The Ideological Evolution of Horst Mahler: The Far Left-Extreme Right Synthesis by George MichaelIn the late 1990s, Horst Mahler, a former leader of the Red Army Faction and scion of the radical left, announced his affinity for the extreme right and joined the NPD —Germany’s principal far right party. Later distancing himself from party politics, he founded the Deutsches Kolleg, a far right think tank that promotes German nationalism. Although ostensibly now a rightist, Mahler has synthesized much of his original left-wing ideology into a far right Weltanschauung that features nationalism, anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, with a strident critique of capitalism. As such, it has the potential to appeal to some segments of the contemporary anti-globalization movement, the international extreme right, and even Islamists. Introduction Horst Mahler has emerged as one of the leading far right ideologists in Germany. During the 1970s, he attained international notoriety as a left-wing terrorist, but in the late 1990s, he made a political volte-face declaring his unabashed support for German nationalism. Although identified as part of the far right, he nevertheless retains a Marxian critique of capitalism, which he has interestingly syncretized with rightist themes, including extreme nationalism, anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia. This article examines the ideological evolution of Horst Mahler. First, his early life is sketched. Next, his involvement with the Red Army Faction is examined, followed by discussion on the genesis of his political reversal while in prison. After that, his participation in the NPD is reviewed. Breaking away from traditional party politics, Mahler founded a nationalist think tank—the Deutsches Kolleg—whose major themes are discussed in the next section. His controversial pronouncements did not go unnoticed by German authorities and led to legal troubles which are covered in the following section. Finally, the conclusion explains how Mahler’s syncretic ideology is indicative of a broader trend in which various dissident movements are increasingly converging on a similar critique of certain aspects globalization. Early Life eventually. A melee ensued during which German police fired into the crowd and killed Benno Ohnesorg. the young Mahler was the first German lawyer to successfully lodge a complaint against the European Commission for Civil Rights. However. highly personalized problem was this: how did your parents behave [during the Nazi period]. Mahler was brought to West Berlin as a refugee from the Soviet zone. that whenever events occur that even in a distant way recall the twelve years [of Nazi rule]. which effectively ended his mainstream legal career. a twenty-six year old student. 1967 against the visit of the Shah of Iran to Germany. Nevertheless. Mahler’s parents were both staunch Nazis. Mahler openly identified with the political left by joining the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and also the more radical Socialist Student Union (SDS) (Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund) (SDS). The question had implications for us. In 1949. After graduation in 1964. both during and after the period of the Third Reich. Mahler started his own law firm which specialized in medium-size businesses. Mahler adopted the Bohemian life -style that was popular with the student left at that time. namely. Mahler proved himself to be a keen defender of leftist activists. the leader of the SDS by a twenty-four-year old housepainter and reputed right-wing extremist. 1968. he and some of his left-wing colleagues formed the “Socialist Lawyers’ Collective. which the SPD prohibited in 1959. To better assist left-wing causes. One particular event that galvanized the political left was a demonstration that took place on June 2. Mahler lost his business customers. He was later expelled from the SPD for his membership in the SDS. where he was a member of a nationalist dueling Korps (schlagende Verbindung). Josef Erwin Bachmann. when an attempt was made on the life of Rudi Dutschke. His death sparked outrage among student leftists which precipitated still more protests. Too young to be complicit with the Nazi regime. In 1966. an organ of the far right National Democratic . He received a scholarship to attend the Free University of Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin). Growing up in that era.” Increasingly.” By 1956.The son of a dentist. who was supposedly influenced by the newspaper Deutsche Nationale Zeitung. he confessed that the Nazi past dictated from an early age his shame of being German: “The essential. 1936 in Haynau in Lower Silesia. Horst Mahler was born on January 23. Mahler was emblematic of the so-called “skeptical generation” that developed its political consciousness in the 1950s. because of the SDS’s strident Marxism -Leninism. the young Mahler began to have misgivings over German nationalism. As he took more and more left-wing clients. we must resist them. On many occasions. Unrest continued to increase after April 11. Mahler prominently marched with student activists in demonstrations. they were temporarily paroled under an amnesty for political prisoners. but in November of that year. in December 1968. In June 1969. One such group was the BaaderMeinhof Gang. Eventually. several German leftists. along with Otto Schily and Ernst Heinitz served as the lawyers for the defendants. The Baader-Meinhof Group The militant left in West Germany emerged from the student milieu in West Berlin in the 1960s. Thorwald Proll. which included the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD). attempted to burn down a Frankfurt department store in protest of the Vietnam War. including Andreas Baader. which dominated the press in Berlin and worked to keep public opinion against the student left. Only Söhnlein complied with the order. The radicalization of the German Left commenced around the time of the formation of the formation of the “Grand Coalition” in 1966. organized by the SDS. some elements of the left opted for armed struggle. some activists and political groups looked for political expression through channels outside of parliament. and Horst Söhnlein. Out of this student unrest emerged the Baader-Meinhof Group. an emotional student meeting. the Red Army Faction (RAF) (Rote Armee Fraktion). Consequently. . where they stayed for a time in a home belonging to the prominent French socialist and revolutionary. The protestors reasoned that the Springer Press had created an atmosphere which inspired Bachmann to make the attempt on Dutschke’s life. or as it would come to be known. All four of the defendants were convicted of arson and endangering human life for which they were