bans-far-right-group-raids-leaders-homes/"
published: "2020-03-19T13:18:39"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 165
---

# Germany bans far-right group, raids leaders' homes

> BERLIN, March 19 (Reuters) - Germany banned a far-right group on Thursday and police in 10 states raided the homes of 21 of its most senior members, the interior minister said, stepping up a crackdown on anti-Semitic organisations after deadly attacks by racist gunmen.

By Reuters · Published 19 March 2020, 15:18 SAST

## Content

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said he had banned "United German Peoples and Tribes", the first such action against a group with links to the Reichsbuerger - "Reich Citizens" - network that claims allegiance to the pre-war German Reich.

"Right-wing extremism, racism and anti-Semitism are being fought relentlessly even in times of crisis," Seehofer said in a statement, adding that the group had engaged in "verbal militancy" against civil servants and their families.

Germany stepped up monitoring of far-right groups and sympathisers after a shooting rampage at shisha bars near Frankfurt last month by a racist gunman who shot dead nine people and attacks in October by an anti-Semitic gunman in the city of Halle that killed two.

The domestic intelligence agency last week stepped up its monitoring of a radical wing of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and the agency's chief said that right-wing extremism was the biggest threat to German democracy. (Writing by Paul Carrel Editing by Joseph Nasr and Gareth Jones)