Lilian Engelmann never thought she would see neo-Nazis on her block. The young art curator works in a gallery in the trendy district of Mitte, a neighborhood in central Berlin. Her neighbors include an international cinema, designer hat store, Vietnamese restaurant and — as of last February — a store called Tönsberg, which sells clothing popular among right-wing extremists.
“By coming here, the neo-Nazis tried to come into the center of society,” Engelmann told SPIEGEL ONLINE. Once local residents and shopowners learned that Tönsberg planned to sell the clothing brand Thor Steinar, they organized against the store. The group led by Engelmann and other shopowners called itself the “Mitte Initiative Against the Far Right,” and mounted regular protests.
These people are only going to grow in strength and numbers. Contrary to what some people say, Germany never manged to lay a good moral foundation for a free society. The same could be said of many other countries in Europe.