Gottfried Küssel | |
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 Küssel in 2008 | |
| Born | Gottfried Küssel (1958-09-10)10 September 1958 (age 67) Vienna, Austria |
| Years active | 1976–present |
| Organization(s) | Volkstreue außerparlamentarische Opposition [de] Gesinnungsgemeinschaft der Neuen Front |
| Known for | Neo-Nazi activist |
| Criminal charge | RevivingNazism |
| Criminal penalty | Ten years' imprisonment |
| Criminal status | Released in 1999, re-imprisoned in 2013 |
Gottfried Küssel (born 10 September 1958) is an Austrianfar-right political activist who also gained some notoriety inGermany. He has been a leading figure inneo-Nazism andHolocaust denial since the 1970s.
Born inVienna,[1] Küssel first became involved in politics in 1976 when he became a member ofAktion Neue Rechte, aGerman New Right organisation, and by his admission joined theNSDAP/AO the following year.[1] He was also a member of the neo-NaziKameradschaft Babenberg from 1979 until it was outlawed in April 1980 and around this time also edited the far-right magazineHalt.[1]
In the early 1980s Küssel undertook much work amongstfootball supporters, especially those ofRapid Vienna, aimed at recruiting them to the far right, in particular theVolksbewegung, which he joined in 1982.[1] He was arrested in 1983 and imprisoned on charges of attempting to reviveNazism.[1] Released in 1984, Küssel was involved in a number of minor groups, notably theNationalen Front andVolkssozialistischen Partei, until in 1986 he established his own extremist movement, theVolkstreue außerparlamentarische Opposition [de] (VAPO).[1] A pamphlet that Küssel produced under the VAPO banner outlining his belief thatAnne Frank'sThe Diary of a Young Girl was a forgery brought him to the attention of neo-Nazis in Germany and in 1987, at a gathering inFrankfurt he was recognised by his German counterparts asBereichsleiter Ostmark, or leader inOstmark.[1]
VAPO took part in public rallies in Austria whilst also drilling members in military exercises whilst Küssel himself was interviewed onZick-Zack, a youth programme onORF, during which he was identified as a neo-Nazi.[1] He also sought to improve his international contacts, holding meetings with the likes ofGary Lauck andMichael Kühnen, and in 1992 attending a conference ofhistorical revisionists inMunich at which the likes ofDavid Irving,Fred Leuchter,Mark Weber andUdo Walendy were leading speakers.[1]
Following the death of Michael Kühnen in 1991 Küssel joinedChristian Worch andArnulf Priem [de] in taking control of Kühnen's final group, theGesinnungsgemeinschaft der Neuen Front (GdNF).[2] In this role he continued to be a public face of neo-Nazism whilst also organising military training for both Austrian and German activists.[1] Having taken over as sole leader of theGerman Alternative he pushed that movement, which had publicly maintained a legal façade unlike the more openly militant GdNF, along a more openly violent path, resulting in it being banned in 1992.[3] Küssel would claim that Kühnen had named him his successor on his deathbed.[4] His public engagements included a controversial appearance on theAmerican new programmeNightline during which he calledAdolf Hitler the greatest man in German history and publicly deniedthe Holocaust, as well as an interview forTele 5 in which he called for the re-registration of theNazi Party as a legal political party.[1] According toIngo Hasselbach Küssel would also regularly lead his supporters in attacks on refugee centres[5] whilst four of those detained after aletter bomb attack on such an establishment in Vienna in January 1992 were high-profile VAPO members or supporters (although Küssel himself was not arrested in connection with this incident).[6] Küssel had played a leading role in helping to establish neo-Nazi cells in the formerEast Germany in the immediate aftermath ofGerman reunification.[7]
In 1992, along with his ally Klaus Kopanski, Küssel was arrested at his Vienna apartment and charged again with Nazi revivalism. Found guilty the following year by the Regional Court in Vienna, he was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment.[1] During his absence Austrian neo-Nazism was led by his alliesGerhard Endres in Vienna andJürgen Lipthay inSalzburg.[8] Küssel's imprisonment was followed by a number of bombings carried out byneo-Nazi militants using home-made bombs as a protest against the sentence.[9] He was released from prison in 1999, receiving an early release for good behaviour.[10]
Although no longer in an official leadership position, Küssel has continued to be a prominent figure on the far right and has been a regular speaker at a number of neo-Nazi events, often alongside his long-term collaboratorHans Jörg Schimanek Jr. [de].[11] In February 2005 he was fined €360 for possessing illegal weapons after he was found to own a number of daggers and bayonets, which contravened a weapons ban placed on him in 1982.[12] He was arrested again in 2010 after giving theHitler salute in a Vienna bar and attacking its Venezuelan-born female owner with an umbrella.[13]
In 2011 he was arrested in connection with investigations intoAlpen-Donau.info [de], an Austrian neo-Nazi blog and website and on 12 December that same year he was publicly indicted for his involvement in the initiative.[14] The trial was due to get underway in May 2012 but was twice delayed due to concerns over the jury.[15][16]
When the trial finally got under way Küssel was found guilty of breaching theVerbotsgesetz 1947, which bans any attempt to revive Nazism. Presiding Judge Martina Krainz noted the importance of the internet in disseminating extremist information and due to this, as well as Küssel's status as "a leading figure in the extreme-right scene" with several earlier convictions, she sentenced him to nine years' imprisonment.[17]
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