"Pickpockets, scammers and con artists are stealing money from the pockets of Berliners and especially our unsuspecting tourists," reads the call for a demonstration on the Telegram channel of the far-right German Youth Voran. However, the demonstration was registered by the Berlin branch of Heimat - formerly the NPD - as the police reported on request. The youth organization of the neo-Nazi party, the Young Nationalists, are also mentioned in the call. The campaign demonstrates the now close connection between older neo-Nazi cadres and young right-wing extremists. Political scientist Alexander Ritzmann [CEP Senior Advisor] sees this alliance as a result of the crisis that Die Heimat has been in for years. This is expressed above all in declining membership figures. Deutsche Jugend Voran, on the other hand, which was founded last year, was also looking for orientation.

“Intelligence agencies want to be aware of extremist networks that exist in their countries,” said Joshua Fisher-Birch, a terrorism analyst at the Counter Extremism Project, about active clubs, “their potential for current or future violence, and what links they may have to other movements and individuals, both domestically and internationally.” Already, there’s been evidence of that international coordination coming to light. “The neo-Nazi skinhead group the Hammerskins has had members in both the US and Canada, and more recently, the accelerationist groups the Atomwaffen Division and the Base have had members in both countries,” said Fisher-Birch, referring to two other groups that had transnational criminal networks.

Terrorism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler, director of the Counter Extremisms Project (CEP) in Berlin, sees a worrying trend: "The willingness to use violence in the right-wing extremist scene is increasing significantly," he said in an interview with the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper published by Ippen.Media.

"This is not your average neo-Nazi group. They don't act suddenly. Their strategy is to grow, so when a leader they can support emerges, they can protect him," says Alexander Ritzmann. "That's why I call them a 'shadow militia'. Because they want to show the authorities that they are just racists who play sports. The background, however, is completely different," he says. Alexander Ritzmann has been researching extremism for several years at the American organization Counter Extremism Project. In his research, Active Clubs have made an impression on him in recent years, while branches have spread from the United States to Europe.

However, it was not the last movement with neo-Nazi ideology that Robert Rundo would be behind. In 2016, at the age of 26, Rundo co-founded the Rise Above Movement (RAM), an organization that would become the precursor to Active Club. According to Alexander Ritzmann, an international expert on extremism and researcher at the Counter Extremism Project, RAM quickly got into trouble with the police. "The Rise Above Movement openly incited violence and was involved in some minor acts of violence. They experienced a very harsh reaction from the authorities," explains Alexander Ritzmann.

According to Fisher-Birch, giving the green light for such ideas to be shared freely made the platform into a “bullhorn” for right-wing extremists.

The analyst also noted that this situation was the right time for Substack to review its terms of service and guidelines and ensure that hate speech and discrimination are prohibited.

However, he believes the platform will continue to tolerate such content, reminding us of its failure to follow “limited community guidelines” in 2024. During that time, a white supremacist blog urged violence against Jewish people, which was reported by the Counter Extremism Project (CEP).

“Due to police raids, arrests, and convictions for violent actions in the past, (the neo-Nazi youth group) Deutsche Jugend Voran is in an existential crisis with a high turnover of membership," explains Alexander Ritzmann from the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) in an interview with the Berliner Morgenpost. “The state's actions seem to have led to stagnation or declining numbers at demonstrations.”

Joshua Fisher-Birch, researcher and content review specialist for the Counter Extremism Project, is all about that Base, as in the international Neo-Nazi group he’s been tracking in the U.S. and on foreign battlefields.

CEPs Alexander RItzmann highlighted that the core of the new youth neo-Nazi groups appears to radicalize offline, through interactions with friends, at sports events, during demonstrations, or within the family. Their hyper-visibility on TikTok or Instagram does not necessarily indicate that this is an online phenomenon. An online-focused prevention approach would therefore not be sufficient.