TheAction Front of National Socialists/National Activists (German:Aktionsfront Nationaler Sozialisten/Nationale Aktivisten; abbreviated ANS/NA) was aWest Germanneo-Nazi organization founded in 1977 byMichael Kühnen under the name "Action Front of National Socialists" (ANS). It was based around a group of young neo-Nazis inHamburg.[1] Upon founding the group Kühnen declared "we are a revolutionary party dedicated to restoring the values of the Third Reich" and adopted a version of theNazi flag in which theswastika was reversed, with the spaces black and the actual cross blending into the background, as their organization's emblem.[2] He sought to link his movement with other groups, by seeking links withWaffen-SS veterans organisations, sending a delegation to theOrder of Flemish Militants-organised international neo-Nazi rallies inDiksmuide and working closely with theWiking-Jugend.[3]
The ANS quickly gained a reputation for provocative action, attracting much attention in 1978 when its members clashed with police after staging a "Justice forHitler" rally. In 1977 and 1978, ANS members robbed a number of banks and stole weapons from military bases. Accused of planning to bomb NATO facilities and a memorial for the victims of theBergen-Belsen concentration camp and wanting to liberateRudolf Hess, a former Nazi politician, from prison, six members were arrested and convicted to eleven years in prison. Kühnen, himself, was jailed forinciting racial hatred and violence in 1979 after being charged with setting up a terrorist organisation. While in prison, Kühnen wroteDie zweite Revolution (The second Revolution), a program for the ANS. The title referred to the SA leaderErnst Röhm's plans in 1934.[4][5] Because Kühnen played such a central role in the organization, its activities diminished considerably during his imprisonment.[6] In 1981, Johannes Bügner, a former member of the ANS, was killed by five ANS members for leaving the group and for allegedly being gay.[7]
Despite Kühnen's imprisonment, the group continued and, after Kühnen was released from prison in November 1982,[8] it merged with the National Activists (Nationale Aktivisten), a like-minded movement based inFrankfurt, under the leadership of Arndt-Heinz Marx, and inFulda, where it includedThomas Brehl [de].[4][9] Among the ANS/NA's other leading members wereChristian Worch andBela Ewald Althans.[10]
By 1983 the group had some 270 members with other thirty local organisations or "comradeships" (Kameradschaften) and continued to attract attention by holding rallies and leafleting events and posting bills and graffiti.[4] Consisting of both a legal and a clandestine wing,[11] the organization's structure was modeled on Hitler'sSA. Its five central goals were ending Germany's ban on theNazi Party, the expulsion of non-Germans from the country, protecting the environment, opposing the United States, and finally the unification of a neutral and socialist Germany.[12] The organization worked closely withGary Lauck, a German-American neo-Nazi inNebraska, and hisNSDAP/AO. This organization published literature, stickers and the like illegal under Germany's ban on Nazi propaganda and exported it to Germany and the ANS/NA.[13]
However the ANS/NA was banned by theMinistry of the Interior in 1983 and Kühnen fled to France, but was soon deported back to Germany.[14] The ban was not unexpected[15] and most of its members resurfaced in a group calledDie Bewegung (the Movement) and in theFree German Workers' Party (Freie Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; FAP), a political party linked toDie Bewegung.[16] The group was officially dissolved on 7 December.[17] A minor political party that had stood for election in the 1983 election to theLandtag of Hesse,Aktion Ausländerrückführung – Volksbewegung gegen Überfremdung und Umweltzerstörung, was banned at the same time after being adjudged a front movement of ANS/NA.[4]
Kühnen re-emerged soon afterwards with a new group calledNationale Sammlung, although this too was banned in 1989.[18] Following this he began a tactic of regularly forming new movements in an attempt to keep ahead of any bans, a policy he continued to exercise until his death in 1991.[19]
