Editing Neo-Nazism (section)

== History ==
=== Germany and Austria, 1945–1950s ===
Following the defeat of [[Nazi Germany]], the political ideology of the ruling party, Nazism, was in complete disarray. The final leader of the [[Nazi Party|National Socialist German Workers' Party]] (NSDAP) was [[Martin Bormann]]. He died on 2 May 1945 during the [[Battle of Berlin]], but the [[Soviet Union]] did not reveal his death to the rest of the world, and his ultimate fate remained a mystery for many years. [[Conspiracy theories about Adolf Hitler's death|Conspiracy theories emerged about Hitler himself]], that he had secretly survived the war and fled to South America or elsewhere.

The [[Allied Control Council]] officially dissolved the NSDAP on 10 October 1945, marking the end of "Old" Nazism. A process of [[denazification]] began, and the [[Nuremberg trials]] took place, where many major leaders and ideologues were condemned to death by October 1946, others committed suicide.

[[File:Otto Ernst Remer portrait.JPG|thumb|left|upright|[[Otto Ernst Remer]], {{lang|de|[[Wehrmacht]]}} general and leader of the postwar [[Socialist Reich Party]]]]
In both the East and West, surviving ex-party members and military veterans assimilated to the new reality and had no interest in constructing a "neo-Nazism".{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}} However, during the [[West German federal election, 1949|1949 West German elections]] a number of Nazi advocates such as [[Fritz Rössler]] had infiltrated the [[national conservative]] ''[[Deutsche Rechtspartei]]'', which had five members elected. Rössler and others left to found the more radical [[Socialist Reich Party]] (SRP) under [[Otto Ernst Remer]]. At the onset of the [[Cold War]], the SRP favoured the Soviet Union over the United States.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

In [[Austria]], national independence had been restored, and the {{lang|de|[[Verbotsgesetz 1947]]}} explicitly criminalised the NSDAP and any attempt at restoration. [[West Germany]] adopted a similar law to target parties it defined as anti-constitutional; Article 21 Paragraph 2 in the [[Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany|Basic Law]], banning the SRP in 1952 for being opposed to [[liberal democracy]].

As a consequence, some members of the nascent movement of German neo-Nazism joined the {{lang|de|Deutsche Reichspartei}} of which [[Hans-Ulrich Rudel]] was the most prominent figure. Younger members founded the {{lang|de|[[Wiking-Jugend]]}} modelled after the [[Hitler Youth]]. The {{lang|de|Deutsche Reichspartei}} stood for elections from 1953 until 1961 fetching around 1% of the vote each time.{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}} Rudel befriended French-born [[Savitri Devi]], who was a proponent of [[Esoteric Nazism]]. In the 1950s she wrote a number of books, such as ''[[Pilgrimage (book)|Pilgrimage]]'' (1958), which concerns prominent [[Third Reich]] sites, and ''[[The Lightning and the Sun]]'' (1958), in which she claims that Adolf Hitler was an avatar of the God [[Vishnu]]. She was not alone in this reorientation of Nazism towards its [[Thule Society|Thulean]]-roots; the {{lang|de|[[Artgemeinschaft]]}}, founded by former SS member Wilhelm Kusserow, attempted to promote a new [[paganism]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}}
In the [[German Democratic Republic]] (East Germany) a former member of [[Sturmabteilung|SA]], [[Wilhelm Adam]], founded the [[National Democratic Party of Germany (East Germany)|National Democratic Party of Germany]]. It reached out to those attracted by the Nazi Party before 1945 and provide them with a political outlet, so that they would not be tempted to support the far-right again or turn to the anti-communist Western Allies.{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}} [[Joseph Stalin]] wanted to use them to create a new pro-Soviet and anti-Western strain in German politics.<ref name=":0a">{{Cite book|last=Zubok, V. M. (Vladislav Martinovich)|title=A failed empire: the Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev|date=2007|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-0-8078-3098-7|location=Chapel Hill|pages=89–90|oclc=86090559}}</ref> According to top Soviet diplomat Vladimir Semyonov, Stalin even suggested that they could be allowed to continue publishing their own newspaper, [[Völkischer Beobachter]].<ref name=":0a" /> While in Austria, former SS member Wilhelm Lang founded an esoteric group known as the [[Landig Group|Vienna Lodge]]; he popularised [[Nazism and occultism]] such as the [[Black Sun (occult symbol)|Black Sun]] and ideas of Third Reich survival colonies below the polar ice caps.{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}}

