German Neo-Nazis Buy 'Training Center' Palace

Far-right property purchase worries authorities
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 26, 2010 4:00 AM CST
German Neo-Nazis Buy 'Training Center' Palace
Trebnitz Castle, 30 miles east of Leipzig, is the former seat of the aristocratic Rauchhaupt family.   (Wikimedia Commons)

German authorities fear that a crumbling palace in the eastern part of the nation may soon emerge as a training center for a new generation of Nazis. The 300-year old Trebnitz Castle was bought at a recent auction by a pair of prominent far-right leaders, one of whom was a leading member of the now-banned "Wiking" neo-Nazi youth movement, Der Spiegel reports.

Neo-Nazi efforts to buy property elsewhere in the country have been thwarted by local opposition, but the state of Saxony-Anhalt is becoming home to a growing number of extremists. The castle's new owners will face an uphill battle to obtain planning permission for any attempt to make the dilapidated castle usable, and Germany's intelligence services have promised to keep a close eye on who comes and goes from the property.
(More Neo-Nazi stories.)

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