Besseres Hannover
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Besseres Hannover ("Better Hanover") was a right-wing extremist group from
Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
. The group was banned in September 2012 by Lower Saxony's Interior Minister
Uwe Schünemann Uwe Schuenemann (born 8 August 1964) is a German politician ( Christian Democratic Union of Germany) and former interior minister of the German state of the federation Lower Saxony. In the course of his office, he is known for relatively hard-lin ...
. The ban became incontestable by order of the Federal Administrative Court of 6 January 2014. It also became known nationwide through the "Abschiebär", a character who appeared in propaganda videos and at various events in Germany.


History

The association had been under observation by the Lower Saxony security authorities since the end of 2008. It consisted of a loose association from
Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
and the surrounding area. Thirty club members were known to the authorities, including a former chairman of the NPD in Hannover. They participated in various far-right demonstrations and events. As "immortals", the right-wing extremists marched through Hanover-Kleefeld in the summer of 2011 while carrying torches; the police identified a participant as a member of Besseres Hannover. Their statements appeared on Internet sites (also with music download offers), in the magazine ''Bock – The mouthpiece of the counterculture'', which was distributed to schools, as well as in leaflets, banners and stickers in public spaces. Above all, in the area around the Altenbekener Damm underground station, used daily by several thousand students, they repeatedly posted a variety of mostly xenophobic stickers. During the
CEBIT CeBIT was the largest and most internationally representative computer expo. The trade fair was held each year on the Hanover fairground, the world's largest fairground, in Hanover, Germany. In its day, it was considered a barometer of cur ...
exhibition in 2012, a large banner was hung over the Messeschnellweg. The core of their
propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
was the fight against "alienation" and democracy, with statements such as "The Democrats bring us national death!". The organization's modern action-oriented concept deliberately targeted young right-wing extremists. In December 2011, an advertising figure was introduced - the Abschiebär, a pun on "Abschieber" (deportator) and "Bär" (bear). Several bear costumes were used in various campaigns of the association. In self-produced short films, which were available on various video portals, ethnic minority people living in Germany were invited to return to their countries of origin. In the best-known film, a Turkish kebab shop employee in south Hanover was unknowingly involved as an actor. Because the bear actor in another scene raises his arm in a Nazi salute, the public prosecutor's office in Hanover has initiated proceedings for "use of marks of unconstitutional organizations"
§ 86a
StGB). A member of Better Hanover sent emails with the linked video to various Lower Saxony politicians, including the Lower Saxony Minister of Integration Aygül Özkan. At the open day of
Schwerin Castle Schwerin Castle (also known as ''Schwerin Palace'', german: Schweriner Schloss, ), is a schloss located in the city of Schwerin, the capital of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state, Germany. It is situated on an island in the city's main lake, Lake Schwer ...
in June 2012, the parliamentary faction of the NPD appeared together with the Abschiebär. The association worked together with the Thiazi Forum, the Hanoverian far-right rock band Nordfront and the
Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...
Spreelichtern. The association was described in July 2012 by the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Interior as "the most active neo-Nazi grouping in Lower Saxony". Besseres Hannover was proscribed on 25 September 2012, based on the offence of formation of a
criminal organization Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...
(an offence outlawed b
Section§ 129
of the German Criminal Code). Between the beginning of the observation in 2008 and the 2012 ban, authorities initiated a total of 24 criminal investigations related to Better Hannover against known or unknown persons, mostly related to propaganda offences. As a "formative club mark", any public use of the Abschiebär was prohibited. Due to the ban, the website of the association was turned off, and its official
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account blocked. In this case, the
social network A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...
first made use of its ability to block profiles only in a specific country (country-specific shutdown). Attorney Udo Vetter applied for judicial review against the ban order on behalf of a former member. The action was dismissed by the Higher Administrative Court of Lüneburg by judgment of 3 September 2013. The appeal was denied. By order of the Federal Administrative Court of 6 January 2014, which dismissed the complaint against the refusal to approve the appeal on law of 7 November 2013, the prohibition has become final. A former member faced criminal proceedings in the Springe District Court in 2015 in respect of several attacks on party offices, damage to a kebab shop and to a plaque for a synagogue destroyed by the Nazis.{{Cite news , url=http://www.taz.de/!5024469/ , title=Verfahren gegen Rechtsextreme: Propaganda und Gewalt , date=8 January 2015 , work=Die Tageszeitung: taz , access-date=2 June 2018 , language=de , issn=0931-9085 , url-status=live , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160217030730/http://www.taz.de/!5024469/ , archivedate=17 February 2016 , df=dmy-all


Abschiebär

The Abschiebär was the national project of the action Besseres Hannover against the current immigration to the
Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...
(FRG). The Abschiebär is an always smiling brown bear of human size, which is clothed only with a white t-shirt. He also appeared on the Day of the German Future 2012 in
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
.


References

Politics of Germany