Pro Köln

<youtube size="medium" align="right" caption="Filip Dewinter at Pro Köln conference rally, May 2009">H5eyvZ3yr4I</youtube>
Bürgerbewegung pro Köln, also called simply Pro Köln, is based in Köln (Cologne) and has been described as a 'far right populist group'German city-dwellers resisting new mosque plans - magazine, Text of report by German news magazine Focus on 16 July [Report by Frank Hauke-Steller, Arno Heissmeyer, and Marco Wisniewski: "Islam: 'Places Under Shari'ah Law;' In the Catholic City of Cologne, in Berlin and Munich, Natives Are Resisting the Construction of Large Mosques"], BBC Monitoring Europe - Political, 128 July 2007.. Reportedly founded in 1996, it is part of the anti-Islam Pro Bürgerbewegung network (Bürgerbewegung means 'citizens' movement' in English).
==History==
It began in 1996 as an offshoot of the Nazi Deutsche Liga fur Volk und Heimat, started by Manfred Rouhs, whom Hope Not Hate calls a 'right-wing extremist' and Markus Beisicht, a 'fascist activist' and lawyer according to the same source. For years the group reportedly 'vegetated on the Nazi margins of the German right making little political impact and proving a flop at the electoral level'.The Counterjihad Movement: the global trend feeding anti-Muslim hate, Hope Not Hate, 2011, p63.
==Activities==
===Student newspaper Objectiv===
In 2006, the group backed the publishing of one issue of a xenophobic student publication called Objectiv before it was discontinued for lack of funding. 
The newspaper had several issues: 
*Pro Köln were accused of stealing pictures used in the 24-page publication, namely that of 'an attractive blond in a tank top and short skirt next to the slogan: "German is Hot!" ' which they allegedly failed to pay for. A spokesman for the company from where the photo originated said 'we've handed this over to our lawyers and will likely go to court' for copyright infringement, even though they had failed to contact Pro Köln. Manfred Rouhs, an official from Pro Köln responded to the allegations by saying:'I can definitely and officially say that no one has contacted us about copyright infringement,' although he could not explain why the photo had been removed from the group's website.
*The model used for the slogan 'German is hot' was actually a Czech lingerie model known online as 'Jaimy'.
*Many of the businesses that advertised in the first and only issue of the student publication now say they were unaware of its xenophobic nature, complaining they were duped by the group. One backer, the head of local dance school Schulerecki, said: 'we were approached about an ad in a student magazine. Once I had the thing in my hands I was shocked. We won't allow ourselves to be used to pull a right-wing extremist cart!' He also claimed he was looking into legal action. Armin Himmelrath, Far-Right Poster Girl Turns Out to Be Czech Erotic Model, Der Spiegel, September 01 2006. Accessed 11 October 2016. 
===Electoral advances via Pro NRW===
 
In December 2007, Der Spiegel reported that officials feared that Pro Köln would overtake their far-right rivals, the NPD, which had traditionally sought to ally with anti-Israel Muslims. 
::With their party Pro NRW [Pro North Rhine Westphalia], which has its roots in the association "Pro Koeln," the party chiefs Markus Beisicht and Manfred Rouhs are planning their leap into the North Rhine Westphalian Landtag [regional government] for 2010. In North Rhine Westphalian municipalities, almost a dozen Pro-Koeln branches have already been founded, which want to run in the 2009 municipal elections - among others, in Gelsenkirchen, Duisburg, Duesseldorf, Essen, and Bottrop. Where no new mosques are planned, we concentrate on the struggle against the existing ones, Beisicht says. The Cologne far-right populists have even set their sights on the capital: in October, functionaries had mass mails distributed in Berlin against a planned mosque in Charlottenburg and just in passing founded the civil movement "Pro Deutschland" [Pro Germany].German far-right trying to gain support for "anti-Islam" party, Text of report by independent German news magazine Der Spiegel website on 31 December, [Report by Andrea Brandt and Guido Kleinhubert: "Playing With Fear; Cologne Radicals Want To Enter the Parliaments With the First 'Anti-Islam Party' - Constitutional Protection Officials Are Alarmed - And so Is the NPD"], BBC Monitoring Europe - Political, 31 December 2007.
