it is that time of year when the normally quiet and pleasent north bavarian town of Coburg is over run by fascist pigs; the Coburger Convent is here.

here are a few links to get you up to speed with the terminology and what it is about:
Coburger Convent
Burschenschaften

although the wiki article says that hey are based on tolerance sadly that is not the case. our chinese housemate upon seeing an advert for a room went along and had the door promptly closed on him after being told to essentially “füuk off home” and that he was a dog eating so-and-so.

the Coburger Convent is, as the name suggests and convent of people here in Coburg. it is a meeting of Burschenschaften – similar to fraternaties but but with a more elitist, nationalistic and fascist idealology – from all over the german speaking lands.
they wear their uniforms and resemble train guards but it does not stop them drinking and acting like thugs.
the event’s highlight is a mass meeting of over 1000 Burschenschaften (members of a student family- got to love german for it’s word-building) at the Kreigdenkmal (war memorial) in the park and then a march through the town where each carries a flaming torch behind their relevant nationalistic flags.
they then congregate on the townsquare and sing the whole german national anthem, including the lines out-lawed after their second little auswanderung (walkabout).
there is always a large neo-nazi element present on the monday.

it is quite a scary sight to this little town over-run by these people.

so, anyways. we went out earlier for a pootle on the steeds and went about looking for a few tippled peeps carr the silly hats on their heads.
i managed to swipe a hat off one of them as i went past. his mates threw bottles, one of which came close to my mate. they gave chase and they weren’t as tipsy as we had hoped. we split. sounded like a pack o’dogs on my tail. i went straight on into an alleyway and almost lost control of the bike. in the panic/slide/footdown i dropped the cap. bit gutted as they make a nice momento.

my mate already has a few from the previous years.

there is a demo against these elitist monkies tomorrow but after having read the paper it would seem that the press is trying to put people off going along. they are reporting that there WILL be violence. the leader of the CC is quoted as saying “Wir brauchen Coburg, und Coburg braucht uns” aswell as the mayor saying that hostility toward the gathering doesn’t exist.

news paper article in german

both of these two points are wrong. upon speaking to many locals and resident students it is evident that the CC isn’t wanted in town.

what i find sad is that there now persists an apathy toward this gathering. that the local towns folk would rather leave town for the weekend then face up to these people and make it clear that they are not welcome.
several years ago there was a large scuffle. protesters, one of which a good friend and now family-man was involved, we pushed back by police when the national anthem begun toward a waiting group of neo-nazis. ambulances were on the scene albeit on the ‘wrong’ side of the square.
since that event things have been much ‘quieter’.

as said there is a protest planned for saturday and buses have been laid on from other major german towns. but with the papers reporting violence bofore it has even begun i don’t know how local turnout will look.

sadly i don’t think that things will change. the Burschenschaften are much like the ‘old boys’ network in blighty. the mayor of the town, the chief of police and those in politics that could make a difference are very likely involved daily with, or indeed themselves are, members of these ‘clubs’.

i think awareness should be raised and would invite any UK or german papers to come along and witness what goes on so as to report this to a wider audience.
i heard one story from my protesting friend about a colleague of his who worked for a local paper based 30km away. when the police saw him photographing they took him into a van and removed the film and literally broke the camera rendering it useless. when he protested and showed them his presspass they took that too and told him he was no longer ‘press’ and to leave town.
a friend was last year given a fine of 480€ for giving the finger to an udndercover cop. he was caught on camera but, didn’t think anymore of it untill two months later he got a fine through the post detailing what he had done. if you go along to a demo the police will ask for your I.D. which you legally have to carry with you at all times. because of this they got him.

really sick.

you are not free in germany. i feel much less of a known quantity in the UK than here. you cannot buy a pay-as-you-go phone without showing your passport and having it registered to your name. the GF’s dad bought two phones and received an annoymous phone call asking him to explain why he needed two phones and why they weren’t in the same place as each other (his wife had it) and he is just an ordin ary engineer.

i’m lying low now after my close shave. i dread to think what would have become of us had these thugs-in-suits got hold of either of us. we were planning on going on a day trip until we heard of the demo that has been organised. now i’m in two minds as to whether to go or not.
it wouldn’t surprise me that after tonight looking at various anti-fascist sites, reading the local press pages and typing Burschenschaft and Coburger Convent several times into google and wiki that ‘they’ are now watching me.

i know next time i’m putting slicks on the bike. an Alpine with Maxxis 2.4 Advantage @25 psi, even with the fork locked-out isn’t the quickest bike going…..

wow-wee… that has to be my longest post ever!

congrats if you read it all!

Carpet tacks a la etape caledonia?

que?

I’m not reading all that!
Clue?

summary please.

He stole a neo-nazi hat, they gave chase, he dropped it.

Burschenschaft

bad people with elitist and natioanlistic views.

bad reporting of facts. local paper trying to put locals off the idea of demonstrating against the group saying there WILL be violence.

infact read the firts paragraph and if it takes your fancy read on further.

