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The Informationsdienst gegen Rechtsextremismus (IDGR) has been a German project on the Internet set up to counter anti-Semitism, right wing extremism and Holocaust denial with information about them. Founded in 1998 by political scientist Margret ChatwinCite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). This initiative was founded by the German Gouvernment in 2000 and is led by representatives of civil society, economy, science, and members of all parties of the Bundestag.

The IDGR also was suggested as a reliable source by Andreas Klärner, sociologist and author working among others for the Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung of Jan Philip Reemtsma, in 2004. Klärner only criticised the decision of the editor not to link to sources on right wing extremist pages.

Criticism

Persons associated with the German New Right (Neue Rechte) and the right wing of the Christian Democratic Union accused the IDGR of trying to defame democrats by linking them with right-wing extremism for ideological reasons. Claus Wolfschlag, an author of the weekly Junge Freiheit, has criticised the IDGR as serving mainly to expose and defame personalities on the political right. He and others also view some of the IDGR's authors as left-wing extremists.

Closure

After some of the former co-authors had left the project and founded a new project called redok, Margret Chatwin closed the IDGR in September 2006. In her final statement she gave as reasons: The idea of the Internet to provide and exchange free information for everyone had been distortet and commercialised. Later, she added:

Im übrigen sei darauf hingewiesen, dass es kein wie auch immer geartetes "Nachfolgeprojekt" gibt. Tatsächlich hat sich der kleine Zirkel, der dies öffentlich behauptet, bereits vor Jahren aus eigener Entscheidung vom IDGR abgewandt, um ein gänzlich anderes Projekt zu realisieren. Mit dem IDGR hat dieses Projekt in keiner Weise zu tun, schließlich fehlt es diesem an der entscheidenden Substanz – den Inhalten, die zu etwa 90 Prozent von der einstigen Herausgeberin verfasst wurden.

Also it is to be noted that there is no follow-up-project in any way. In fact, the small circle claiming this in public has already decided on its own years ago to leave IDGR and founded a totally different project. This project has nothing to do with the IDGR, it lacks the essential substance of it - the contents which were written to about 90 percent by the former editor.

References

1. Bündnis für Demokratie und Toleranz: Wir über uns
2. Beirat des Bündnisses für Demokratie und Toleranz
3. Andreas Klärner
4. Andreas Klärner: Recension about IDGR for H-Soz-Kult, 23. Januar 2004 (German)
5. Junge Freiheit author's list, March 3, 2006
6. Macht ihnen ihr soziales Umfeld zur Hölle, (make their social setting hell) by C.-M. Wolfschlag, February 28, 2003
7. Final declaration of Margret Chatwin

Further reading

• Albrecht Kolthoff: Der Informationsdienst gegen Rechtsextremismus (IDGR). In: Stephan Braun, Daniel Hörsch (Hrsg.): Rechte Netzwerke - eine Gefahr. VS - Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden, 2004, S. 231-242. ISBN 3-8100-4153-X (in German)

• Anti-neo-Nazi activism
• Holocaust denial