===Cologne anti-mosque campaigns===
In 2004 it reportedly gathered 28,000 signatures to oppose the city council's plans to construct a mosque. This in turn boosted the party in local elections in which it won four seats with 4.7% of the vote.
In 2007 Pro Köln was involved again in protests against mosque construction in Cologne.German city-dwellers resisting new mosque plans - magazine, Text of report by German news magazine Focus on 16 July [Report by Frank Hauke-Steller, Arno Heissmeyer, and Marco Wisniewski: "Islam: 'Places Under Shari'ah Law;' In the Catholic City of Cologne, in Berlin and Munich, Natives Are Resisting the Construction of Large Mosques"], BBC Monitoring Europe - Political, 128 July 2007. It claimed to have gathered 23,000 signatures in opposition to the building of a Central Mosque in the city's Ehrenfeld district but one third reportedly turned out to be fraudulent or invalid.
===Austrian Freedom Party, Front National and Vlaams Belang===
In November 2007, one of the group's leaders, Markus Beisicht, delivered a paper on the Cologne anti-mosque campaign to members of the Austrian Freedom Party at the Gothensaal in Graz. He invited members of the Freedom Party, the French Front National and Vlaams Belang to an 'Anti-Islam Congress' in Cologne the following September.German far-right trying to gain support for "anti-Islam" party, Text of report by independent German news magazine Der Spiegel website on 31 December, [Report by Andrea Brandt and Guido Kleinhubert: "Playing With Fear; Cologne Radicals Want To Enter the Parliaments With the First 'Anti-Islam Party' - Constitutional Protection Officials Are Alarmed - And so Is the NPD"], BBC Monitoring Europe - Political, 31 December 2007.
Pro Köln representatives attended an event titled "City policy between ideology and reality" hosted by the Austrian Freedom Party at the Eschenbach Palace in Vienna on 19 April 2007, along with members of Vlaams Belang and the French Front National. The tenor of the event was reflected in a statement by Koenrad Dillen of Vlaams Belang that "Islam is exerting a growing influence on Europe."Austrian Freedom Party hosts international event on "growing influence of Islam", Text of report by Austrian newspaper Der Standard on 21 April, BBC Monitoring Europe - Political, 23 April 2007.
===2008 Conference===
Pro Köln attempted to host an anti-Islam conference Anti-IslamisierungsKongress in Cologne on 19-20 September 2008, co-organised with Pro NRW and Cities Against Islamisation.The Counterjihad Movement: the global trend feeding anti-Muslim hate, Hope Not Hate, 2011, p60. However, around 50,000 people took part in protests against the event meaning fewer than 50 delegates were able to attend the conference on the second day.Richard Heister, German citizens protest against anti-Islam congress in Cologne, Agence-France Presse, 20 September 2008. Far-right representatives from Austria, Italy and Belgium had been due to attend to discuss 'foreign infiltration' and 'the false ideology of multiculturalism'.
===2009 Conference===
Pro NRW was due to host an 'anti-Islamisation conference' in Cologne on 8-10 May 2009.Anti-Islamisierungs-Kongress 2009, Pro-NRW, accessed via Web Archive 19 January 2015.
On 23 April, the Pro Köln website said that Pamela Geller, Lars Hedegaard and Paul Belien would be attending the conference.[http://www.pro-koeln-online.de/artikel09/230409_pam.htm Wilders-Vertraute Pamela Geller auf Pressekonferenz zum Anti-Islamisierungskongreß in Köln! BÜRGERBEWEGUNG PRO KÖLN E.V., 23 April 2009.
On 24 April, the conference website reported that Robert Spencer would be speaking at the event.Robert Spencer am 9. Mai in Köln, pro Köln - pro NRW Anti-Islamisierungskongress, accessed 26 April 2009. In a post on JihadWatch the same day, Spencer confirmed he had been invited but added "I have not confirmed that I will be attending, and am looking into the group and the people involved".Robert Spencer, Hamas-linked CAIR defames me again, again using libelblogger Charles Johnson's Little Green Footballs talking points, JihadWatch, 24 April 2009. The following day Pamela Geller wrote on her blog Atlas Shrugs that she would not be going to Cologne either.Pamela Geller, THE PUNK IS PUNKED! CHARLES JOHNSON OF LITTLE GREEN FOOTBALLS SCAMMED! FALLS FOR FAUXTOGRAPHY, Atlas Shrugs, 25 April 2009.
