Gipfelsoli Infogroup 9th March 2007

Gipfelsoli Infogroup: Right-wing globalization critique must be rejected

Formally, Adolf Hitler is still an honorary citizen of Bad Doberan. He was elevated to this status by town officials in 1932. Prior to the NSDAP coming to power here, Bad Doberan had been the first municipality to grant Hitler this title.

Heiligendamm, where this year’s G8 summit will be convened, belongs to the administrative district of Bad Doberan. The two towns are connected by the Lindenallee (Lime Tree Avenue), which Hitler once praised as “the most beautiful of Germany”. The Dammchaussee (’Dam Road’), the road leading into the Lindenallee, was subsequently renamed ‘Adolf-Hitler-Strasse’ (Adolf Hitler Street).

This Nazi honorary citizenship has already attracted high levels of international attention. From Iceland to Israel, from Russia to Portugal, G8-critics attending the Dissent! network Infotour events have been outraged. At present the Infotour team are on the road in 40 US cities as well as in Turkey, Switzerland, Spain, Greece and Mexico.

As a result of initiatives of the German left-wing party, ‘Die Linke’, the formal recognition of Adolf Hitler as an honorary citizen Bad Doberan will finally be revoked. However, summit opponents argue that this step does not go far enough.

“The town of Bad Doberan should make an official statement to the international protest movement that it endorses left-wing and emancipatory protest against capitalism and rejects the right-wing globalization critique”, suggests Geert Achterhuis of the Dutch Dissent! network.

In Mecklenburg Vorpommern (the region Heiligendamm and Bad Doberan are part of), the NPD (’National Democratic Party’, the most successful extreme right-wing party in Germany) is using the G8 summit as an opportunity to circulate their inhumane nationalistic propaganda. Dressed in anti-capitalistic rhetoric, this propaganda demands more privileges for Germans at the expense of refugees and other underprivileged groups.

The NPD has announced their anti-G8 demonstration for June 2nd 2007, parallel to the large left-wing demonstration that will take place in Rostock. Within the German left, a broad mobilization against it has begun.

On February 25th 2007 the NPD attended a “citizens assembly” in Bad Doberan, organised by “Kavala”, the special police branch preparing for the summit protests. “Kavala” has been touring the region around Heiligendamm for the past two months, informing locals of planned road closures and bathing restrictions. “No opportunity is missed to warn locals about ‘vandalism’ and brand left-wing protests or blockades as ‘violence prone’, explains Adam Jones from the Gipfelsoli Infogroup. Udo Pastoers, the NPD parliamentarian in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, along with 25 other Nazis distributed flyers at the citizens assembly and stayed until the end. Adam Jones is surprised, “Neither Knut Abramowski’s [head of “Kavala”] PR team nor the citizens assembly of Bad Doberan seemed to be particularly bothered about this”

[Gipfelsoli Infogroup]
Further (German language) sources:

• Daily Newspaper ‘Junge Welt’ about the NPD in Bad Doberan:
  http://www.jungewelt.de/2007/03-07/007.php

• For a critique of right-wing anti-globalization politics, see for example: http://projekte.free.de/lotta/inhalt/nr26.htm
• Kavala praises the citizens assembly:
  http://www.polizei.mvnet.de/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=3498&Itemid=265

• Hitler, honorary citizen of Bad Doberan:
  http://www.sjd-falken.de/h/hi30dbr.htm

• Dissent! Infotour dates: http://dissent-archive.ucrony.net/dissent-wiki/wiki/Hauptseite.htmlInfotour

  Press Release Gipfelsoli Infogroup
  March 9th 2007