Sparkasse and GLS Bank are terminating all of Rote Hilfe’s accounts in Germany. The more than hundred-year-old left-wing solidarity organisation suspects pressure from the United States: It came after a supposed “Antifa Ost” has now also been placed on a US “terror list”. But the German Communist Party and Anarchist Black Cross were also targeted recently.
Interview by Jule Meier
Alex Schneider is a spokesperson for the Berlin local group of Rote Hilfe and has been active there for several years.
GLS Bank has terminated Rote Hilfe’s accounts. What is behind this?
Apparently, GLS Bank is successively closing the accounts of organisations from the radical left. Before us, this had already happened to the German Communist Party and the Anarchist Black Cross. In our case, the bank initially asked for more detailed information about our work, which our executive board provided. Then came the termination of all our accounts. Shortly beforehand, the Sparkasse in Göttingen had also closed one of our accounts.
How were these terminations justified?
Not at all, or only with vague references to general terms and conditions and a regulatory framework. However, we suspect a connection with the fact that the US government has declared “Antifa Ost” a terrorist organisation and offered a reward of $10 million for information relating to its financing. “Antifa Ost” is also on a sanctions list.
Does Rote Hilfe finance “Antifa Ost”?
That’s nonsense! If only because “Antifa Ost” is merely a construct spun by the German judiciary with the help of a dubious crown witness. There is no organisation called “Antifa Ost”. The authorities rely on the notorious Section 129 to prosecute antifascists, enabling them to deploy all kinds of investigative powers in such proceedings.
The Federal Prosecutor General blows a few physical attacks on active Nazis up into a threat to the Federal Republic of Germany and stages trials before higher regional courts as a means of maximum deterrence. This construct is now being used by the Trump administration to act against left-wing structures in Europe. Hand in hand with Hungary, whose judiciary invokes this organisational phantom in order to lock up Maja, an antifascist activist, for decades.
How, then, is Rote Hilfe connected to these proceedings?
Rote Hilfe organises solidarity across political currents against state repression. That means we also support accused antifascists. An adequate defence in such state security trials, with tens of thousands of pages of files, requires money for lawyers, expert opinions, and so on. We enable relatives to attend trials and cover, for example, travel costs.
But we are not a pure antifascist aid association either. We support climate activists who are taken to court over acts of civil disobedience; comrades who take to the streets against the genocide in Gaza and are beaten by the police for doing so; feminists who organise against reactionary opponents of abortion. Or people who resist racial profiling and are then slapped with baseless charges by the police. Most of these criminal proceedings end up being dropped. Nevertheless, those affected would still have to pay their legal fees themselves if we did not provide assistance.
If you are not financing “the Antifa”, why are your accounts being terminated anyway?
Because this is not about facts that can be proven or disproven. The politically motivated classification of “Antifa Ost” by the US government alone creates a risk for the bank. We show solidarity with the people being persecuted under this label, and the bank fears coming under pressure itself if it continues to work with us. Even a bank that describes itself as socially responsible then decides against taking that risk.
In the case of the DKP (the German Communist Party), this is even clearer: a fundraising campaign for Cuba presumably provided the trigger for the termination. This “debanking” is a massive attack on left-wing structures.
What does this mean for leftists who urgently need money now because they have to pay procedural costs?
First of all, our assets have not been seized. We are an association that operates in accordance with the law and will defend ourselves legally. There are good precedents for this: Berliner Sparkasse attempted to terminate the account of the left-wing “Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East”, but failed. The GLS termination will only take effect at the end of February; until then, we can continue working as before.
Rote Hilfe finances itself mainly through membership fees. Does the loss of the account endanger the organisation’s continued existence?
The termination of the account is a serious attack on Rote Hilfe, no question. But we do much more than simply distribute funds. We provide political support, advise comrades affected by repression, and connect them with good, solidarity-based lawyers. Rote Hilfe will definitely continue to exist and will continue to support politically persecuted people financially. We will work out exactly how.
Was it a mistake to rely on banks?
To collect contributions from well over 10,000 members nationwide with a reasonable amount of effort, we—like any organisation of similar size—depend on banks. Having an account is not a privilege even for an association, but in practice a fundamental prerequisite for actually exercising the freedom of association guaranteed by the Basic Law.
How can people support your organisation now?
We are, of course, grateful for solidarity of any kind, both with Rote Hilfe and with all comrades affected by repression. I think we can only encourage leftists in general to become active themselves, whether in work against state repression or in other fields. Times are getting tougher. It is time to take action.
GLS responded to an inquiry from “nd” as follows: “Unfortunately, we cannot provide any information about accounts or customers, as these are subject to banking secrecy. As a bank, we bear a special responsibility and legal obligations, particularly with regard to data protection and banking secrecy. We are very aware that the continuation of account relationships is important for customers.”
Published in German in „nd“.
Image: Repression against protest in July 2025 in Berlin (Montecruz Foto).
