Neo-Nazis will likely be granted permission to hold a rally outside Berlin on Saturday to mark the 30th anniversary of the death of Adolf Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess.

Local authorities said the planned rally did not fulfill the prerequisites required to ban such an event under freedom of assembly rules, the daily Berliner Morgenpost reported.

The neo-Nazis will be heavily limited in the words and symbols they can use, given strict laws against the glorification of Germany's Nazi past.

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The rally organizers warned its attendees not to bring images or recordings of Rudolf Hess. Organizers also told potential attendees to avoid using certain specific phrases that glorified Hess, such as "His faith was stronger than prison and pain."

It presented its attendees with a code of behavior including bans on media interviews, alcohol, mobile phones and allied military clothing.

Hess hanged himself with an electrical extension cord in Spandau prison at the age of 93. The prison was demolished soon afterwards to avoid it becoming a far-right shrine and his remains were initially buried in a secret location.

The men who led Nazi Germany Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945) As Hitler's Propaganda Minister, the virulently anti-Semitic Goebbels was responsible for making sure a single, iron-clad Nazi message reached every citizen of the Third Reich. He strangled freedom of the press, controlled all media, arts, and information, and pushed Hitler to declare "Total War." He and his wife committed suicide in 1945, after poisoning their six children.

The men who led Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) The leader of the German National Socialist Workers' Party (Nazi) developed his anti-Semitic, anti-communist and racist ideology well before coming to power as Chancellor in 1933. He undermined political institutions to transform Germany into a totalitarian state. From 1939 to 1945, he led Germany in World War II while overseeing the Holocaust. He committed suicide in April 1945.

The men who led Nazi Germany Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945) As leader of the Nazi paramilitary SS ("Schutzstaffel"), Himmler was one of the Nazi party members most directly responsible for the Holocaust. He also served as Chief of Police and Minister of the Interior, thereby controlling all of the Third Reich's security forces. He oversaw the construction and operations of all extermination camps, in which more than 6 million Jews were murdered.

The men who led Nazi Germany Rudolf Hess (1894-1987) Hess joined the Nazi party in 1920 and took part in the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, a failed Nazi attempt to gain power. While in prison, he helped Hitler write "Mein Kampf." Hess flew to Scotland in 1941 to attempt a peace negotiation, where he was arrested and held until the war's end. In 1946, he stood trial in Nuremberg and was sentenced to life in prison, where he died.

The men who led Nazi Germany Adolf Eichmann (1906-1962) Alongside Himmler, Eichmann was one of the chief organizers of the Holocaust. As an SS Lieutenant colonel, he managed the mass deportations of Jews to Nazi extermination camps in Eastern Europe. After Germany's defeat, Eichmann fled to Austria and then to Argentina, where he was captured by the Israeli Mossad in 1960. Tried and found guilty of crimes against humanity, he was executed in 1962.

The men who led Nazi Germany Hermann Göring (1893-1946) A participant in the failed Beer Hall Putsch, Göring became the second-most powerful man in Germany once the Nazis took power. He founded the Gestapo, the Secret State Police, and served as Luftwaffe commander until just before the war's end, though he increasingly lost favor with Hitler. Göring was sentenced to death at Nuremberg but committed suicide the night before it was enacted. Author: Cristina Burack



Rally organizers claim that the official version of Hess's death is a conspiracy and are calling for a public inquiry into his death. Conspiracy theorists claim Hess was murdered by British spies.

More than 500 neo-Nazis were expected to attend the event, local paper Spandauer Volksblatt reported. The march was met with wide resistance but authorities were unable to prevent the march.

Powerless to stop march

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Spandau member of the Bundestag Kai Wegner had called on Berlin state Interior Minister Andreas Geisel to ban the march.

"I deplore the decision of Interior Minister Geisel to let the right-wing extremists march through Spandau," Wegner was quoted as saying by Spandauer Volksblatt.

"The so-called Rudolf Hess memorial marches in Wunsiedel were consistently banned from 2005, and the Federal Constitutional Court has upheld this practice," Wegner continued, referring to the rallies held at Hess's second burial place.

Hess' grave in Bavaria was demolished to prevent it from becoming a shrine for the far-right

He said freedom of assembly was of great importance, "but a democratic society does not have to please a neo-Nazi march."

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But Geisel said there were no legal grounds to ban the rally. Several counter demonstrations were planned.

Hess was an early and loyal support of Hitler, even helping him write his hateful autobiography, Mein Kampf. Hess was Nazi Germany's third most powerful person, and his office helped draft the anti-Semitic 1935 Nuremberg Laws that formed the precursor to the Holocaust.

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He was arrested in 1941 after he flew a solo mission to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate with an opposition party.