Bela Ewald Althans
| Bela Ewald Althans | |
|---|---|
| Born |
23 March 1966 Bremen, Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Other names | Bernd Althans |
| Known for | Neo-Nazism political activism |
Bela Ewald Althans (born 23 March 1966 in Bremen) 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.
Althans was born into a middle-class family where he was taught to reject Nazism 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.
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-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.
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