Bela Ewald Althans
Encyclopedia
Bela Ewald Althans is a German
former neo-Nazi activist. 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 political activism.
but rejected their views and from the age of thirteen was involved in neo-Nazi groups. He became a follower of Michael Kühnen
and led the Hanover
branch Action Front of National Socialists/National Activists
until it was banned in 1983. Following Kühnen's imprisonment, by which time Althans had been thrown out of the family home by his parents, Althans went to live with Otto Ernst Remer
in Bad Kissingen
. 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 on the international neo-Nazi scene. 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 of Nation of Islam
leader Louis Farrakhan
.
conclave in the Löwenbräukeller in Munich at which the guest of honour was David Irving
. The evening consisted of both speechs and performances mocking the Holocaust
. By this time Althans had broke 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
and the German People's Union
, reuniting the pro- and anti-Kühnen factions after his death or building stronger organisational bases in the former East Germany. Althans also allied himself to the Institute for Historical Review
and attended a number of their conferences.
In the early 1990s the charismatic Althans emerged as a press representative for German neo-Nazism, taking advantage of his sophisticated rhetoric, his imposing personal appearance (6'4" tall) and his fluency in French
and English
. At the time he had his own office in a high-end district of Munich
with a picture of Adolf Hitler
displayed in the window. At a time when the use of computers for activism was still in its infancy Althans was able to use his own communications skills to utilise such tactics, notably in late August 1992 when he was able to arrange for hundreds of supporters to enter into Rostock
at night in order to protest at a refugee apartment complex. The protest turned into a three day riot
in which the complex was badly damaged by petrol bombs.
and spoke at events for the veterans of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Ukrainian) in Ukraine
in 1993, whilst also making trips to Russia
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
leaders were cemented. The pair also met Vladimir Zhirinovsky
, although Althans was unimpressed with the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia
leader, suggesting that Zhirinovsky's anti-Semitism was merely opportunistic rather than ideological like his own.
was little more than a holiday resort. 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, whilst also getting witnesses to testify that he was bisexual. Ultimately his defence failed and he had an additional three and a half year sentence added on to that which he was already serving.
, left the neo-Nazi scene 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
in Amsterdam
.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
former neo-Nazi activist. 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 political activism.
Early activism
Althans was born into a middle class family where he was taught to reject NazismNazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
but rejected their views and from the age of thirteen was involved in neo-Nazi groups. He became a follower of Michael Kühnen
Michael Kühnen
Michael Kühnen was a leader in the German neo-Nazi movement. He was one of the first post-World War II Germans to openly embrace Nazism and call for the formation of a Fourth Reich. He enacted a policy of setting up several differently-named groups in an effort to confuse German authorities, who...
and led the Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
branch Action Front of National Socialists/National Activists
Action Front of National Socialists/National Activists
The Action Front of National Socialists/National Activists was a German neo-Nazi organization....
until it was banned in 1983. Following Kühnen's imprisonment, by which time Althans had been thrown out of the family home by his parents, Althans went to live with Otto Ernst Remer
Otto Ernst Remer
Otto-Ernst Remer was a German Wehrmacht officer who played a decisive role in stopping the 1944 20 July Plot against Adolf Hitler. During the war he was wounded nine times in combat...
in Bad Kissingen
Bad Kissingen
Bad Kissingen is a spa town in the Bavarian region of Lower Franconia and is the seat of the district Bad Kissingen. Situated to the south of the Rhön Mountains on the Franconian Saale river, it is a world-famous health resort.- Town structure :...
. 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 on the international neo-Nazi scene. In 1988 Althans spent several months in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
where he worked closely with Tom Metzger
Tom Metzger
Thomas Metzger is an American white nationalist who founded White Aryan Resistance . His far-right activist groups, including WAR, have been monitored by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an American organization that tracks hate groups...
, appearing on his radio show where they discussed their mutual admiration for the antisemitism of Nation of Islam
Nation of Islam
The Nation of Islam is a mainly African-American new religious movement founded in Detroit, Michigan by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in July 1930 to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African-Americans in the United States of America. The movement teaches black pride and...
leader Louis Farrakhan
Louis Farrakhan
Louis Farrakhan Muhammad, Sr. is the leader of the African-American religious movement the Nation of Islam . He served as the minister of major mosques in Boston and Harlem, and was appointed by the longtime NOI leader, Elijah Muhammad, before his death in 1975, as the National Representative of...
.
Leading role
On 20 April 1990 Althans organised a Holocaust denialHolocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
conclave in the Löwenbräukeller in Munich at which the guest of honour was David Irving
David Irving
David John Cawdell Irving is an English writer,best known for his denial of the Holocaust, who specialises in the military and political history of World War II, with a focus on Nazi Germany...
. The evening consisted of both speechs and performances mocking the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
. By this time Althans had broke from Remer, leading to personal bitterness between the two, and he sought to develop his own profile internationally, working closely with Yvan Blot
Yvan Blot
Yvan Blot is a French [conservative] political figure who has been a member of GRECE as well as the founder and president of the Club de l'Horloge....