Other scheduled participants included: 
Markus Beisicht | Judith Wolter | Henry Nitzsche | Filip Dewinter | Robert Spieler | Harald Vilimsky | Andreas Mölzer | Carl Lang | Hilda Delobel
==='Anti-Islamisation' march after the Cologne attacks===
In January 2016, 1,700 far-right demonstrators (and roughly 1,300 counter-demonstrators) gathered in Cologne to march against 'Islamisation' and to protest the Cologne attacks from New Years eve. 
PEGIDA originally planned to march through the city together with members of the far-right party Pro Köln. But there were witnesses of some far-right protesters throwing bottles and firecrackers at police officers, who stopped the march, and Deutsche Welle reported that police used water cannon to disperse the protesters. Police deploy in force at Cologne demos, Deutsche Welle', 09 january 2016. Accessed 11 October 2016. 
==US 'CounterJihadists' on Pro Köln==
*Robert Spencer
::The background is this: I was invited to speak in Cologne, Germany, by the group Pro-Köln. [Charles] Johnson, who sees neo-Nazis hiding under his bed and behind the shrubbery, showed himself in top form, and immediately decided that this group must be neo-Nazi as well -- despite the fact that real neo-Nazis despise and repudiate them for their pro-Israel stance.Robert Spencer, Hamas-linked CAIR defames me again, again using libelblogger Charles Johnson's Little Green Footballs talking points, JihadWatch, 24 April 2009.
==Funding==
Der Speigel reported in 2007 that Pro Köln had received funding from businessman Guenther Kissel:
::Meanwhile, the Pro NRW people have found a financial supporter. Recently, the head of a Solingen construction company, Guenther Kissel, 90, joined the party. Earlier, the old man's company premises already played host to an event where British holocaust denier David Irving could tell his stories. However, Kissel draws a clear line between politics and private business activities: the company, which he founded and whose managing director he still is, is currently working on a project that does not quite fit in with the party's intentions. For an estimated 7 million euros, the construction company is building a large mosque in Duisburg-Marxloh.German far-right trying to gain support for "anti-Islam" party, Text of report by independent German news magazine Der Spiegel website on 31 December, [Report by Andrea Brandt and Guido Kleinhubert: "Playing With Fear; Cologne Radicals Want To Enter the Parliaments With the First 'Anti-Islam Party' - Constitutional Protection Officials Are Alarmed - And so Is the NPD"], BBC Monitoring Europe - Political, 31 December 2007.
==People==
*Markus Beisicht - NRW 'party chief' in 2007
*Manfred Rouhs - NRW 'party chief' in 2007German far-right trying to gain support for "anti-Islam" party, Text of report by independent German news magazine Der Spiegel website on 31 December, [Report by Andrea Brandt and Guido Kleinhubert: "Playing With Fear; Cologne Radicals Want To Enter the Parliaments With the First 'Anti-Islam Party' - Constitutional Protection Officials Are Alarmed - And so Is the NPD"], BBC Monitoring Europe - Political, 31 December 2007..
==Affiliations== 
*Freedom Party (FPÖ), Austria - 'close links'
*Vlaams Belang (VB), Belgium - 'close links'
*Pro Bürgerbewegung
*Bürgerbewegung pro Deutschland
*Bürgerbewegung pro Berlin
*Bürgerbewegung pro NRW
*PEGIDA
==Contact==
*Website: http://pro-koeln.org/
==External Resources==
*Anna Reiman, Far-Right Mobilizes against Cologne Mega-Mosque, Der Spiegel, 19 June 2007.
*Andrea Brandt and Guido Kleinhubbert, Anti-Islamic Party Is Playing With Fear, 3 January 2008.
*Charles Hawley, How Islamophobes Launched a National Debate, SpeigelOnline, 1 June 2012.
==Notes==
Category:GermanyCategory:CounterjihadCategory:Islam Critics