A professional mixed martial arts fighter based in Berlin, Niko Samsonidse, has added a ritual to his tournament prep in recent years: vetting the event to ensure it is not organized by far-right extremists.
Urging other fighters and trainers to do the same, Mr. Samsonidse has become outspoken in his efforts to call out attempts to exploit the growing martial arts scene to advance extremist ideologies.
The festivals — which are often declared political events, making them harder to ban and ensuring that any profit will be tax-exempt — typically feature a right-wing extremist speaker or seminar, according to Hans-Jakob Schindler, the Berlin-based senior director of the Counter Extremism Project.
In the promotional videos for the largest extreme-right combat tournament, called “Kampf der Nibelungen,” or “Battle of the Nibelungs,” there are no far-right symbols or slogans on display.
The lead defendant’s lawyer, Steffen Hammer, has sought to have the trial dismissed, asserting that prosecutors forced his client to give information in a separate case that bolstered the current charges against him.
Large-scale martial arts organizations and events have proliferated for years in Germany, chief among them the Battle of the Nibelungs, which attracts hundreds of right-wing extremists from around Europe and the United States.
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