“Fra­ter­nity Broth­ers: Ques­tion­able Pol­ish Bor­ders”; www.german-foreign-policy.com; 1/19/2010.

“The Ger­man Min­is­ter of Trans­porta­tion, Peter Ram­sauer (CSU) is mem­ber of a stu­dent fra­ter­nity that has ties to cir­cles of the right extrem­ist National Demo­c­ra­tic Party of Ger­many — NPD. The umbrella fra­ter­nity “Deutsche Burschen­schaft,” (DB) not only has Min­is­ter Ram­sauer as a mem­ber, but also two NPD mem­bers of regional par­lia­ments. The alleged his­tor­i­cal mer­its of Nazi crim­i­nals Hess and Hitler are debated in the DB’s news­pa­per. The fra­ter­nity, in which Ram­sauer is referred to as a “fra­ter­nity brother”, places Poland’s ter­ri­to­r­ial integrity into ques­tion. In the next few weeks, Trans­porta­tion Min­is­ter Ram­sauer is due to reach a deci­sion con­cern­ing Nazi vic­tims in Poland, who are demand­ing repa­ra­tions from his min­istry for dam­ages incurred dur­ing Nazi depor­ta­tion car­ried out with the “Deutsche Reichs­bahn” (Ger­man state rail­road in WW II). Cab­i­net mem­ber Ram­sauer is not alone. Hans-Peter Uhl is also a mem­ber of a fra­ter­nity with NPD ties. Uhl is the spokesper­son for domes­tic affairs of the con­ser­v­a­tive CDU/CSU par­lia­men­tary cau­cus in the Ger­man Par­lia­ment (Bun­destag). Leg­is­la­tion con­cern­ing the sur­veil­lance of the country’s right-wing extrem­ists is among Uhl’s func­tions. [Ital­ics are mine–D.E.]
Within the spec­trum of the Ger­man cab­i­net, Ram­sauer advo­cates far rightwing polit­i­cal stand­points. His polit­i­cal men­tor is Otto Wiesheu (CSU), who until recently was a mem­ber of the pre­sid­ium of the Deutsche Bahn AG (DB AG — the Ger­man rail­road), in charge of “polit­i­cal rela­tions”. As super­vis­ing min­is­ter in charge of the DB AG, Ram­sauer is con­tin­u­ing Wiesheu’s work. . . .”