German Police Arrests Two People During Neo-Nazi March Protest

Bloomberg News/December 24, 2006
By Kenneth Wong

German police detained two people as about 500 demonstrators rallied against neo-Nazi marchers in the northwestern city of Minden today, according to police.

Police acted after demonstrators hurled stones at a group of far-right extremists walking past the city's Neuplatz, police said in a statement distributed by OTS newswire. The rear window of a squad car was broken.

The neo-Nazi march, which took place today between 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. local time, was initially forbidden by two German courts. The rulings were later overturned by the Federal Constitutional court, according to the statement.

Germany's upper house of parliament last year passed a bill to restrict rallies by neo-Nazis at sites associated with the Nazi regime in the 1930s and 1940s. The bill allows Germany's 16 states to pass laws to define their own historic sites.