SRF files reveal Swiss influence in Blood and Honour network

The Swiss branch of the far-right group Blood and Honour appears to have played a greater role than previously understood, according to investigative files reviewed by SRF. The documents come from German criminal proceedings involving suspects active in the 2010s.

German and Swiss leaders discussed reviving the network, with plans for concerts in Unterwasser in the Toggenburg region. The project, called “Reunion28” — a reference to the letters B and H in the alphabet — was part of a deliberate strategy, the files indicate.

After the organisation was banned in Germany, its existing structures in neighbouring countries helped shift some activities to Austria, Hungary and Switzerland, investigators wrote. The files describe Swiss leaders as influential in German internal decisions, efforts to rebuild the organisation’s division and the distribution of CDs. They also say Swiss figures had a decisive role in appointing section leaders.

Blood and Honour is an international far-right organisation that began in Britain in the 1980s. Its Swiss branch has been active since the 1990s. Music is central to the group, but it is also a neo-Nazi organisation that seeks to recruit members and spread its ideology, said Alexander Ritzmann, a researcher with the Counter Extremism Project. Calls for violence and some acts of violence are also part of its activities, he said.

The suspected killing in Tuggen has brought the network back into focus. After a concert by the German band Krawallbrüder at the venue The Bandits, several people became involved in a violent altercation in which a 27-year-old German man died. Authorities have said the suspected trigger was several people giving the Hitler salute. A 42-year-old Swiss man, suspected of belonging to Blood and Honour, is in pre-trial detention as prosecutors investigate the circumstances.

Journalist Anna Bursian, who has followed the far-right scene for years, said traces of the network lead to the upper Lake Zurich area around Tuggen, the Zurich Oberland and Valais. She said Blood and Honour clothing identifies recognised members and that the group is strongly hierarchical.

Recent signs of activity include people at the edge of a demonstration in Lucerne in May and images posted in an Active Club Telegram channel. The images, dated 24 August, showed a Blood and Honour flag at a joint boxing afternoon. Active Clubs are far-right groups that have only recently emerged in Switzerland.

Past events linked to the network include a concert in Thusis on 3 May 2026, attended by about 150 people, and a large concert in Unterwasser on 15 October 2016. About 5,000 neo-Nazis travelled to the latter, which organisers linked to Blood and Honour presented as a “Rocktoberfest.” Authorities and organisations later filed complaints alleging racial discrimination. In Neuchâtel in 2011, several dozen far-right activists attended a solstice celebration initiated by two nationalist groups; photographs showed some wearing Blood and Honour clothing and giving the Hitler salute.