GERMANY: Germany's BfV domestic intelligence office has said the number of neo-Nazis in Germany rose to 4,100 last year from 3,800 in 2004, while the number of right-wing extremists prepared to engage in violence rose by 400 to 10,400, the Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported yesterday.
Exemplifying the dangers that extremism can pose to foreign-looking people in Germany, a left-wing politician of Turkish origin was severely injured in Berlin in what police said appeared to be a racially motivated mugging.
Sayan Giyasettin (56), a member of the Berlin state parliament for the Left-PDS party, told police he was attacked by two young men late on Friday night. They left him with severe head injuries, the Berlin police said on their website.
Describing the attack, Mr Giyasettin told Berlin's RBB radio: "One of them hit me with a bottle on my head and face. I tried to run away . . . 'You shit Turk. We'll get you', he said."
Such incidents could deter foreign soccer fans expected to begin flocking to Germany next month for the World Cup.
Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit acknowledged that attacks against people who appear foreign do take place in the German capital, which has a large and multi-ethnic foreign population.
"We know that there are attacks on foreign-looking fellow citizens. It happens. But that doesn't mean that this city isn't tolerant," Mr Wowereit told a local radio station.
Earlier this week, an anti-racism campaigner said black fans attending the tournament are risking their lives if they stray into parts of Germany where neo-Nazi attacks are on the rise.
Supporters should avoid parts of Brandenburg, said Uwe-Karsten Heye, head of the anti-racist body Gesicht Zeigen (Show Face).
Around 100 people have been killed in far-right violence since reunification. The attacks have often been directed at dark-skinned foreigners and most have occurred in the ex-communist east.