German libraries up defences against far-right attack

Defaced and destroyed, books torn up and political messages scrawled across their pages: the evidence of an alleged far-right vandalism spree at a city library in Berlin covers an entire table.

Defaced and destroyed, books torn up and political messages scrawled across their pages: the evidence of an alleged far-right vandalism spree at a city library in Berlin covers an entire table.

"The first reaction was confusion, then outrage, when we realised what had happened here," Boryano Rickum, chief librarian for Tempelhof-Schoeneberg district, told AFP.

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The incident - the work of a single suspect - was not however a one off.

The library at Berlin's Technical University is also thought to have been targeted by far-right vandalism, while elsewhere extremists have crashed events and threatened staff.

The cases illustrate what campaigners call a "cultural struggle" as extremist ideas gain purchase and the far-right climbs in the polls.

The increased threat has prompted efforts to better arm public spaces against attack and protect them as a space for dialogue.