Austin Davis

Special for USA TODAY

BERLIN — The controversy over a rally in Charlottesville, Va., by white supremacists and neo-Nazis still puzzles many Germans.

The country that gave rise to the Nazi's reign of terror doesn't understand why the United States — which sacrificed lives in World War II to defeat the Nazis — allows modern-day sympathizers a public platform to spread their racist and anti-Semitic views.

Such free speech is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution and fiercely defended. But in Germany, a Nazi salute — or any public display of the swastika and other Nazi insignia and slogans — is banned outright.

Recently, two Chinese tourists in Berlin were arrested for performing a Nazi salute in front of the parliament.

German police and domestic intelligence services track neo-Nazis and closely monitor even the smallest gatherings of right-wing radicals. The government even has exhumed prominent Nazis, such as Adolf Hitler's deputy chancellor, Rudolph Hess, and moved them to unmarked graves to prevent their tombs from becoming pilgrimage sites for neo-Nazis.

Even so, Germany struggles to constrain violent right-wing extremism, which some say only grows as a result of government repression.

"Simply to ban these people from expressing themselves isn't a good path. What we need is clear debate with these people. That would be democratic," said Berlin restaurateur Jürgen Fürgut, 45.

"It's going to remain a huge societal problem that will likely become even larger," said Bernd Wagner, founder of EXIT-Germany, an initiative that helps neo-Nazis start new lives after they've left extremist groups. Wagner said he has seen a steady rise in right-wing recruitment over the past two decades or more. "Nothing will come from stigmatization."

Germany's harsh legal restrictions against right-wing expression stem from its troubled past. The German constitution guaranties freedom of speech, but Germans believe the state has a responsibility to place social harmony above individual expression.

That's why courts imprison Holocaust deniers or ban Nazi symbols.

"A constitutional state is needed in order to protect those citizens and minorities who are in danger," said Hajo Funke, a political science professor at Berlin’s Free University who specializes in right-wing extremism and anti-Semitism. "It's all about ensuring that one respects diversity, that one respects minorities, and that every person is equal before the law."

Lawmakers have built upon those principles since the 1980s, Funke said, and now go so far as to require social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter to delete hateful posts. A law to that effect passed this year.

"I see these moves as critically important and very good because in my opinion they limit hate and the loss of rights," Funke said.

Such laws affect groups such as the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), which routinely disseminates racist posts. After a black legislator filed a criminal complaint Monday against those who made racist comments on a Facebook post by the party, NPD attorney Peter Richter told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle that its posts "may not please certain people."

The government failed twice in court to ban the party — the last attempt was struck down this year.

"The NPD won't allow itself to be muzzled. Nobody can forbid us from saying the truth," the party's national chairman, Frank Franz, said in a recent campaign ad. "We want freedom of expression, and we will protect our homeland against mass immigration and Islamic terrorism."

Some of the party's supporters see a blatant contradiction in the way their freedoms are constrained in a democratic society.

"This demand for so-called basic democratic values is so far removed from actual actions that such demands and reality no long have anything to do with one another," NPD supporter Siegfried Gärttner, 70, from the southern German city of Botenheim, said in a recent Facebook post. "Complacency and lies are the only recognizable character traits of the current political mix!"

The legal constraints have failed to stop violence by the far right. Since the arrival of more than 1 million refugees in Germany during the past two years, assaults on immigrants and other crimes by right-wing extremists have increased 42%, according to the Interior Ministry.

The refugee crisis also gave new impetus to the far-right political party Alternative for Germany (AfD). Founded in 2013 to oppose Europe's monetary union, the AfD more recently adopted a strong anti-immigrant, anti-Islam platform that has resonated with voters.

AfD lawmakers now sit in 13 of Germany's 16 state parliaments. They’re expected to enter the Bundestag, the federal parliament, for the first time after Germany holds general elections this month. The AfD current polls at 7% to 9% nationally and is in the running to become the country's third-largest party.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who championed an open-door policy for refugees, has since forged deals in the past year to slow or stop the influx of refugees to cater to conservative voters. But she also has issued strong condemnations against right-wing extremism.

As a result, the AfD's support has dropped from its double-digit highs last year. Yet numerous Germans still fear a loss of national identity, which fuels the far right.

"They think that population growth through immigration is destroying the German identity," Wagner said. "We should be more targeted in dealing with the ideology of right-wing extremists and developing new formats for discourse."

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