[[File:Otto Strasser crop2.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Otto Strasser]], leader of the [[German Social Union (West Germany)|German Social Union]], returned from exile to Germany in the mid-1950s.]]
With the onset of the [[Cold War]], the allied forces had lost interest in prosecuting anyone as part of the denazification.<ref name="Evans-2008">{{cite book |last=Evans |first=Richard J. |author-link=Richard J. Evans |year=2008 |title=The Third Reich at War |url=https://archive.org/details/thirdreichatwar00evan_0 |url-access=registration |series=The Third Reich Trilogy |publisher=Penguin Books |pages=[https://archive.org/details/thirdreichatwar00evan_0/page/747 747–48] |isbn=978-0-14-311671-4}}</ref> In the mid-1950s this new political environment allowed [[Otto Strasser]], an NS activist on the left of the NSDAP, who had founded the [[Black Front]] to return from exile. In 1956, Strasser founded the [[German Social Union (West Germany)|German Social Union]] as a Black Front successor, promoting a [[Strasserite]] "nationalist and socialist" policy, which dissolved in 1962 due to lack of support. Other Third Reich associated groups were the [[HIAG]] and [[Stille Hilfe]] dedicated to advancing the interests of [[Waffen-SS]] veterans and rehabilitating them into the new democratic society. However, they did not claim to be attempting to restore Nazism, instead functioning as lobbying organizations for their members before the government and the two main political parties (the conservative [[CDU/CSU]] and the Nazis' one-time archenemies, the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democratic Party]])

Many bureaucrats who served under the Third Reich continued to serve in German administration after the war. According to the [[Simon Wiesenthal Center]], many of the more than 90,000 Nazi war criminals recorded in German files were serving in positions of prominence under Chancellor [[Konrad Adenauer]].<ref name="Simon Wiesenthal Center">{{cite web |url=https://www.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=lsKWLbPJLnF&b=4441293 |title=About Simon Wiesenthal |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |year=2013 |website=Simon Wiesenthal Center |access-date=17 November 2013 |at=Section 11 |archive-date=26 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220326215654/https://www.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=lsKWLbPJLnF&b=4441293 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Hartmann">{{cite web |url=https://www.sopos.org/aufsaetze/4bdfd55e42f57/1.phtml |title=Der Alibiprozeß |publisher=Ossietzky 9/2010 |work=Den Aufsatz kommentieren |year=2010 |access-date=19 November 2013 |last=Hartmann |first=Ralph |language=de |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202222254/https://www.sopos.org/aufsaetze/4bdfd55e42f57/1.phtml |archive-date=2 December 2013}}</ref> Not until the 1960s were the former concentration camp personnel prosecuted by [[West Germany]] in the [[Belzec trial]], [[Frankfurt Auschwitz trials]], [[Treblinka trials]], [[Chełmno trials]], and the [[Sobibór trial]].<ref name="Rückerl-1972">{{Cite book |last=Rückerl |first=Adalbert |year=1972 |title=NS-Prozesse |publisher=Verlag C F Muller |location=Karlsruhe, Germany |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K23zAAAAMAAJ&q=Treblinka |access-date=8 September 2013 |quote=Adalbert Rückerl, head of the Central Bureau for the Prosecution of National Socialist Crimes observed that because of the 1968 Dreher's amendment (§ 50 StGB), 90% of all Nazi war criminals in Germany enjoyed total immunity from prosecution. |page=132 |isbn=978-3788020156 |archive-date=4 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220304125116/https://books.google.com/books?id=K23zAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> However, the government had passed laws prohibiting Nazis from publicly expressing their beliefs.

=== "Universal National Socialism", 1950s–1970s ===

{{more citations needed section|date=May 2022}}

Neo-Nazism found expression outside of Germany, including in countries who fought against the Third Reich during the Second World War, and sometimes adopted [[Pan-European identity|pan-European]] or "universal" characteristics, beyond the parameters of [[German nationalism]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}} The two main tendencies, with differing styles and even worldviews, were the followers of the American [[Francis Parker Yockey]], who was fundamentally [[anti-American]] and advocated for a [[pan-European nationalism]], and those of [[George Lincoln Rockwell]], an [[American conservative]].<ref group= "nb">Some of the fascistic old-guard from the pre-war ultra-nationalist movements were more skeptical of the benefits of the Rockwell-Jordan uniform scene. [[Oswald Mosley]] of the [[Union Movement]] described Jordan as, "a midget trying to walk in the boots of giants." Meanwhile, Yockeyism leaned more to the left than the "official" fascistic Pan-Europeanism of those which would become the [[European Social Movement]]. The latter associated with Mosley, [[Maurice Bardèche]] and others upheld a strictly "neither East, nor West", third position in regards to Soviet and American power.</ref>{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}}

