User:Moswento/Hoffman Military Sports Group

The Hoffman Military Sports Group (Wehrsportgrupper Hoffman) was a West German neo-Nazi terrorist group that was established by Karl-Heinz Hoffman in the 1970s to overthrow the government and reinstate a nationalist regime. The organisation was outwardly a military games club, in order to circumvent the law forbidding the establishment of neo-Nazi groups.

There was a student branch of the organisation, known as the University Circle of Tübingen Students, which attached homosexuals, feminists and those associated with left-wing politics, including Apartheid protestors.

The Sports Group was officially banned by the the West German Federal Office for Defense of the Constitution on 30 January 1980.

In September 1980 a Sports Group member, Gundolf Köhler, was responsible for detonating a bomb at the Munich Oktoberfest, killing a dozen people and injuring a further 200. Hoffman himself was arrested for the incident, but released without charge after no evidence was found to link him to the attack.

Hoffman also promoted connections with Palestinian groups as a way of furthering the training of its members. In particular, he established a link with the Palestinian Liberation Organization in July 1980, as a result of which twenty Sports Group members spent time in PLO camps to receive training. He also agreed to ship military equipment to the PLO.

The Group's connections with the PLO caused significant legal difficulties, resulting in the arrest of both Hoffman and the twenty members trained in PLO camps. Hoffman was convicted in 1984 for money laundering and possessing illegal weapons. The sentence was originally nine and a half years, but this was reduced to five for good behaviour.

After Hoffman's release, he continued to have contact with Sports Group members, many of whom were still engaged in neo-Nazi activities with other organisations.