00:48Germany: "Right-wing" frat club holds torch-lit memorial
Germany: "Right-wing" frat club holds torch-lit memorial
The Deutsche Burschenschaft (DB) fraternity group made a rare public appearance on Friday, even allowing members of the media to take pictures. They are gathering in Eisenach, Germany, to celebrate their community and to honour deceased members of the organisation. Some 400 DB members carrying drums and bearing flaming torches walked solemnly from Wartburg Castle to their memorial, built in 1902. On reaching the memorial, situated at the top of a hill, members paid tribute to their deceased and sang the "Deutschlandlied" ("Song of Germany") in full. This is despite the first two verses being illegal as they contain references to Germany's borders before the two world wars.
Every year the members, coming from Germany, Austria and Chile, congregate at the world-famous castle where Martin Luther first translated the Bible into German. Some 10,000 members belonging to a network of 100 fraternities have sworn their lifelong dedication to the group's slogan, "Honour-Liberty-Homeland."
The members are reportedly meeting to discuss, among other things, whether or not to instigate an "Aryan Purity test" that all who want to join the group must "pass." Simultaneously, hundreds of protesters demonstrated in Eisenach against what they see as the organisation's increasingly extremist, right-wing views.
Females have always been denied membership to the DB, which has recently been struggling to unite its far-right and liberal factions. Earlier this year, 18 out of its 78 active fraternities voted to exit the DB in protest against perceived extremist sentiment.
00:48Germany: "Right-wing" frat club holds torch-lit memorial
The Deutsche Burschenschaft (DB) fraternity group made a rare public appearance on Friday, even allowing members of the media to take pictures. They are gathering in Eisenach, Germany, to celebrate their community and to honour deceased members of the organisation. Some 400 DB members carrying drums and bearing flaming torches walked solemnly from Wartburg Castle to their memorial, built in 1902. On reaching the memorial, situated at the top of a hill, members paid tribute to their deceased and sang the "Deutschlandlied" ("Song of Germany") in full. This is despite the first two verses being illegal as they contain references to Germany's borders before the two world wars.
Every year the members, coming from Germany, Austria and Chile, congregate at the world-famous castle where Martin Luther first translated the Bible into German. Some 10,000 members belonging to a network of 100 fraternities have sworn their lifelong dedication to the group's slogan, "Honour-Liberty-Homeland."
The members are reportedly meeting to discuss, among other things, whether or not to instigate an "Aryan Purity test" that all who want to join the group must "pass." Simultaneously, hundreds of protesters demonstrated in Eisenach against what they see as the organisation's increasingly extremist, right-wing views.
Females have always been denied membership to the DB, which has recently been struggling to unite its far-right and liberal factions. Earlier this year, 18 out of its 78 active fraternities voted to exit the DB in protest against perceived extremist sentiment.