Yockey, a neo-Spenglerian author, had written ''[[Imperium: The Philosophy of History and Politics]]'' (1949) dedicated to "the hero of the twentieth century" (namely, Adolf Hitler) and founded the [[European Liberation Front]]. He was interested more in the destiny of Europe; to this end, he advocated a [[National Bolshevik]]-esque [[Red–green–brown alliance|red-brown alliance]] against [[American culture]] and influenced 1960s figures such as SS-veteran [[Jean-François Thiriart]]. Yockey was also fond of [[Arab nationalism]], in particular [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]], and saw [[Fidel Castro]]'s [[Cuban Revolution]] as a positive, visiting officials there. Yockey's views impressed Otto Ernst Remer and the radical traditionalist philosopher [[Julius Evola]]. He was constantly hounded by the [[FBI]] and was eventually arrested in 1960, before committing suicide. Domestically, Yockey's biggest sympathisers were the [[National Renaissance Party (United States)|National Renaissance Party]], including [[James H. Madole]], [[H. Keith Thompson]] and [[Eustace Mullins]] ({{lang|fr|protégé}} of [[Ezra Pound]]) and the [[Liberty Lobby]] of [[Willis Carto]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}}

Rockwell, an American conservative, was first politicised in the [[anti-communism]] and anti-[[racial integration]] movements before becoming anti-Jewish. In response to his opponents calling him a "Nazi", he theatrically appropriated the aesthetic elements of the NSDAP, to "own" the intended insult. In 1959, Rockwell founded the [[American Nazi Party]] and instructed his members to dress in imitation [[Sturmabteilung|SA]]-style brown shirts, while flying the flag of the Third Reich. In contrast to Yockey, he was pro-American and cooperated with FBI requests, despite the party being targeted by [[COINTELPRO]] due to the mistaken belief that they were agents of Nasser's Egypt during a brief intelligence "brown scare".<ref group= "nb">While the intelligence claims in regards to the Rockwell's American costume group proved unfounded, a number of actual German Nazis did relocate to the Middle East, some converted to Islam and changed their names; particularly Egypt and Syria. This includes [[Johann von Leers]], [[Alois Brunner]], [[Aribert Heim]], [[Franz Stangl]], [[Gerhard Mertins]], [[Hans Eisele (physician)|Hans Eisele]], [[Walter Rauff]], [[Artur Schmitt]] and others. The father of Neo-Nazism, Otto Ernst Remer, also fled to Egypt, then Syria during the 1950s.</ref> Later leaders of American [[white nationalism]] came to politics through the ANP, including a teenage [[David Duke]] and [[William Luther Pierce]] of the [[National Alliance (United States)|National Alliance]], although they soon distanced themselves from explicit self-identification with neo-Nazism.{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}}

In 1961, the [[World Union of National Socialists]] was founded by Rockwell and [[Colin Jordan]] of the British [[National Socialist Movement (UK, 1962)|National Socialist Movement]], adopting the ''[[Cotswold Declaration]].'' French socialite [[Françoise Dior]] was involved romantically with Jordan and his deputy [[John Tyndall (politician)|John Tyndall]] and a friend of Savitri Devi, who also attended the meeting. The National Socialist Movement wore quasi-SA uniforms, was involved in streets conflicts with the Jewish [[62 Group]]. In the 1970s, Tyndall's earlier involvement with neo-Nazism would come back to haunt the [[National Front (UK)|National Front]], which he led, as they attempted to ride a wave of anti-immigration populism and concerns over British national decline. Televised exposes on ''[[This Week (Thames Television TV series)|This Week]]'' in 1974 and ''[[World in Action]]'' in 1978, showed their neo-Nazi pedigree and damaged their electoral chances. In 1967, Rockwell was killed by a disgruntled former member. [[Matt Koehl]] took control of the ANP, and strongly influenced by Savitri Devi, gradually transformed it into an esoteric group known as the [[New Order (Neo-Nazi group)|New Order]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}}

In [[Franco's Spain]], certain SS refugees most notably [[Otto Skorzeny]], [[Léon Degrelle]] and the son of [[Klaus Barbie]] became associated with [[CEDADE]] (''Círculo Español de Amigos de Europa''), an organisation which disseminated Third Reich apologetics out of [[Barcelona]]. They intersected with neo-Nazi advocates from [[Mark Fredriksen]] in France to [[Salvador Borrego]] in Mexico.
In the post-fascist [[Italian Social Movement]] splinter groups such as [[Ordine Nuovo]] and [[Avanguardia Nazionale]], involved in the "[[Years of Lead (Italy)|Years of Lead]]" considered Nazism a reference. [[Franco Freda]] created a "[[Nazi-Maoism]]" synthesis.