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and CEDADE
CEDADE
CEDADE was a Spanish neo-Nazi group that concerned itself with co-ordinating international activity and publishing....
in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. Within Germany Althans, working with Christian Worch
Christian Worch
Christian Worch is one of the most important figures of the German neo-Nazi scene.In 1974 Worch started a militant group called the Hansabande in Hamburg, along with Michael Kühnen. The group defaced Jewish cemeteries, assaulted leftists and foreigners, and denied the Holocaust...
, 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
The National Democratic Party of Germany – The People's Union , is a far right German nationalist party. It was founded in 1964 a successor to the German Reich Party . Party statements self-identify as Germany's "only significant patriotic force"...
and the German People's Union
German People's Union
The German People's Union is a 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. Financially, it is largely dependent on Frey....
, reuniting the pro- and anti-Kühnen factions after his death or building stronger organisational bases in the former East Germany. Althans also allied himself to the Institute for Historical Review
Institute for Historical Review
The Institute for Historical Review , founded in 1978, is an American organization that describes itself as a "public-interest educational, research and publishing center dedicated to promoting greater public awareness of history." Critics have accused it of being an antisemitic "pseudo-scholarly...
and attended a number of their conferences.
In the early 1990s the charismatic Althans emerged as a press representative for German neo-Nazism, taking advantage of his sophisticated rhetoric, his imposing personal appearance (6'4" tall) and his fluency in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. At the time he had his own office in a high-end district of Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
with a picture of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
displayed in the window. At a time when the use of computers for activism was still in its infancy Althans was able to use his own communications skills to utilise such tactics, notably in late August 1992 when he was able to arrange for hundreds of supporters to enter into Rostock
Rostock
Rostock -Early history:In the 11th century Polabian Slavs founded a settlement at the Warnow river called Roztoc ; the name Rostock is derived from that designation. The Danish king Valdemar I set the town aflame in 1161.Afterwards the place was settled by German traders...
at night in order to protest at a refugee apartment complex. The protest turned into a three day riot
Riot of Rostock-Lichtenhagen
From August 22–24, 1992 a violent anti-Vietnamese and anti-Roma riot took place in Rostock-Lichtenhagen; it was the worst mob attack against foreigners in postwar Germany. Although there were stones and petrol bombs thrown at an apartment block that housed asylum seekers, no one was killed...
in which the complex was badly damaged by petrol bombs.
International links
Althans began to look for new allies in Eastern EuropeEastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
and spoke at events for the veterans of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Ukrainian) in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
in 1993, whilst also making trips to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
to open contact with Russian National Unity
Russian National Unity
Russian National Unity or All-Russian civic patriotic movement "Russian National Unity" , is a far right, fascist political party and paramilitary organization based in Russia and operating in states with Russian-speaking populations. It was founded by the ultra-nationalist Alexander Barkashov...
leader Alexander Barkashov
Alexander Barkashov
Alexander Petrovich Barkashov is a Russian political leader on the extreme right. In 1990, Barkashov founded an ultra-nationalist political party and paramilitary organization called Russian National Unity.-Biography:Born in Moscow, of peasant roots, Barkashov's father was an electrician and...
. Althans' journeys were mostly funded by Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel
Ernst Zündel
Ernst Christof Friedrich Zündel is a German Holocaust denier and pamphleteer who was jailed several times in Canada for publishing literature which "is likely to incite hatred against an identifiable group" and for being a threat to national security, in the United States for overstaying his visa,...
and the two went to Russia together in August 1994 where relations with Barkashov and other far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
leaders were cemented. The pair also met Vladimir Zhirinovsky
Vladimir Zhirinovsky
Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky is a Russian politician, colonel of the Russian Army, founder and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia , Vice-Chairman of the State Duma, and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe....
, although Althans was unimpressed with the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia
Liberal Democratic Party of Russia
The Liberal Democratic Party of Russia , Liberal'no-Demokraticheskaya Partiya Rossii is a political party in Russia. Since its founding in 1991, it has been led by the charismatic and controversial figure Vladimir Zhirinovsky...
leader, suggesting that Zhirinovsky's anti-Semitism was merely opportunistic rather than ideological like his own.
Imprisonment
In December 1994 Althans was sent to prison for distributing a video that denied the Holocaust and, whilst still in jail, faced further charges relating to comments he made in a documentary about him, Beruf Neonazi , claming that Auschwitz concentration campAuschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
was little more than a holiday resort. 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, whilst also getting witnesses to testify that he was bisexual. Ultimately his defence failed and he had an additional three and a half year sentence added on to that which he was already serving.
Post-activist life
Althans, who subsequently acknowledged his homosexualityHomosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
, left the neo-Nazi scene following his release and disappeared altogether, later being reported as living under a new identity in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. He subsequently gave his private papers from his neo-Nazi days to the International Institute of Social History
International Institute of Social History
The International Institute of Social History is a historical research institute in Amsterdam. It was founded in 1935 by Nicolaas Posthumus. The IISG is part of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences....
in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
.