Wolfsbrigade 44

Die Wolfsbrigade 44, or Die Sturmbrigade 44, was a German Neo-Nazi organization.

History

The organisation was founded in 2016. In early December 2020, the group was banned by the federal government of Germany and law enforcement officials conducted a number of police raids on locations in three states in connection with the ban. The federal German government had also banned the group's symbols, such as a skull with two grenades that had the number 44 marked on them. It was the fourth German far-right group to be banned in 2020.

Ideology and symbolism

According to The Times, Wolfsbrigade 44 members identified with a war criminal, Oskar Dirlewanger, whose brutality was unusual even by the standards of the Waffen-SS.
The website associated with German television news programme Tagesschau described the group as wanting to end democracy in Germany and establish a system of government based on the Nazi regime. The group was reported to have referred to the modern German state as the "Jewish Republic".