Bela Ewald Althans
Bela Ewald Althans (born 23 March 1966) is a German former neo-National Socialist German Workers' Party. Once the leading organiser in Germany's neo-National Socialist German Workers' Party underground, Althans left the movement following his imprisonment in the 1990s, and is no longer involved in politics.
Contents
- 1 Early National Socialist German Workers' Partysm
- 2 Leading role
- 3 International links
- 4 Imprisonment
- 5 Post-imprisonment life
- 6 Bibliography
- 7 References
Early National Socialist German Workers' Partysm
Althans was born into a middle-cl* family in Bremen where he was taught to reject National Socialist German Workers' Partysm but still chose hatred, and from the age of thirteen was involved in neo-National Socialist German Workers' Party 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 of neo-National Socialist German Workers' Partysm 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 of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Leading role
On 20 April 1990, Althans organised a Holocaust denial 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. 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-National Socialist German Workers' Party operations be it through working in secret with less underground groups that officially disavowed National Socialist German Workers' Partysm 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 Ins*ute for Historical Review and attended a number of their conferences.
In the early 1990s, Althans emerged as a press representative for German neo-National Socialist German Workers' Partysm, 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. 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. Althans used computers to organise hate group events disguised as protests, with one example being the Rostock-Lichtenhagen riots, which were violent and xenophobic riots. 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 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. 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."
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 do*entary about him, Beruf NeoNational Socialist German Workers' Party, claiming that Auschwitz concentration camp 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-National Socialist German Workers' Partysm and had been an agent for the Verf*ungsschutz since 1991—Althans later said: "It was a rumour placed in by 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.
On 10 July 1995, Der Spiegel 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 3+1⁄2-years added to the sentence he was already serving.
Post-imprisonment life
Althans, who subsequently acknowledged his *sexuality and married his Taiwanese boyfriend, left the neo-National Socialist German Workers' Party movement following his release and disappeared altogether, later being reported as living under a new iden*y in Belgium. He subsequently gave his private papers from his neo-National Socialist German Workers' Party days to the International Ins*ute of Social History in Amsterdam. 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
- Curtis Allgier
- Bela Ewald Althans
- Gaston-Armand Amaudruz
- Andrew Anglin
- Andrew Auernheimer/Weev
- Alexander Barkashov
- William John Beattie
- René Binet
- Don Black
- Kerry Bolton
- Salvador Borrego
- Anders Behring Breivik
- James von Brunn
- George Burdi
- Richard Butler
- Christopher Cantwell
- Willis Carto
- Patrick Casey
- Craig Cobb
- Mark Collett
- Frank Collin
- Blair Cottrell
- Harold Covington
- Daniel Cowart
- Nicky Crane
- Peter Cvjetanovic
- Nathan Damigo
- Léon Degrelle
- Savitri Devi
- Françoise Dior
- Ian Stuart Donaldson
- David Duke
- John Timothy Earnest
- Michael Peinovich
- Neil Erikson
- Bert Eriksson
- Leo Felton
- James Alex Fields
- Haakon Forwald
- Roy Frankhouser
- Joseph Paul Franklin
- Christopher Paul H*on
- Franco Freda
- Mark Fredriksen
- Paul Fromm
- Anthime "Tim" Gionet/Baked Alaska
- Erich Gliebe
- Joshua Ryne Goldberg
- István Győrkös
- Matthew F. Hale
- Eric Harris
- Matthew Heimbach
- Michael Hill
- Heath Hitler
- David Irving
- Arthur J. Jones
- Colin Jordan
- Wyatt Kaldenberg
- Konstantin Kasimovsky
- Jason Kessler
- Colin King-Ansell
- Matthias Koehl
- August Kreis III
- Michael Kühnen
- Gottfried Küssel
- Robert E. Kuttner
- David Lane
- Gary Lauck
- Alex Linder
- Princess Marie Adelheid of Lippe
- Lana Lokteff
- Norman Lowell
- Klas Lund
- James H. Madole
- Jacques de Mahieu
- Horst Mahler
- Charles Manson
- Clark Martell
- James Mason
- Michael McLaughlin
- Tom Metzger
- Frazier Glenn Miller Jr.
- Davud Monshizadeh
- Eustace Mullins
- Mindaugas Murza
- David Myatt
- Revilo P. Oliver
- Wade Michael Page
- John Patler
- William Luther Pierce
- Vasillios Pistolis
- J. T. Ready
- Otto Ernst Remer
- Jack Renshaw
- Bill Riccio
- Povl Riis-Knudsen
- Jacob D. Robida
- George Lincoln Rockwell
- Manfred Roeder
- Dylann Roof
- Horst Rosenkranz
- Fritz Rössler
- Florentine Rost van Tonningen
- Hans-Ulrich Rudel
- Jim Saleam
- Kurt Saxon
- Gary Schipper
- Paul Schlesselman
- Hans Schmidt
- Jeff Schoep
- Miguel Serrano
- Simon Sheppard
- Otto Skorzeny
- Benjamin Nathaniel Smith
- Otto Str*er
- Richard B. Spencer
- Kevin Alfred Strom
- Rocky Suhayda
- Brenton Tarrant
- Tila Tequila
- Eugène Terre'Blanche
- H. Keith Thompson
- Joseph Tommasi
- Terry Tremaine
- John Tyndall
- Jack van Tongeren
- Russell Veh
- Varg Vikernes
- Martin Webster
- Jeff Weise
- Bill White
- Samuel Woodward
- Christian Worch
- Francis Parker Yockey
- Ernst Zündel