The trial of an alleged neo-Nazi cell accused of plotting a violent political uprising in Germany has begun amid fears that the far-right movement is increasingly armed and radical.
Eight members of Revolution Chemnitz, aged between 21 and 32, have been charged with forming a rightwing terrorist organisation.
A spokeswoman for the superior regional court said the defendants were accused of “coming together to achieve their political goals, to shake the foundations of the state, with serious violent acts.”
The men allegedly sought to carry out armed attacks on immigrants, political opponents, reporters and members of the economic establishment.
Authorities believe the group was trying to acquire semi-automatic weapons for a potential attack in Berlin on 3 October 2018, German Unity Day. The chief federal prosecutor, Peter Frank, said: “This is one of the most important trials to date dealing with far-right terrorism.”
Security agencies hope the trial, which is expected to continue until at least April and hear testimony from about 75 witnesses, will reveal the scope of the network.
Almost a year after most of the suspects were arrested in coordinated raids, the court proceedings opened on Monday under tight security in Dresden, the capital of Saxony state, a stronghold of the extreme right.
Resentment runs deep in the region over Angela Merkel’s refugee policies, under which more than 1 million asylum seekers have arrived in the country since 2015.
The anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won 27.5% of the vote in a state election this month, just shy of the 32% garnered by Merkel’s conservatives.
The defendants allegedly belong to the neo-Nazi and skinhead scene in and around Chemnitz, Saxony, which was the scene of anti-migrant street violence after the murder of a German man in August last year. Last month a 24-year-old Syrian man was sentenced to nine and a half years in jail for the killing.
In the hours after the stabbing, thousands of people took to the streets in protest, led by the AfD and nationalist group Pegida, which campaigns against what it calls the Islamisation of the west.
The defendants launched an online chat group under the name Revolution Chemnitz around the same time, in early September 2018.
Prosecutors said that on 14 September last year five of the suspects, armed with glass bottles, weighted knuckle gloves and an electroshock appliance, attacked and hurt several foreign residents in Chemnitz. “Investigations show the assault was a test-run for an event that one of the accused planned for 3 October 2018,” they added.
The accused reportedly wanted to achieve more than the National Socialist Underground (NSU), a neo-Nazi extremist group uncovered in 2011 that murdered 10 people and planted three bombs. Authorities say they intercepted the cell before it could carry out its plans.
Most of the defendants were arrested on 1 October 2018, and the alleged ringleader, Christian Keilberg, a 32-year-old electrician, was seized two weeks later for allegedly attacking immigrants in Chemnitz.
Saxony, a former communist state, has gained notoriety as the home base of several extremist organisations. Eight members of the far-right group Freital were jailed last year for terrorism and attempted murderafter a series of bombings targeting refugees and anti-fascist activists.
Members of the NSU evaded police for years in Chemnitz and Zwickau, another Saxon town.
The latest trial comes three months after the murder of a local pro-migrant politician, Walter Lübcke, in the western city of Kassel, allegedly by a known neo-Nazi.
This month the interior minister, Horst Seehofer, said the rise of the militant far right was “as big a threat as radical Islamism”.
At the weekend Seehofer said police officers had uncovered 1,091 weapons, including firearms and explosives, during investigations into crimes linked to the far right last year, compared with 676 in 2017.