Bela Ewald Althans
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Bela Ewald Althans (born 23 March 1966) is a German former
neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
. Once the leading organiser in Germany's neo-Nazi underground, Althans left the movement following his imprisonment in the 1990s, and is no longer involved in politics.


Early Nazism

Althans was born into a middle-class family in
Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...
where he was taught to reject
Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...
but nonetheless became involved in neo-Nazi groups from the age of thirteen.Lee, p. 255 He became a follower of Michael Kühnen and led the
Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...
branch Action Front of National Socialists/National Activists until it was banned in 1983. He was also a member of the
Neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
organization Wiking-Jugend. Following Kühnen's imprisonment, by which time Althans had been thrown out of the family home by his parents and also his school, Althans went to live with Otto Ernst Remer in
Bad Kissingen Bad Kissingen () is a German spa town in the Bavarian region of Lower Franconia and County town, seat of the Bad Kissingen (district), district Bad Kissingen. Situated to the south of the Rhön Mountains on the Franconian Saale, Franconia ...
. Remer made Althans the youth leader of the Freedom Movement, a group that Remer had founded, and taught him about organising cell-based movements as well as introducing him to a number of leading figures of neo-Nazism internationally. In 1988, Althans spent several months in the United States, where he worked closely with Tom Metzger, appearing on his radio show, where they discussed their mutual admiration for the
antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
of
Nation of Islam The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious organization founded in the United States by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930. A centralized and hierarchical organization, the NOI is committed to black nationalism and focuses its attention on the Afr ...
leader
Louis Farrakhan Louis Farrakhan (; born Louis Eugene Walcott; May 11, 1933) is an American religious leader who heads the Nation of Islam (NOI), a Black nationalism, black nationalist organization. Farrakhan is notable for his leadership of the 1995 Million M ...
.


Leading role

On 20 April 1990, Althans organised a
Holocaust denial Historical negationism, Denial of the Holocaust is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that asserts that the genocide of Jews by the Nazi Party, Nazis is a fabrication or exaggeration. It includes making one or more of the following false claims: ...
conclave in the ''Löwenbräukeller'' in Munich at which the guest of honour was David Irving. The evening consisted of both speeches and performances mocking
the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
. By this time Althans had broken from Remer, leading to personal bitterness between the two, and he sought to develop his own profile internationally, working closely with Yvan Blot in France and CEDADE in Spain. Within Germany Althans, working with Christian Worch, sought to expand neo-Nazi operations be it through working in secret with less underground groups that officially disavowed Nazism like the
National Democratic Party of Germany National Democratic Party of Germany (, NPD), officially called The Homeland () since 2023, is a Far-right politics, far-right, Neo-Nazism, neo-Nazi and Ultranationalism, ultranationalist political party in Germany. It was founded in 1964 as ...
and the
German People's Union The German People's Union (, DVU, also ''Liste D'') was a far-right nationalist political party in Germany. It was founded by publisher Gerhard Frey as an informal association in 1971 and established as a party in 1987. In 2011, it merged with ...
, reuniting the pro- and anti-Kühnen factions after his death, or building stronger organisational bases in the former
East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
. Althans also allied himself to the
Institute for Historical Review The Institute for Historical Review (IHR) is a United States–based nonprofit organization that promotes Holocaust denial. It is considered by many scholars to be central to the international Holocaust denial movement. Self-described as a "his ...
and attended a number of their conferences. In the early 1990s, Althans emerged as a press representative for German neo-Nazism, taking advantage of his rhetoric, which allowed him to seem sophisticated, his imposing personal appearance (6 feet, 4 inches tall) and his fluency in French and English.Lee, p. 254 At the time, he had his own office in a high-end district of
Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
with a picture of
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
displayed in the window. Althans used computers to organise hate group events disguised as protests, with one example being the Rostock-Lichtenhagen riots, which were violent and
xenophobic Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...
riots A riot or mob violence is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The p ...
. They were the worst mob attacks against migrants in postwar Germany, although no one was killed. Stones and petrol bombs were thrown at an apartment block where refugees lived.


