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You are a military man, highly trained and highly professional: the German security company Asgaard offers personal protection in areas of tension and crisis, recruiting former Bundeswehr soldiers and police officers for this. One of his greatest orders: To ensure the diplomatic representation of an Arab superpower in Iraq.
While the company protects Muslims in a Muslim country, Dirk Gaßmann, one of Asgaard’s CEOs, seems to sympathize with the ideas of the right. In the photos that are available for SPIEGEL and the political magazine ARD Kontraste, and which were apparently taken at a company party, Gaßmann can be seen posing with the bust of a Wehrmacht soldier. Laughing, it seems to be pointing directly at the Iron Cross.
In a comment on Facebook in 2015, he let it be known that Islam was and still is “the problem.” On another occasion he explains that all the countries that have tried to introduce “multicultural” have either failed or been “better taught by bloody civil wars.” And under the discussion about the banned Wehrmacht speeders in the Bundeswehr, Gaßmann invites: “Bobsleighs, you can keep singing in Baghdad, no problem.”
It’s not hard to believe Gaßmann’s comment when footage of a 2017 Asgaard branch is released. A slightly shaky amateur video was leaked to SPIEGEL und Kontraste, allegedly showing the company’s Iraqi headquarters. With the help of Asgaard’s Facebook posts, it’s not only possible to verify that the video was actually recorded at Asgaard’s headquarters at the time, but also where its location was: in the middle of Baghdad’s green zone, just 500 meters from the United Nations Office and not even a kilometer from the Iraqi Foreign Ministry. The video also shows the interiors of Asgaard’s office. They are decorated with the Reich war flag, imperial eagle, space, designations in Gothic script and the Wehrmacht motto “Don’t complain, fight.”
When asked by SPIEGEL, Gaßmann vehemently denied: “At no time have my company employees made benevolent comments in my presence about the symbols of the Nazi state of injustice. I never did this myself.” And: “My company holds candidate meetings regularly. People with recognizable extremist backgrounds are not invited.”
But online research shows that a longtime Asgaard employee, who is a friend of Gasßmann on Facebook and who interacts with him, shares far-right content. In a comment, he regrets that the “pure white race” only represents a small percentage of the world’s population, shares a graphic from “White Lives Matter”, maps of Germany with the borders of the Third Empire and the German Empire, and a meme reads : “I am German; if I write what I believe, tomorrow I would be in jail.”
Matthias D. also participated in a meeting at the German headquarters in Asgaard in July this year. The Rostock prosecutor’s office is investigating the Bundeswehr soldier. The charge: preparing a serious act of violence that could endanger the State.
Matthias D. was not the only notable guest at the Asgaard meeting in Hamm, police officer Thomas S. was also among the participants. Photos show him in Baghdad and heavily armed in the Asgaard uniform. There was also a photo of the police officer on the company’s website, but it has since been removed from the internet.
According to information from SPIEGEL and Kontraste, an investigation is under way against the Hesse official. He is accused of illegally investigating police databases for a North Rhine-Westphalia security company.
