On an October morning in 2024, security footage captured two hooded figures throwing Molotov cocktails at a refugee accommodation center in Neu-Hohenschönhausen, Berlin. No one was injured in the attack and the damage was minimal. The assailants were later identified as being members of an underground “Active Club,” in Germany. These decentralized organizations blend physical fitness with neo-Nazi ideology, covertly transforming gyms, combat sports tournaments, and Telegram chats into breeding grounds for radicalization.
Germany is currently dealing with a quickly growing radical far-right movement. The Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has surged in popularity, now firmly established as the second most popular party nationwide. In the 2025 elections they achieved the highest result for a far-right party in Germany since the Second World War. Hate crime numbers have also risen, with nearly 70% of the 23,000 politically motivated offenses in 2023 linked to far-right extremists. Active Clubs are a particularly violent and militant strain of this growing movement. They are well-organised and composed predominantly of young men.
German democracy is facing some of its most significant challenges in decades—including two serious coup plots foiled in the past three years. In the context of all this, what threat does the Active Club movement pose?
What Are Active Clubs?
The modern Active Club scene is believed to have taken shape in 2019, influenced by the Rise Above Movement (RAM)—an American neo-Nazi street fighting group led by Rob Rundo that used mixed martial arts as a tool for radicalization and training of young radicals.
These clubs primarily serve the practical purpose of preparing individuals to physically defend themselves during clashes with leftists or the state. Fostering a sense of community for their members is also a big part of the work they do and why they have found it easy to appeal to many young people.
The emphasis on self-improvement and physical training speaks to many, particularly in an era where youth globally are suffering at unprecedented levels from loneliness and depression. Active Clubs have capitalized on this alienation and present their ideologies as an alternative to mainstream society.
German extremist organizations, particularly neo-Nazi and ultranationalist groups like The Third Way and the National Democratic Party (NPD), began adopting the Active Club model around 2021–2022. In 2021, an investigation by German antifascist researchers uncovered a far-right Telegram channel called “Kampfgeist Deutschland” (“Fighting Spirit Germany”), which different Active Clubs were using to coordinate their activities. Leaked messages showed organizers discussing their clubs as a “decentralized solution” to evade surveillance. Activities like running a boxing gym or hiking with friends were legally ambiguous and harder to police.
The movement has grown most rapidly in eastern Germany, particularly in Saxony, Brandenburg, and Berlin, where the far-right was already strong, and there was an already very active neo-Nazi scene.
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), reported in 2022 that far-right extremist circles were shifting toward smaller, decentralized cells, with specific mentions of Active Clubs as a growing concern.
Cultural Roots
The fusion of physical fitness and far-right ideology in Germany has deep historical roots. Even during the Nazi era, there was a strong emphasis on athleticism and combat training as a way to demonstrate so-called racial superiority. Today’s Active Clubs tap into this legacy and see themselves as the last physical vanguard “defending” European culture.
A core basis of Active Club ideology is the belief in a “crisis of European manhood.” They argue that modern society has emasculated young men and tore them away from traditional values. This type of rhetoric can resonate with young people disillusioned with modern life. This is how young men (almost always men) are easily drawn toward a lifestyle centered on physical strength and a sense of purpose.
Far-right propaganda exploits modern-day anxieties and frames Active Clubs’ far-right values as the natural antidote to the alienation many people feel. Through their messaging, they offer a disciplined alternative to modern society. Their numbers continue to grow as they push the idea that modernity and multiculturalism have weakened European identity.
Rapid Growth of Active Clubs (2022–Present)
Far-right groups in Germany use Telegram, Gab, and Wire to disseminate propaganda and expand their networks. The COVID-19 pandemic provided a significant recruitment opportunity, as isolation and a growth of belief in conspiracy theories created a fertile ground for radicalization.
As lockdowns lifted, Active Clubs in Berlin and Leipzig intensified their recruitment efforts. One avenue for recruitment has been right-wing music festivals and MMA tournaments. One of the most notorious groups to emerge from this period is the “Schwarze Fauste” (“Black Fists”) in Berlin. SF has a focus on anti-immigrant and antisemitic ideology. Its members have staged several small, unannounced demonstrations under the banner “No to the Great Replacement”—a widely circulated far-right conspiracy theory that claims white Europeans are being systematically replaced by immigrants.
In a 2024 interview with Der Spiegel, a former Active Club member, identified as Lukas, described how he became involved:
At first, it felt like we were just a group of guys trying to better ourselves. Then they started talking about who our real enemies were, and everything changed.
Far-right MMA tournaments, such as “Kampf der Nibelungen”, have become key hubs for Active Club recruitment. These events are often frequented by members of the far-right with an interest in combat sports so they are really the perfect breeding ground for Active Clubs.
