German police detained hundreds of right-wing militants across the country at the weekend in an attempt to prevent marches and meetings in honour of Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, who died in British custody in Berlin 10 years ago yesterday. Neo-Nazis from Scandinavia and Germany were allowed to demonstrate in Denmark; clashes with left-wing activists predictably followed on Saturday, with almost 50 arrests.
Some neo-Nazi groups claim Hess was murdered by the Allies.
Near Berlin, right-wingers unfurled a banner across a motorway demanding "vengeance for Hess" whose suicide at the age of 93 in 1987 is contested by the far right who claim he was murdered by the British.
Appointed Hitler's deputy in 1932, Hess was effectively in charge of the Nazi party until 1941, when he parachuted into Scotland on a bizarre mission to make peace with Britain and press for an Anglo-German alliance against the Soviet Union.
He was captured after parachuting on to farmland in Scotland. Subsequently he was sentenced to life imprisonment by a post-war Allied tribunal and served out the rest of his days in an Allied jail, Spandau, in Berlin.
Since his death, the anniversary has become a ritual game of hide-and-seek between neo-Nazis and the police.
Late on Saturday, Germany's Supreme Court upheld a ban on Hess demonstrations, throwing out an appeal for permission to rally in Wunsiedel, the small Bavarian town where he is buried.
Police set up nationwide controls and road checks to thwart neo-fascist plans, co-ordinated in confidence on the Internet, to commemorate Hess.
More than 400 right-wingers were detained yesterday and on Saturday from Bavaria in the south to Schleswig-Holstein in the north. In the central state of Lower Saxony, more than 150 neo-Nazis were detained, while police in the eastern state of Thuringia remanded more than 90. In the western state of Hessen, another 94 neo-fascists were held and police recovered knives, flags, and banners.
In the east German city of Halle, around 40 left-wing demonstrators attacked about 50 right-wingers holding a small rally in the city centre to mark Hess's death. Five of the left-wingers were detained, police said.
Police in the western town of Solingen detained 34 left-wing activists who used the anniversary for an anti-Nazi protest.
Last year German police detained 160 right-wing activists on the ninth anniversary of Hess's death and hundreds of neo-Nazis battled with police in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.