Nazis march with a banner reading ‘Ich bereue nichts’ – I regret nothing – during a demonstration commemorating the 30th death anniversary Rudolf Hess in the district of Spandau in Berlin (Picture: EPA)

Hundreds of neo-Nazis took to the streets of Berlin to mark 30 years since the death of Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess.

Around 250 white supremacists marched from the Spandau suburb’s station to the former Spandau Prison – where Hess, an early ally of Adolf Hitler, served out the life sentence he was given at the post-war Nuremberg trials for war crimes.

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Far-right marchers held up banners reading ‘I regret nothing’, and hoisted the red, white and black flag of Hitler’s Third Reich as around 1,000 police officers looked on.

Neo-Nazis commemorate the 1987 prison suicide of Hitler’s one-time deputy every year.




However, this year’s rally has garnered more attention as it was held in the wake of the atrocity in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which 32-year-old anti-racist counter-protester Heather Heyer was killed.

The Nazi rally wasn’t banned, despite the display of Nazi symbols – such as the swastika – being strictly forbidden in Germany (Picture: EPA)

They marched from Spandau station to Spandau Prison, where Hess killed himself in 1987 (Picture: AP)

The extremists waved the flag of Hitler’s Third Reich as they marched (Picture: AP)

The Nazis were commemorating 30 years since the suicide of Rudolf Hess (Picture: EPA)

Anti-fascists gathered at the location of the Berlin vigil to protest, saying the Nazi rally should have been banned.

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‘It’s appalling that in the year 2017, Nazis can openly go on the streets for this deputy of Hitler,’ Gerhard Sattler, a protester, said.

‘This is impossible. The whole of German society must stand up against this.’

Photos also show police officers in riot gear violently detaining a counter-protester.

Nazis waved the red, white and black flag of Hitler’s Third Reich (Picture: EPA)

Far-right extremists wore Nazi symbols on their shirts as they marched (Picture: AP)

Symbols of the Nazi regime – such as the swastika flag – are already strictly banned in Germany.

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But Berlin’s senator for interior affairs said that banning the rally would have been impossible to reconcile with the political freedoms of a democracy.

‘I would have been delighted with a ban,’ interior affairs senator Andreas Geisel said.

‘But we looked very closely at the matter and concluded that, unfortunately, arseholes also get to benefit from democratic freedoms.’

Counter-protesters hold a peaceful demonstration against the Nazi march (Picture: EPA)

Several police officers in riot gear detain a counter-protester demonstrating against the Nazis (Picture: EPA)

People protest against the neo-Nazi demonstration (Picture: Reuters)

Hess was the last war criminal in Spandau Prison when he killed himself at the age of 93.

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He was appointed Hitler’s deputy when the Nazis came to power in 1933, a position he retained until 1941, when he flew to Britain alone because he believed Hitler wanted him to negotiate a peace deal between the two warring countries.

Hess spent the rest of the war in prison in Britain before he was convicted of crimes against the peace at Nuremberg.