Far-right extremists in Germany have also used the active club model in other sports such as with football clubs like Blau-Weiss Lindenau. This amateur football club based in Brandenburg was taken over by the well known neo-Nazi Sebastian Raack, who also owns his own far-right music label and clothing brand. Raack took over the club in 2016 and has used it since as a means of putting on community events and growing the town’s far-right networks. Blau-Weiss Lindenau has been criticised for fielding players with ties to extremist groups, some of which publicly display neo-Nazi tattoos whilst playing. This football club follows the Active Club playbook by using sport as a means of recruitment and a building block for far-right networks.
Notable Incidents
In 2022, a Telegram channel called “Wolfschaar,” linked to an Active Club in Brandenburg, posted videos of members training—not in traditional martial arts but in knife fighting and street combat tactics, highlighting the real-world objectives of these groups: preparation for violent confrontation. In 2024, two Active Club members were arrested in connection with the aforementioned firebombing of a refugee accommodation center in Neu-Hohenschönhausen, Berlin. A police raid of the assailants’ homes afterwards uncovered neo-Nazi literature and homemade explosives. This demonstrated that many of these Active Clubs are intent on direct acts of terror in the real world outside of their gyms. Just one week after the attack, 150 far-right extremists, many affiliated with Active Clubs, marched through the streets of Marzahn, wearing balaclavas and chanting “Defend Our Nation.” The demonstration quickly descended into violent clashes when antifascist counter-demonstrators arrived. The Berlin Police reported 39 arrests, with some of those detained found carrying knives, bats, and knuckle dusters. A month earlier, a far-right strategy meeting had been held in Thuringia, organized by a group called MetaPol. This gathering brought a broad spectrum of Germany’s far right together, including neo-Nazi leaders, Active Club representatives, and members of the AfD. At the meeting, these networks discussed strategies for destabilizing German democracy, including the role of Active Clubs in escalating street-level violence.
German Active Clubs have also formed alliances with extremist groups abroad, including “White Rex” in Russia and the “Rise Above Movement” in the United States. These links are often born and established at in-person events such as no-rules fight clubs and far-right MMA tournaments, which also can serve as recruiting grounds. In 2023, a group of Berlin Active Club members traveled to Hungary to train with a far-right paramilitary group, a revelation that sparked outrage across Germany. Antifascist researchers identified many of those involved, which prompted a police inquiry and calls for stricter monitoring of German far-right groups’ international activities. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) issued a warning that German extremists are actively seeking combat training abroad with foreign groups.
Government and Civil Society Response
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), has classified Active Clubs as a “new, hybrid threat.” In a 2024 statement, the agency warned, “These groups are hard to detect but extremely dangerous.” Because Active Clubs are not formal organizations but are more like loose networks, they are far more difficult to track and dismantle than traditional extremist groups who might have a visual presence at demos, release statements, or possibly even have social media pages. Unlike established far-right parties or militant organizations, they lack clear leadership hierarchies; instead, they operate underground and communicate primarily through encrypted messaging apps like Telegram and Wire.
Independent Antifascist groups have taken a leading role in tracking and exposing Active Clubs. Organizations like Antifa Berlin and Antifa-Nordost have been monitoring, documenting, and publishing information about Active Clubs publicly. Their reports go as far as publicly naming their members, training locations, and ideological strategies. By exposing these groups and posting names and photos of the members, antifascist networks hope to deter potential sympathizers from joining. However, this has resulted in increased violence between Active Clubs and Anti-Fascist groups. The term “Anti-Fascist” groups is extremely broad and can refer to a huge decentralised movement in Germany, much of which is violent and much of which is not. However, there have been increased clashes between members of the far-right and people who identify as anti-fascist in the last year, including an attack by 20 members of The Third Way on a group of anti-fascists at Berlin’s Ostkreuz train station (one of its busiest), which left three people hospitalized.
In 2024, the Interior Ministry increased funding for counter-extremism programs, aiming to de-radicalize youth and provide alternative pathways for at-risk individuals. However, many argue that these efforts remain insufficient, particularly as Active Clubs continue to recruit and grow with little interference from law enforcement.
Until authorities and civil society groups find effective ways to counteract this movement—through intelligence operations, legal action, and grassroots anti-radicalization efforts—Active Clubs will continue to grow. These networks are quite resilient in Germany and have much more fertile ground to grow in 2025 with the shifting Zeitgeist in Germany. The 2025 election results show a clear surge of far-right conservative politics with no signs of it slowing down.
Ethan Rooney is an Irish journalist specializing in global conflict and political extremism, with a focus on how both intersect with subcultural movements.