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German townsfolk in fear of neo-Nazi rallying point

Samuel Loewenberg

RESIDENTS in a small town in Lower Saxony are frantically trying to raise 3.4 million euros to buy an empty hotel before it is taken over by a rightwing organisation that reportedly plans to use it as a neo-Nazi rallying point. The ultra-right group expected to purchase the hotel in the next few days is led by Jurgen Rieger, a Hamburg lawyer and well-known neo-Nazi. Mr. Rieger is infamous in Germany for defending prominent Holocaust deniers and leading an annual rally in Bavaria in honour of Rudolf Hess, one of Hitler's top deputies.

Mr. Rieger also heads a group called the Germanic Faith Community for Life Creation.

It is not known why Mr Rieger chose to base his project in Delmenhorst, a town with fewer than 80,000 inhabitants located near Bremen and Hamburg. He could not be reached for comment.

The town of Delmenhorst has a diverse population of Germans, Turks, and Russians; some dozens of Jews live there. On August 7 about 3,000 townspeople turned out to demonstrate against the proposed sale.

There is nothing to legally prevent Mr. Rieger's group from purchasing the hotel, which is opposite the town hall, so concerned Delmenhorsters are trying to raise enough money to buy it for themselves before the August 15 deadline.

With just days to go, the ad hoc anti-fascist group has raised 520,000 euros from those living in the town and further afield in Germany. "I called friends and they called friends, and it just snowballed," said the group's co-founder, Gunter Feith, a 58-year-old architect who has lived in Delmenhorst since he was a child. "If we are not successful, and this Nazi group moves into town, people here won't be able to live their normal lives," said Mr. Feith. "I don't know if we can win, but we have to try."

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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