Attempted murder of German Police Chief on his doorstep by neo-Nazi thug with knife signals a new stage in the rise of the Right

The cemetery of the church of St. Corona soem 5 Km from Passau hit the headlines un July when the leaders of the german Nazi gangs assmebled for the funeral of the last federal chairman of the banned Freedom German Workers Party (FAP), Friedhelm Busse.

Christian Worch and Thomas Wolff came from Northern germany , Norman Bordin from Bavaria and Rene Taufen from the Rhineland. From a younger generation there were were Viking Youth activist Edda Scmidt and from Dortmund "SS-Siggi" Siegfried Borchard.

Representingt he NPD were Bavarian chairman Matthias Fischer,and his sidekicks Sascha Rossmuller and Uwe Meens.

As a grisly finale to the graveside service Thomas Wulff, adorned the coffin with a banned imperial flag bearing a swastika as the assembled crew sung the soldiers song "Ich hatt einen Kameraden" and the song of the SS "Wenn alle untreu werden" - "If all are unfaithful" .

After this a fracas ensued and the thugs started to beat up a journalist from Network against the Nazis and a small battle ensued with the Police using peper sprays. They then caused problems in Passau centre shouting Nazi slogans such as "Germany wake!" and "Deutsche macht euch frei, von der Juden-Tyrannei!" - "German makes you free from tyranny of the Jews!".

The Police finally arrested 11 eleven neo-Nazis for various offences - robbery, assault and breach of the peace. Four had been arrested before the funeral for being equipped baseball bats and Pick handles.

Doorstep attack on Passau Police Chief

Alois Mannichl, 52, who has been leading a fight against the neo-Nazis in Passau where he is the Police chief. Authorities claim 83 crimes in Passau have been attributed to far-right extremists this year, there were 40 in 2007. Led by Mannichl the Passau police have increased their monitoring of right-wing rallies which as at the funeral of Busse often broken down into violence between neo-Nazi demonstrators and police.

There were a total of 17,176 neo-Nazi crimes reported in Germany in 2007, down from 17,597 in 2006, according to a report by the country’s domestic security agency.

Mannichl lives in a village some 15 Km from Passau and answered a knock at his front door on Saturday.

He described the caller as heavy, strong, about 1.9 m high with a rasberry mark or tattoo on his shaven head. He shouted in thick Bavarian accent - possibly with a hint of Austrian dialect " You left wing Bull Pig (Bullenschwein?) Don't trample any longer on the graves of our comrades ! " - and used as his calling card , the Neo Nazi slogan " Many greetings from the national Widerstand" .

This was a direct reference to Mannichl having the grave opened after the funeral, so the forbidden flag could be removed from the coffin, it was explained that this wasn't stopped during the service out of consideration to the mourners, friends and family.

He then stabbed him once in the stomach and ran off throwing the knife into the garden. A car was waiting nearby which he jumped in and the car sped off.

Such an attack is unheard of said Minister of the Interior Joachim Herrmann of the daylight assassination attempt on Mannichl, descrining it an escalation and " a completely new Dimension" in the fight against neo-Nazis.

Mannichl, successfully underwent surgery to repair the stab wound, which was said to be less than an inch from his heart and is recovering at a hospital.

The leading senior public prosecutor Helmut Walch classified the attack as attempted murder, a 20-man special commission took over the investigations.

Claudia Roth head of the Green Party in the Augsburger Allgemeinen , demanded political action as a result of the attack . " This insidious and brutal assassination attempt from the neo-Nazi scene is obviously an alarming indication of how dangerous the right-wing extremists are . She caused a stir last year for saying that the Bishop of Augsburg , Walter Mixa ideas on childcare and re-education camps ( Umerziehungslager) reminded her of the Cambodian mass murderer and dictator , Pol Pot,

Passau has strong local neo - Nazi roots

In the centre of Passau is " Traudl' s Café Stübchen" , or more comonly " Café Traudl". This was / is a favourite watering hole the Passau NPD members who would appear with known Austrian right-wing extremists and would be reserved for their meetings and discussion groups. It was shut down and became a private club

A local small circulation political sheet " Passauer new Presse" belongs it to an NPD officer Martin Gabling who is styled as the District Chairman of Passau. This has a curious political stance in that they wish to "Reichsdeutschen mit entsp" Unlock the German Reich, and claim that the Wiemar republic Constitution is, as an elected body the true constitution of Germany.