Moritz N. was the first from the Sylt Gröler group to apologize for the racist chants. The 25-year-old grew up in Kempten in the Allgäu, went to school there, his father is a doctor. And his school has a very special motto.
At first glance there is no doctor’s office visible. The house in Kempten im Allgäu, an independent city with around 70,000 inhabitants, fits seamlessly into the neighborhood and looks like a normal residential building. A small robot mows the lawn in the garden in front of the house, and in front of it gardeners trim the trees next to the sidewalk. The whitewashed house also houses the private practice of an ENT doctor, whose son has achieved notoriety in recent days.
Moritz N. plays a central role in a video that was recorded on the island of Sylt. In it, several people sing “Germany for the Germans, foreigners out” to the tune of “L’amour toujours” by Gigi D’Agostino. Moritz N. is one of them and even stands out in the video. When the camera pans to him, he has raised his right arm in the Hitler salute, while the fingers of his left hand suggest a mustache, probably intended as a so-called Hitler mustache. He also belts out the racist lyrics loudly.
“I don’t want to make a comment,” says his father, the ENT doctor, to the “Allgäuer Zeitung”. This also happens to protect his son. FOCUS online was unable to reach the Kempten doctor on Monday.
Previously, Moritz N. was the first from the Sylt group to apologize for his singing. “I want to publicly and sincerely apologize for what happened,” he wrote on social media on Saturday. “I apologize to anyone we may have hurt with this.” He made a “really bad mistake” that he couldn’t explain. He was drunk and what he said and showed did not reflect his inner attitude.
He was going public so that friends and relatives would not be held responsible for his mistake. His request: “Be angry with me, but not with my friends and relatives.” He can imagine that not everyone will accept his apology, writes N. But he was raised tolerant and cosmopolitan and also has many friends with a migrant background.
In his hometown, people in the neighborhood of his father’s doctor’s office don’t want to say anything to Moritz N. or say they don’t know him. Until recently, Moritz N. worked for a Munich advertising agency. A Serviceplan spokeswoman said: “The Serviceplan Group is a cosmopolitan company and lives its mission of strength through diversity in all of its Houses of Communication with 6,000 colleagues from more than 50 countries worldwide every day. Racism is not tolerated in any form within the agency group. When the incident became known, Serviceplan Group acted immediately and terminated without notice.”
At the now 25-year-old’s former school, the Allgäu-Gymnasium, there is a sign next to the entrance that reads “School without racism, school with courage”. Was Moritz N., who won a reading competition there in the 6th grade and also competed as a handball player for the school team, able to read and internalize the sign in his time?
N., who apparently turned himself in at a Munich police station, has already announced that he will face the legal consequences. These could be serious. One possible offence: using symbols of unconstitutional and terrorist organisations, such as the Hitler salute. This can result in a fine or up to three years in prison. Anyone found guilty of incitement to hatred can expect a prison sentence of up to five years.
In addition to N., the responsible state security department in Flensburg is also investigating two other people from the video and is checking whether investigations are being initiated against other people involved. Several of the people seen or heard in the video have already lost their jobs. These will not be the only consequences for the partygoers who suddenly started spreading racist slogans on Sylt.