Genius Activists Trick Neo-Nazi Parade Into Raising $12,000 for Charity
How do you turn the traditional neo-Nazi march that passes through your small town every year into a good thing? If you're the residents of Wunsiedel, in Bavaria, Germany, you turn their hate parade into an involuntary walkathon, so that every step they take raises more money for an anti-fascist charity.
As the former burial site of Rudolph Hess, Hitler's deputy führer, Wunsiedel is hallowed ground for far-right extremists, who gather there annually to march. This year, fed up with the intrusion, residents and activists organized Rechts gegen Rechts (rights against rights), pledging to donate €10, or about $12.50, to the organization EXIT Deutschland for every meter the marchers walked. EXIT's mission: to provide assistance to people who'd like to drop out of extreme right-wing communities and organizations.
"The further they march, the more money is collected," says the narrator of a video about the stunt below. "In other words, for every step they take, the neo-Nazis campaign against neo-Nazis, and unwittingly finance more and more defections from the extremist scene."
Organizers painted markers along the route to make marchers aware of the money they raised, hung banners with slogans like "If only the Führer knew," and distributed bananas to ensure the extremists made it to their goal. By the end of the march, they'd raised €10,000, or about $12,500.