Indicator history

According to the Amadeu Antonio foundation, who continuously monitors media reports and other relevant sources and compiles a permanently updated chronology of anti-Semitic incidents, counted 53 incidents of verbal threats, harassment and hate speech in 2009 (2008: 85). Among those, there were eight cases of incitement to hatred.
The expert group Arbeitsstelle Rechtsextremismus und Gewalt [Right-wing Extremism and Violence; ARUG] at the Bildungsvereinigung Arbeit und Leben [Education Association Work and Life] presented two non-exhaustive chronologies, one on anti-Semitic incidents and one on right-wing violence that were reported about by the media in 2009. The chronology on anti-Semitic offences in 2009 lists 132 incidents with 140 separate offences, i.e. in some cases more than one offence was committed. 80 offences fell within the category of verbal threats and hate speech (including incitement to hatred), partly from right-wing extremist political parties. The ARUG chronology on right-wing violence in 2009 lists 249 such incidents with 295 individual offences, among those 34 cases of incitement to hatred (verbal threats and hate speech). 63 of the 249 cases seemed to be primarily committed with a racist motivation; Islamophobia plays a subordinate role (three cases). In 95 cases the offences targeted people considered political opponents.

According to the latest monitoring reports of both CERD and ECRI racist expression and hate speech on the internet plays an important role in Germany. According to ECRI, a high proportion of racist expression via the internet stems from extreme right-wing and neo-Nazi groups; ‘their targets are most often Roma/Sinti or members of the Jewish community’.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (VerfS) also stated that the internet continues to be an important platform for right-wing extremists. With approximately 1,000 right-wing extremist websites run by Germans, the numbers of these websites has remained at a remarkably high level, as it has in the last few years. Furthermore, 29 internet radio stations with right-wing extremist (partly legally banned) music were identified by the VerfS in 2009. In its response to the CERD report on Germany in 2008, the federal government published figures on racist offences committed on the internet: in 2008, 28 such racist crimes on the internet were registered by the police (2007: 35; 2006: 29), all of them within the registration category of politically motivated right-wing crimes. The VerfS counted 125 right-wing extremist concerts in 2009 (2008: 127), with an average of 120 visitors (2008: 150). The number of active right-wing extremist bands, i.e. those that recorded a CD or played at concerts, increased from 146 (2008) to 151 in 2009.
In addition, the number of right-wing extremist periodicals decreased from 96 in 2007 to 78 in 2008 and slightly increased again in 2009 with 82 publications, 42 of them being published at least quarterly.
In 2009, the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young People (BPjM) put 114 media on the index, because of their racist, anti-Semitic and/or extreme right-wing content. Among them ten books, 103 CDs or other recordings and one DVD were prohibited by the Department.

Sources:

A. Maegerle (2010) Rechte Gewalt in Deutschland 2009. Eine Chronik,  http://arug.de/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=48&Itemid=133

A. Maegerle (2010) Antisemitismus in Deutschland 2009. Eine Chronik, http://www.migration-online.de/data/arug_antisemitismus_chronik_2009.pdf

ECRI (2009) ECRI Report on Germany (fourth monitoring cycle), available at: http://hudoc.ecri.coe.int/XMLEcri/ENGLISH/Cycle_04/04_CbC_eng/DEU-CbC-IV-2009-019-ENG.pdf, p. 26

Bundesministerium des Innern (2011), Verfassungsschutzbericht 2010, http://www.verfassungsschutz.de/download/SHOW/vsbericht_2010.pdf (accessed on 20.02.2012).

Bundesministerium des Innern (2010), Verfassungsschutzbericht 2009, http://www.verfassungsschutz.de/download/SAVE/vsbericht_2009.pdf