“It's up to you not to get upset when a German pees in your cornflakes”

One of the driving forces of neo-Nazism in Germany, Jürgen Rieger, has died after suffering a stroke, his far-right National Democratic Party announced on its website Friday morning.

• Westerwelle’s taboo travels - Analysis & Opinion (15 Mar 10)
• Neo-Nazi party given green light to target school children - National (6 Feb 10)
• Politicians renew calls for NPD ban - Politics (1 Feb 10)

The 63-year-old Hamburg lawyer and NPD deputy chairman had been in a coma since Saturday night, when he suffered a stroke at a meeting of the party’s leadership in Berlin.

He was rushed to hospital, where his condition steadily worsened.

Rieger’s son Harald said the family was considering a cremation or a burial at sea because they did not want his grave to become a neo-Nazi pilgrimage site.

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), a government agency that monitors extremists, said Rieger’s death was a serious blow for the far-right movement.

Rieger was a key fund-raiser for the cash-strapped NPD, which was slapped with a €1.27 million fine in May for accounting irregularities.

The BfV’s Lower Saxony president, Günter Heiß, said on Friday that Rieger’s death would leave a hole in the far right scene that could not be quickly filled.

“I don’t see any such prominent personality,” he said. “Rieger was a one-of-a-kind phenomenon in right-wing extremism, because he was hyperactive in many areas. He was on the go, around the clock, on right-wing extremist issues.

“He was unbelievably hard-working.”

Rieger was particularly energetic in attempting to acquire property for far-right activities. He made news in August when he tried to buy an old hotel to convert into a neo-Nazi training centre in Lower Saxony, sparking a tense standoff between right-wing extremists and police.

Rieger was thought to have contributed several hundred thousand euros to far-right causes. But Heiß said it was not clear whether any of his assets, estimated at about €500,000, would be bequeathed to the NPD.

1. Audi blasts past French speed trap at 300 kph »
2. Two dead in bus crash caused by coughing fit »
3. Neo-Nazis resort to subtler tactics »
4. Police say opera singer hid death of missing fisherman husband »
5. Addiction expert warns over ignorance of shisha smoke dangers »

1. Neo-Nazis resort to subtler tactics »
2. German arms exports double in five years »
3. France attacks hefty German trade surplus »
4. Audi blasts past French speed trap at 300 kph »
5. Dutch populist Wilders 'unwelcome' in Eifel town »

• 02/11 Berlin blasts landmark tower
• 12/12 An unlikely German hero for the British press
• 11/19 More Hitler bollocks from The Sun
• 09/27 The Trib's guide to Brangelina spotting
• 09/18 European single market? Not on iTunes