German soldiers suspected of running antisemitic chat group

Three soldiers banned from wearing a uniform and working for military, states document

A defence ministry document viewed by Reuters shows many of the 26 soldiers belong to a logistics unit in Neustadt am Ruebenberge in northern Germany

A group of soldiers suspected of organising a neo-Nazi online group chat linked to antisemitism, right-wing extremism and pornography have been discovered by the German authorities.

A defence ministry document viewed by Reuters shows many of the 26 soldiers belong to a logistics unit in Neustadt am Ruebenberge in northern Germany.

Three of the soldiers have been banned from wearing a uniform and working for the military, according to the document.

A report to parliament by the ministry dated Friday and first reported by public ARD television said civilian and military prosecutors began investigations straight after the accusations emerged in October.

State Minister for Internal Affairs Herbert Reul said messages shared in the group are believed to constitute criminal behaviour as he branded the content as “highly xenophobic and inhuman”.

The case is the latest in a series of far-right scandals to surface in the German military.

In June, Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer disbanded a company of the army’s elite KSK special forces after recurring incidents involving far-right extremism.

“The deeper you dig into the forces, the more right-wing activities you find,” Alexander Neu, a lawmaker with the opposition far-left Linke, told Reuters.

“This shows that the fondly nourished hypothesis that we are talking of isolated cases is just a fairy tale.”

There are stringent laws banning any form of glorification of the Nazis in Germany, while antisemitic messages posted on social media can be prosecuted as a hate crime.

German politicians are grappling with how to deal with a recent surge in far-right antisemitic hate in the nation.

Additional reporting by Reuters