International links

Althans began to look for new allies in
Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...
and spoke at events for the veterans of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Ukrainian) in
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
in 1993, whilst also making trips to
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
to open contact with Russian National Unity leader Alexander Barkashov. Althans' journeys were mostly funded by Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel and the two went to Russia together in August 1994 where relations with Barkashov and other
far right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and Nativism (politics), nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on ...
leaders were cemented. The pair also met
Vladimir Zhirinovsky Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky (, , né Eidelstein, ; 25 April 1946 – 6 April 2022) was a Russian right-wing populist politician and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) from its creation in 1992 until his death in 20 ...
, although Althans was unimpressed with the
Liberal Democratic Party of Russia LDPR – Liberal Democratic Party of Russia () is a Russian Ultranationalism, ultranationalist and Right-wing populism, right-wing populist List of political parties in Russia, political party. It succeeded the Liberal Democratic Party of the ...
leader, suggesting that Zhirinovsky's anti-Semitism was merely opportunistic rather than ideological like his own. Althans later said that Zündel was paying him 16,000 Deutsch Marks a month: "I was suddenly rich. Before that I had nothing. Now I had everything. It was a great job for a provocateur." Althans and Zündel was interviewed and their activism and daily private lives documented on the depth by
Swedish Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television aktiebolag, Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksd ...
SVT in one show of the investigative documentary program Dokument utifrån, episode ''Yrke Nynazist'' ("Occupation: Neonazi") which aired on 20 August 1994 and caused some controversy in both Sweden and some cities in Germany that refused to show it since it contains scenes where Althans and Zündel promote Nazism openly without interruptions or counter-comments. In the documentary, Althans also publicly shows support for the Croatian Ustaša movement.


Imprisonment

In December 1994, Althans was imprisoned for distributing a video that denied the Holocaust and, whilst still in jail, faced further charges relating to disrespectful comments he made in a documentary about him, ''Beruf Neonazi'', claiming that
Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...
was little more than a holiday resort, despite how horrific it was in reality. During the trial Althans attempted to defend himself by claiming that he had renounced neo-Nazism and had been an agent for the Verfassungsschutz since 1991—Althans later said: "It was a rumour placed in weekly news magazineby a friend. It was meant to help me. But it wasn't true and the judge was too clever for that. He saw through it"—whilst also getting witnesses to testify that he was
bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...
. On 10 July 1995, ''
Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...
'' reported that Althans had been working for the Bavarian Intelligence agency, until the collaboration had been terminated by the agency because of "lack of truthfulness of reports". During the Althans trial at Berlin Regional Court, Bavarian intelligence chief Gerhard Forster on 1 August 1995 denied ''Der Spiegel''s allegations, but admitted to two meetings of intelligence officials with Althans in 1994. During a first meeting on 23 February 1994, Althans offered "extensive files" on the German neofascist scene for a sum of DEM 360,000. During a second meeting on 10 March 1994, this offer was rejected by the intelligence officials. Ultimately his defence failed and he had an additional -years added to the sentence he was already serving.


Post-imprisonment life

Althans, who subsequently acknowledged his homosexuality and married his Taiwanese boyfriend, left the neo-Nazi movement following his release and disappeared altogether, later being reported as living under a new identity in Belgium. He subsequently gave his private papers from his neo-Nazi days to the
International Institute of Social History International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...
in
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
. At the time of a January 2022 interview with Jay Rayner for the London '' Observer'', he was living in Berlin and active in the gay scene. Althans said his journey away from the far right "wasn't some sudden change. It was over time... I am a provocateur, always have been".


Bibliography

* Martin A. Lee, '' The Beast Reawakens'', Warner Books, 1997


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Althans, Bela Ewald 1966 births Living people Politicians from Hanover Free German Workers' Party politicians Former white supremacists German people convicted of Holocaust denial German politicians convicted of crimes German prisoners and detainees German gay politicians Prisoners and detainees of Germany 20th-century German LGBTQ people 21st-century German LGBTQ people