Reservists group expels five over far-right links

Five members of a reservists’ group in Eichstätt, Upper Bavaria, have been expelled after an investigation found links to the far-right scene, BR reported. At least six long-standing members of the group had attracted attention for extremist activities, according to evidence obtained by BR.

Some of those members had reportedly been active in the militant neo-Nazi scene for decades. One was convicted of incitement to hatred in 2016. The former soldiers may also have taken part in military training organised by the reservists’ association.

Association says continued membership was unacceptable

The Federal Association of Reservists told BR that it had expelled five people from the Eichstätt group. It did not disclose details, but said continuing their memberships had become unacceptable.

The expulsions followed a summer 2025 event organised by the Kurt Eisner Association in Eichstätt and a subsequent social media post by Sarah Vollath, a Bundestag member from the Left Party. The post publicly highlighted links between individual reservists and right-wing networks for the first time.

Vollath said the reservists’ association contacted her after the post and visited her office in Berlin. She said the association had taken the matter very seriously and appeared determined not to tolerate far-right extremists among its members.

Former chairman also under scrutiny

The association issued extraordinary terminations to five people in early June after several months of investigation. According to BR, six members of the Eichstätt group had attracted attention. The association declined to say why one of them was not expelled.

The group’s former chairman also appears to be under scrutiny. He declined to comment, saying the matter was part of ongoing proceedings. He also did not answer why members known to be far-right extremists had been tolerated in the group for so long. The chairmanship has recently been listed as vacant on the group’s website, despite a new election in March.

Links to neo-Nazi networks

BR found that some of the reservists had been active in the neo-Nazi scene since the 1990s, in some cases around Blood and Honour, an organisation banned in 2000. One of the Eichstätt reservists posed in a Hammerskins T-shirt as recently as two years ago. Hammerskins is a neo-Nazi network that operates in a similar way to Blood and Honour.

BR also obtained numerous online posts in which individual reservists attacked democratic politicians and expressed support for far-right politicians from the Alternative for Germany and for the neo-Nazi party NPD, now known as Die Heimat. At a demonstration, one of them displayed a banner reading: “We love this country, but despise this state.”

Vollath said former soldiers were likely to have received weapons training and did not rule out that some might hold firearms licences. She warned that they could have relatively easy access to weapons despite seeking to overthrow Germany’s liberal democratic constitutional order.

Former Bundeswehr soldiers are automatically considered reservists until the age of 65, although not all join the reservists’ association. The organisation currently has more than 110,000 former Bundeswehr soldiers as members and organises military instruction, marches and shooting exercises, some of them on Bundeswehr premises.