This lot would sort em out

😉

half of them look like that lot.

older generations supporting the younger ones.

Don’t tell them your name alpin….

Alpin’s got some good points to make, that the evil spectre of fascism still lingers, in too many places; and unchecked, it can and will gain power once more. History will be forgotten, as people’s memories will fade.

Makes me feel glad I live in the UK, in spite of all it’s negative points.

thank you rudeboy.

it is heaving outside with these people right now. point a camera at them and they’ll turn away or worse come at you.

we were in another uni town today visiting friends and we saw one of their ‘frat’ houses covered in paint which had obviously been thrown.

we did discuss about finding some dog poo to put through the letter box but surprisingly for germany there wasn’t any poo to hand.

Alpin, that’s scary. I knew these groups existed, and I believe Austria is just as bad, but I didn’t realise the restrictions on PAYG mobi’s, although in Japan they’re totally outlawed, because of criminal usage. We may have massive CCTV coverage in the UK, and the likes of Jackboot Jaquie want even more pervasive surveillance, but our governent funded IT systems seem to be hopelessly incapable of coping, thankfully. Must say I’d love an opportunity to taunt these fascist apes.

on every corner as we drove out of town this afternoon sat parked up police vans. we saw three vans pulled up and a group of 10-15 people, admittedly some were somewhat alternative, sat down on the road between the vans whilst ID’s were being checked.

i’ve spoken to a housemate present at the demo and it goes like this…

okay, there were around 400-500 attendees at the protest. a car and funky music blaring out along with snipets of information including one particularly interesting factiod that the building beside the bahnhof – train station – is the home to the HQ of the largest membership in germany. the crowd was herded along by the police; don’t know if this was aggressive but it would appear not. my mate left after four hours along with many others. a bit of pushy-shovey between the ‘hardcore’ and the riot police including peppersray.

supposedly the buses from berlin didn’t arrive; stopped by police?

@countzero.
“Must say I’d love an opportunity to taunt these fascist apes.”
i tried but failed and looking back it was at it it could have ended really badly on my part…

I read the whole thing – very interesting. This does not happen without the support of the local authorities/politicians.

Needs a good smear campaign to undermine their authority.

[The PAYG phone problem is a separate, criminal-use related, issue IMO]

alpin is a thief rampaging through the streets and riding on the pavement.
there are two sides to every story.

Even the holocaust?! jeeeeeeeeeez

The Burschenschaftdenkmal is in Eisenach in Thuringia near the Wartburg Castle

If you think that’s bad alpin for the last five years the Neo-Nazis have had demonstrations in Leipzig. The difference being that the Leipzig is highly politicized and the extreme left wing faction always take to the streets in protest (usually in four times the numbers of the Nazis) and inevitably running street battles ensue.

Though extremely conservative I don’t think the Burschenschaften is a fascist organisation but there are elements within it who are. I have a friend here who is a member and I can assure you he is neither fascist intolerant or a thug.

Roter Stern: i know the neo-nazi problem is big. i just find it very sad that it exists at all or at best is just a very small fringe movement. the fact is anywhere in germany, more so in the east you’ll see one

there is a town, Wunsiedel, not far from here that is the ‘resting place’ of rudolph hess. every year after his death neo-nazis would congregate untill authorities banned it. once the ban was lifted a few years ago attendance rose to 4500. the towns people, clearly unhappy with this association to the neo-nazi problem stood together and refused anything to do with them. they would not offer services, food, petrol etc and, although heavily out-numbered, went out on the streets and threw confetti at them.

i’ll try get some photos of tomorrows ‘big event’ – the torch march and the singing of the banned national anthem. can’t go up to the war memorial as there is a 24 hour guarding of it by the police and burschenschaten….

wahhh!

mano man o man….. scary siht.

not a nice place to be. got some footage i will try and upload. a group singing something about mosques and istanbul. sad really.

speaking to one copper as to why he had the amount of body armour on aswell as a big stick. infact they came to us when i got my camera out. then one participant said to the policeman ‘hallo, klaus’, ‘hi, mickey’ or something to that effect was his response.

saw the demo hemmed into a corner; fair do’s as they were fairy lively. given the chance both sides would try and rip the other apart but given the previous experience with the copper i’d say the protesters chances would be like christian’s in rome.

spoke to a few locals and met an interesting chap who went on to explain the dark political and visual similarities of those marching past today and 70 years ago. oh, and also that this town was the first town to elect a ‘uh-um’ party.

the parade had passed so we went off. standing on the corner of our road we met two nieghbours. whilst talking we saw a hoddy nick a cap. really well thought out and he was quick! a minute or two later i and mate clocked a rather sinister looking group going into a bar. the last one clocked us clocking them and gave a rather nasty look as if to say ‘hello….’.

left the scene after that.

now i’m sure that not all particiapnts are so unsavoury but it begs the question why they come together like this in the first place….

will try upload videos but do not want it on my account or through this IP address. the walls have eyes….