In Germany itself, the various Third Reich nostalgic movements coalesced around the [[National Democratic Party of Germany]] in 1964 and in Austria the [[National Democratic Party (Austria, 1967–88)|National Democratic Party]] in 1967 as the primary sympathisers of the NSDAP past, although more publicly cautious than earlier groups.{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}}

=== Holocaust denial and subcultures, 1970s–1990s ===
[[Holocaust denial]], the claim that [[the Holocaust|six million Jews]] were not deliberately and systematically exterminated as an official policy of the Third Reich and Adolf Hitler, became a more prominent feature of neo-Nazism in the 1970s. Before this time, Holocaust denial had long existed as a sentiment among neo-Nazis, but it had not yet been systematically articulated as a theory with a bibliographical canon. Few of the major theorists of Holocaust denial (who call themselves "[[Historical revisionism|revisionists]]") can be uncontroversially classified as outright neo-Nazis (though some works such as those of [[David Irving]] forward a clearly sympathetic view of Hitler and the publisher [[Ernst Zündel]] was deeply tied to international neo-Nazism), however, the main interest of Holocaust denial to neo-Nazis was their hope that it would help them rehabilitate their political ideology in the eyes of the general public. ''[[Did Six Million Really Die?]]'' (1974) by [[Richard Verrall]] and ''[[The Hoax of the Twentieth Century]]'' (1976) by [[Arthur Butz]] are popular examples of Holocaust denial material.
[[File:Flag of the Order of Flemish Militants.svg|thumb|right|The radicalisation of Flemish activist group [[Vlaamse Militanten Orde]] in the 1970s energised international neo-Nazism.]]

Key developments in international neo-Nazism during this time include the radicalisation of the {{lang|nl|[[Vlaamse Militanten Orde]]}} under former [[Hitler Youth]] member [[Bert Eriksson]]. They began hosting an annual conference; the "Iron Pilgrimage"; at [[Diksmuide]], which drew kindred ideologues from across Europe and beyond. As well as this, the [[NSDAP/AO (1972)|NSDAP/AO]] under [[Gary Lauck]] arose in the United States in 1972 and challenged the international influence of the Rockwellite WUNS. Lauck's organisation drew support from the [[National Socialist Movement of Denmark]] of [[Povl Riis-Knudsen]] and various German and Austrian figures who felt that the "National Democratic" parties were too bourgeois and insufficiently Nazi in orientation. This included [[Michael Kühnen]], [[Christian Worch]], [[Bela Ewald Althans]] and [[Gottfried Küssel]] of the 1977-founded [[Action Front of National Socialists/National Activists|ANS/NS]] which called for the establishment of a Germanic [[Fourth Reich]]. Some ANS/NS members were imprisoned for planning paramilitary attacks on [[NATO]] bases in Germany and planning to liberate [[Rudolf Hess]] from [[Spandau Prison]]. The organisation was officially banned in 1983 by the Minister of the Interior.

During the late 1970s, a British subculture came to be associated with neo-Nazism; the [[skinheads]]. Portraying an ultra-masculine, crude and aggressive image, with working-class references, some of the skinheads joined the [[British Movement]] under [[Michael McLaughlin (activist)|Michael McLaughlin]] (successor of [[Colin Jordan]]), while others became associated with the National Front's [[Rock Against Communism]] project which was meant to counter the [[Socialist Workers Party (UK)|SWP]]'s [[Rock Against Racism]]. The most significant music group involved in this project was [[Skrewdriver]], led by [[Ian Stuart Donaldson]]. Together with ex-BM member [[Nicky Crane]], Donaldson founded the international [[Blood & Honour]] network in 1987. By 1992 this network, with input from [[Harold Covington]], had developed a paramilitary wing; [[Combat 18]], which intersected with [[football hooligan]] firms such as the [[Chelsea Headhunters]]. The neo-Nazi skinhead movement spread to the United States, with groups such as the [[Hammerskins]]. It was popularised from 1986 onwards by [[Tom Metzger]] of the [[White Aryan Resistance]]. Since then it has spread across the world. Films such as ''[[Romper Stomper]]'' (1992) and ''[[American History X]]'' (1998) would fix a public perception that [[white power skinheads|neo-Nazism and skinheads]] were synonymous.

