The attack in the small town of Himbergen was part of rising wave of hate crime in Germany, including a firebombing of a synagogue and attacks on foreigners and other minorities that have left at least three dead this year.
Police said up to 12 youths, some with brass knuckles, attempted to force their way into the home of the Turkish family, which had been living in Germany for years. After alerting friends by telephone, the Turks managed to hold five of the attackers until police arrived. Four other suspects were detained later.
All nine were released after being booked for possible charges including causing bodily harm and displaying banned neo-Nazi symbols, usually a reference to swastikas or the logo of Nazi SS elite troops.
Meanwhile, four teenage skinheads went on trial in a juvenile court Monday for the July firebombing of a home for asylum seekers in the southwestern Rhine River city of Ludwigshafen. Authorities say the four, ages 14 to 18, confessed carrying out the attack, saying they hated foreigners.
The Molotov cocktail smashed through a window and exploded in an apartment where a family from Yugoslavia's Kosovo province was living. An 11-year-old girl suffered burns; two other children were injured by flying glass.
About 30,000 people took part in German anti-racism demonstrations over the weekend in the western cities of Duesseldorf and Kassel, responding to calls by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Jewish leaders to stand up against far-right violence.
(AP)