Germar Rudolf (born 29 October 1964), also known as Germar Scheerer,
is a German chemist and a convicted
Holocaust denier
Denial of the Holocaust is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that asserts that the genocide of Jews by the Nazis is a fabrication or exaggeration. It includes making one or more of the following false claims:
*Nazi Germany's "Final Solution" wa ...
.
Background
Rudolf was born in
Limburg an der Lahn
Limburg an der Lahn (, ; officially abbreviated ''Limburg a. d. Lahn'') is the district seat of Limburg-Weilburg in Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Location
Limburg lies in western Hesse between the Taunus and the Westerwald on the river Lahn.
The t ...
,
Hesse
Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...
. In 1983 he took his
Abitur
''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...
in
Remscheid
Remscheid () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is, after Wuppertal and Solingen, the third-largest municipality in Bergisches Land, being located on the northern edge of the region, on the south side of the Ruhr area.
Remscheid ha ...
, then studied chemistry in
Bonn
Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
, graduating in 1989 with a master's degree.
As a student, he joined the ''A.V. Tuisconia Königsberg zu Bonn'' and the ''K.D.St.V. Nordgau Prag zu Stuttgart'',
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
fraternities
A fraternity (; whence, " brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club or fraternal order traditionally of men but also women associated together for various religious or secular aims. Fraternity in the Western conce ...
belonging to the
Cartellverband
The Union of Catholic German Student Fraternities ( or , CV) is a German umbrella organization of Catholic male student fraternities ().
History
Foundation
During the period of 19th century in Germany called the , the Prussian state tried to ...
. According to the website “
Informationsdienst gegen Rechtsextremismus” (Information service against right-wing extremism), Rudolf was in 1985, a member of Schlesische Jugend (Silesian Youth), the youth section of the association The
Landsmannschaft Schlesien - Nieder- und Oberschlesien e.V. ("Territorial Association of Silesia - Lower and Upper Silesia").
Still according to the site Informationsdienst gegen Rechtsextremismus, Rudolf participated the year after, at the Reichsgründungskommers (Reich Foundation Parties) of the ultra-nationalist student association
Verein deutscher Studenten (VDSt, German Student League).
In 1989, he also took on editorial responsibilities in the German newspaper of New Right ''
Junge Freiheit'', and was an author in the far-right journals: ''Staatsbriefe'', ''Sleipnir'', ''Deutschland in Geschichte und Gegenwart.''
After supporting the
CSU/
CDU, he became a member of the
Republicans.
[A Rebel]
at germarrudolf.com, accessed 27 October 2015 After his military service with the
German Air Force, in October 1990 he joined the
Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research at
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
, where he prepared a
PhD
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
thesis.
The "Rudolf Report"
In 1991, Rudolf began work on a paper entitled ''Report on the formation and verifiability of cyanide compounds in the Auschwitz "gas chambers"'' on behalf of the
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
attorney
Hajo Herrmann, a former
Luftwaffe
The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...
pilot. In 1993, this work was reported in the media, and Rudolf was told not to enter the Max Planck Institute again without permission. When he did so, his employment was terminated without notice. In 1994, this dismissal was converted into a termination by mutual agreement.
In 1996, the
University of Stuttgart asked Rudolf to withdraw his application for a final PhD examination, or it would be denied, rendering his PhD thesis worthless. The legal basis for this is a German law which allows universities to deny or withdraw academic degrees where the candidate has used his academic credentials or knowledge to commit a crime. Rudolf has no Ph.D.
Between 1991 and 1994, Herrmann and other lawyers used Rudolf's Auschwitz report to defend several Holocaust deniers, among them
Otto Ernst Remer, a former ''
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...
'' officer charged with ''
Volksverhetzung'' (inciting hatred). Rudolf knew his work would be associated with
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:
...
, but insisted that even Remer had a right to legal defense. Among other things, Rudolf's report claims that only insignificant traces of cyanide compounds can be found in the samples taken from Auschwitz. However,
Richard Green and Jamie McCarthy from
The Holocaust History Project have criticized the report, saying that like
Fred Leuchter in
his report, Rudolf did not discriminate against the formation of iron-based cyanide compounds, which are not a reliable indicator of the presence of cyanide, so that his experiment was seriously flawed.
Criminal convictions
In 1995, Rudolf was sentenced to 14 months in prison by the district court of
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
for "inciting racial hatred" via the "Rudolf Report", as Holocaust denial is a criminal offence in Germany.