[[File:Black_Sun_2.svg|thumb|left|upright|Serrano identified Aryan-Hyperborean blood as the "light of the [[Black Sun (occult symbol)|Black Sun]]", a symbol found at SS-cult site [[Wewelsburg|Wewelsburg Castle]].]]
New developments also emerged on the esoteric level, as former Chilean diplomat [[Miguel Serrano]] built on the works of [[Carl Jung]], [[Otto Rahn]], [[Wilhelm Landig]], [[Julius Evola]] and [[Savitri Devi]] to bind together and develop already existing theories. Serrano had been a member of the [[National Socialist Movement of Chile]] in the 1930s and from the early days of neo-Nazism, he had been in contact with key figures across Europe and beyond. Despite this, he was able to work as an ambassador to numerous countries until the rise of [[Salvador Allende]]. In 1984 he published his book ''Adolf Hitler: The Ultimate Avatar''. Serrano claimed that the Aryans were extragalactic beings who founded [[Hyperborea]] and lived the heroic life of [[Bodhisattvas]], while the Jews were created by the [[Demiurge]] and were concerned only with coarse [[materialism]]. Serrano claimed that a new [[Golden Age]] can be attained if the Hyperboreans repurify their blood (supposedly the light of the Black Sun) and restore their "[[Genetic memory (psychology)|blood-memory]]". As with Savitri Devi before him, Serrano's works became a key point of reference in neo-Nazism.

=== Lifting of the Iron Curtain, 1990s–present ===
With the fall of the [[Berlin Wall]] and the [[collapse of the Soviet Union]] during the early 1990s, neo-Nazism began to spread its ideas in the East, as hostility to the triumphant liberal order was high and [[revanchism]] a widespread feeling. In Russia, during the chaos of the early 1990s, an amorphous mixture of [[KGB]] hardliners, Orthodox neo-Tsarist nostalgics (i.e., [[Pamyat]]) and explicit neo-Nazis found themselves strewn together in the same camp. They were united by opposition to the influence of the United States, against the liberalising legacy of [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]'s {{transliteration|ru|[[perestroika]]}} and on the [[Jewish question]], [[Soviet Anti-Zionism|Soviet Zionology]] merged with a more explicit anti-Jewish sentiment. The most significant organisation representing this was [[Russian National Unity]] under the leadership of [[Alexander Barkashov]], where black-uniform clad Russians marched with a red flag incorporating the [[Swastika]] under the banner of ''[[Russia for Russians]].'' These forces came together in a last gasp effort to save the [[Supreme Soviet of Russia]] against [[Boris Yeltsin]] during the [[1993 Russian constitutional crisis]]. As well as events in Russia, in newly independent ex-Soviet states, annual commemorations for SS volunteers now took place; particularly in [[Remembrance day of the Latvian legionnaires|Latvia]], [[20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian)|Estonia]] and [[14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician)|Ukraine]].

[[File:Evstafiev-neo-bolsheviks.jpg|thumb|right|Members of the [[National Bolshevik Party]]. "Nazbols" tailor ultra-nationalist themes to a native Russian environment while still employing Nazi aesthetics.]]
The Russian developments excited German neo-Nazism who dreamed of a [[Berlin]]–Moscow alliance against the supposedly "decadent" [[Atlanticist]] forces; a dream which had been thematic since the days of Remer.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} Zündel visited Russia and met with ex-KGB general Aleksandr Stergilov and other Russian National Unity members. Despite these initial aspirations, international neo-Nazism and its close affiliates in ultra-nationalism would be split over the [[Bosnian War]] between 1992 and 1995, as part of the [[breakup of Yugoslavia]]. The split would largely be along ethnic and sectarian lines. The Germans and the French would largely back the Western Catholic [[Croats]] (Lauck's NSDAP/AO explicitly [[Foreign fighters in the Bosnian War|called for volunteers]], which Kühnen's [[Free German Workers' Party]] answered and the French formed the "Groupe [[Jacques Doriot]]"), while the Russians and the Greeks would back the Orthodox [[Serbs]] (including Russians from Barkashov's Russian National Unity, [[Eduard Limonov]]'s [[National Bolshevik Party|National Bolshevik Front]] and [[Golden Dawn (political party)|Golden Dawn]] members joined the [[Greek Volunteer Guard]]). Indeed, the revival of [[National Bolshevism]] was able to steal some of the thunder from overt Russian neo-Nazism, as ultra-nationalism was wedded with veneration of [[Joseph Stalin]] in place of Adolf Hitler, while still also flirting with Nazi aesthetics.