Bela Ewald Althans
Bela Ewald Althans | |
---|---|
Born | Bremen, Germany | 23 March 1966
Other names | Bernd Althans |
Known for | Neo-Nazism |
Bela Ewald Althans (born 23 March 1966) is a German former
Early Nazism
Althans was born into a middle-class family in
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.[5] 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.[6] 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.[7] Althans also allied himself to the Institute for Historical Review and attended a number of their conferences.[8]
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
International links
Althans began to look for new allies in
Althans and Zündel was interviewed and their activism and daily private lives documented on the depth by
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
On 10 July 1995,
Ultimately his defence failed and he had an additional 3+1⁄2-years added to the sentence he was already serving.[19]
Post-imprisonment life
Althans, who subsequently acknowledged his homosexuality and married his Taiwanese boyfriend,[13] left the neo-Nazi movement following his release and disappeared altogether, later being reported as living under a new identity in Belgium.[2] He subsequently gave his private papers from his neo-Nazi days to the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam.[20][13] 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".[13]
Bibliography
- Martin A. Lee, The Beast Reawakens, Warner Books, 1997
References
- ^ a b c d Lee, p. 255
- ^ ISBN 978-0-313-34538-8.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ Lee, p. 256
- ^ Lee, pp. 256-257
- ^ Lee, pp. 258–259
- ^ Lee, p. 261
- ^ Lee, pp. 262-263
- ^ Lee, p. 342
- ^ a b Lee, p. 254
- ^ Lee, p. 309-310
- ^ Lee, pp. 310-311
- ^ Lee, p. 325
- ^ a b c d e Rayner, Jay (23 January 2022). "My Berlin meeting with an ex Nazi". The Observer. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
- ^ SVT, Dokument utifrån 1994.08.20: Yrke Nynazist.
- ^ Lee, p. 377
- ^ „Nebenberuf V-Mann" (Der Spiegel 28/1995, 10 July 1995, page 18)
- ^ Sigrid Averesch: „Bayerischer Verfassungsschützer vor Gericht: Angeklagter Althans war kein V-Mann" (Berliner Zeitung, 2 August 1995)
- ^ Inge Günther: „Neonazi Althans soll nie V-Mann gewesen sein" (Frankfurter Rundschau, 2 August 1995)
- ^ Lee, p. 378
- ^ "Content and Context: Bernd Ewald Althans Papers". International Institute of Social History. Retrieved 23 January 2022.