Rudolf avoided prison by fleeing to
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
, England, and finally to the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.
His first marriage was to a German national with whom he had two children, and they settled at
Hastings
Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England,
east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...
in England, until he and his wife divorced and she returned to Germany with their children.
[
All the while, criminal investigations continued in Germany. In August 2004, the district court of ]Mannheim
Mannheim (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...
distrained a bank account in an attempt to confiscate 55% of Rudolf's business turnover from the years 2001–2004, some €214,000, but at that time the account contained only some €5,000. Rudolf and his associates had earned this money by selling Holocaust denial publications which are banned in Germany, but Rudolf's business was in the UK and the US.
On 11 September 2004, Rudolf married a US citizen and settled in Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
; the couple later had a child. He applied for political asylum
The right of asylum, sometimes called right of political asylum (''asylum'' ), is a juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereignty, sovereign authority, such as a second country or ...
, or at least for the right not to be expelled, but this was rejected in November 2004 on the basis that the application had no merits and was a case of frivolous litigation
Frivolous litigation is the use of legal processes with apparent disregard for the merit of one's own arguments. It includes presenting an argument with reason to know that it would certainly fail, or acting without a basic level of diligence i ...
. Rudolf appealed against this ruling, and in early 2006 the US Federal Court in Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
found that his application was not "frivolous", but upheld the decision that it had no merit.[ The Immigration Services said that Rudolf did not have a right to file an application to remain with his family. On 14 November 2005, Rudolf was deported to Germany where he was wanted for incitement of racial hatred ('' Volksverhetzung''). On arrival there, he was arrested by the police and transferred to a prison in Rottenburg, then to another in ]Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
in Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...
.
On 15 March 2007, the Mannheim District Court sentenced him to two years and six months in prison for inciting hatred, disparaging the dead, and libel
Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...
. Rudolf accepted the verdict, and copies of his "Lectures on the Holocaust" were confiscated and destroyed. The prosecution's initial request to confiscate €214,000 was reduced to €21,000, the total turnover from the sales of the book. He was released from prison on 5 July 2009 and now lives in the US with his wife and daughter.
In July 2019, Rudolf was arrested near his home in Red Lion, Pennsylvania for "open lewdness" after being found exercising at 4:06 a.m. in a public park "naked from the waist down." He was later found guilty of indecent exposure and open lewdness, for which he was sentenced to two years of probation.
Publications
After Rudolf was dismissed from the Max Planck Institute, he began to publish books promoting Holocaust denial. He founded Castle Hill Publishers in 1997 based in Hastings
Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England,
east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...
, England with Theses & Dissertations Press as its American outlet. In 2000, Rudolf initiated an English language Holocaust Handbooks Series, a series of Holocaust denial titles which, as of 2013, encompassed 25 titles. Furthermore, Rudolf is closely associated with the Belgian Holocaust denial organization ''Vrij Historisch Onderzoek'' (VHO). Until his arrest in late 2005, he published the now defunct "Vierteljahreshefte für freie Geschichtsforschung" (Quarterly journal for free historical research), described by the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution as "a right-wing extremist organ."''Annual Report of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution 2002''
, Right-Wing Extremist Activities, VII. Revisionism, “German revisionist uses foreign press for agitation,” Page 84.
Selected publications
* ''Auschwitz-Lies: Legends, Lies, and Prejudices on the Holocaust'', with Carlo Mattogno (Theses & Dissertations Press, 2005),
* ''Dissecting the Holocaust: The Growing Critique of Truth and Memory'' (Theses & Dissertations Press, 3rd edition, 2003),
* ''The Rudolf Report: Expert Report on Chemical and Technical Aspects of the Gas Chambers of Auschwitz'' (Theses & Dissertations Press, 3rd edition, 2003),
References
External links
*
Leuchter, Rudolf and the Iron Blues"
An essay by Richard J. Green. The Holocaust History Project (1997)
"Chemistry is not the science: Rudolf, Rhetoric & Reduction"
Response to Rudolf's report by Richard J. Green and Jamie McCarthy. The Holocaust History Project (1999)
The 2004 annual report
by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rudolf, Germar
1964 births
Living people
People from Limburg an der Lahn
20th-century German chemists
German people convicted of Holocaust denial
The Republicans (Germany) politicians
German prisoners and detainees
People convicted of racial hatred offences
People deported from the United States
Prisoners and detainees of Germany
People convicted of sex crimes