FRANKFURT — The revelation that a leading neo-Nazi gave a training lecture to army officers has rocked the German army — and forced German officials to scramble to respond.
The German newsmagazine Der Spiegel reported recently that neo-Nazi leader Manfred Roeder gave a lecture in 1995 at an officer’s academy in Hamburg.
The revelation was the latest in a spate of neo-Nazi scandals that have hit the German army.
Last week, the Defense Ministry confirmed that six army parachuters held a party in an office decorated with a Nazi flag and pictures of Hitler.
Prosecutors are also investigating a film made by soldiers glorifying neo-Nazi violence.
Roeder lectured on the “Relocation of Ethnic Germans in Russia in the area of Koenigsberg.”
With other right-wing extremists, Roeder wants to re-establish the German culture and language in the Russian region of Kaliningrad, which was once a part of Germany called Koenigsberg.
Russia has forbidden Roeder and three other German neo-Nazis from entering Kaliningrad because of a newspaper advertisement they published last year claiming that “the idea of war guilt [of the Germans] is a demonic modern invention.”
On Monday, the German defense minister announced disciplinary measures against a colonel who was responsible for the invitation. He also suspended a lieutenant-general who headed the academy at the time of the incident.