Berlin counter-protest blocks neo-Nazis marching in honour of Hitler’s deputy

BERLIN—“There is only one side — the good side,” cried Eva Kese, mustering a smile as she fought back tears. “Your hate has no place here.”

Kese, 30, stood Saturday facing a crowd of about 500 neo-Nazis. They were gathered on the outskirts of the German capital to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the death of Rudolf Hess, a deputy to Adolf Hitler. The demonstration marked another, more recent anniversary: one week since a march by white supremacists in Virginia left one counterprotester dead.

U.S. President Donald Trump, Kese said, had drawn her to the streets of Berlin. She was incensed by his reaction to the violence in Charlottesville, Va., in which he blamed “hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.”

The destination of the march was the former site of Spandau Prison, where Hess committed suicide in 1987. Soon after, it was demolished to prevent it from becoming a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis.

But the neo-Nazis never reached the location of the former prison. They proceeded haltingly, flanked by police who kept counterprotesters behind metal barricades. The neo-Nazis remained mostly quiet, carrying the black, white and red flags of the German Empire.

After a two-hour stalemate, in which opposing sides were separated by a 27-metre no man’s land guarded by police, authorities led the neo-Nazis away from their intended destination, to the transit station where they had begun.

Following strict laws put into place after the Second World War, neo-Nazis were forbidden from chanting Nazi slogans, displaying swastikas and wearing certain military uniforms.