sentenced to three years in prison. Although officially non-violent. Various elements of the left-wing opposition coalesced into the Ausserparliamentarisch Opposition (APO) or Extra-Parliamentary Opposition in 1968.Party of Germany (NPD) (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands). the rest went underground and made their way to France. Mahler. After they were arrested. the APO attracted militant elements that were impatient with the pace of political change in West Germany. the Federal High Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) demanded that they return to prison. On April 2 and 3. Dutschke fatally succumbed to the wounds that he sustained. This political alliance alienated some of the more radical left-wing activists in Germany who viewed it as a compromise. however. Disillusioned with the German Left’s ability to effect radical change. Gudrun Ensslin. Demonstrations and riots accompanied with arsons and bombings occurred throughout West Germany. At the Technical University. 1968. was held and blame for the incident was laid on the shoulders of the right-wing Springer press organization. social science majors. Although he was let off with a warning.Régis Debray.” As time went by. The prison administration granted Baader permission to use the library at the institute for research on a book he supposedly planned to write on the “organization of young people on the fringe of society. He is believed to have written a booklet—Concerning Armed Struggle in Western Europe — which included instructions for manufacturing weapons and forming commando groups. Mahler originally saw his struggle in class terms describing it not as “a war among nations but a war of classes. and Mahler. not the working class. the traffic cop later recognized him on a wanted poster. the RAF consisted of twenty to thirty cadres and up to 200 supporters. A loosely-organized terrorist organization. primarily. the revolution could only be effectively led by an avant-garde composed of students. On April 2. theoretician. where Mahler visited them and encouraged them to come back to Germany to form an underground guerilla group with him. the threat of unemployment. strategist. As a leftist. and religious boundaries and barriers forever from the stage of history. On that morning. fled to East Germany and eventually made their way to Lebanon. and tactician. he did not really evince much ideological sophistication. two security officers were shot and an elderly staff member was nearly killed. viewing them as compliant and kept in their place by fear of cheap foreign labor. police stopped Baader for driving recklessly. who provided refuge and logistical support. along with Ensslin. The West German terrorists were seen by some as “intellectuals” who engaged in extensive ideological debates. which involved five thousand police officers.” Mahler was recognized as the group’s chief organizer. 1970. a band of RAF members led by Ulrike Meinhof. “he liked to defy for the sake of defying. where they trained with the Palestine Liberation Organization. For the next eighteen months. Meinhof. 1970 as the birth of the RAF. Although Baader was recognized as one of the group’s important leaders. Most of the RAF members actually came from the middle class. which will sweep all nations. the group was the object of the largest manhunt in West German history. According to its analysis. Historians usually mark May 14. a suburb of Berlin. they made their way to Italy. Rather as one observer put it. Many of them were in fact university students. broke Andreas Baader out of the German Institute for Social Questions located in Dahlem. An intensive search for Baader ensued and he was arrested in Berlin the next day. at its peak. cultural. the RAF would speak derisively of the working class in Germany.” During the melee. and the worry of recession. Eventually. Baader. This was similar to the analysis of Herbert . social. Violence did not necessarily have to be structured or coordinated in order to provoke a crisis. the RAF conducted numerous armed robberies to procure weapons and finance their campaign. He is best-known for his book. In an effort to codify their revolutionary approach. the left had to look elsewhere for support. Soon thereafter martial law was declared and a brutal counterterrorist campaign ensued. Their grand strategy centered on winning support from the middle class and the working class. Marighella’s most original concept was that all revolutionary violence could be based in the urban areas and controlled by a small group of urban guerillas. many left-wing terrorist groups in the late 1960s and 1970s were heavily influenced by the Tupamaros and viewed their campaign as a model of urban terrorism. the small tract provided a justification for armed struggle against the West German government.Marcuse. the Minimanual of the Urban Guerilla. Both Marighella and the Tupamaros believed that people would flock to the revolutionaries once government repression was employed. the left-leaning government was defeated in the election of 1971 and a right wing government came to power. However. Mahler proposed the creation of a German urban guerilla movement based on the model of the Tupamaros in Uruguay. in which he propounded a strategy to move revolutionary violence from the countryside to the city. However. students. Many left wing revolutionaries were greatly inspired by the Brazilian revolutionary Carlos Marighella and his concept of the urban guerilla. Thus in order to effect its goals. this strategy was put into practice in Uruguay by a group called the Tupamaros. those in . and as a result. and in doing so. the RAF released an ideological text titled Das Konzept Stadtguerilla (The Urban Guerilla Concept). Published in April 1971. the opposite was true. viz. their propensity for violence alienated many people. in particular. create the atmosphere conducive for a revolution. as the people wanted order. a prominent French left-wing philosopher. Consequently. Founded by Raul Sendic in 1963. who lamented that the working class did not have much revolutionary potential in that it was generally content with its predicament. Despite its failures. Mimicking the Tupamaros. The tract detailed government repression against left-activists and voiced common cause with Third World liberation movements revolutionaries in other parts of the world. In the late 1960s. the Tupamaros was composed primarily of students. In 1968 the Tupamaros launched a massive campaign of decentralized terrorism against the Uruguayan government. actually supported the harsh counterterror measures. the RAF evinced an increasing anti-Zionism that veered closely to anti-Semitism. flew to Beirut and made their way to an al Fatah training camp. attacked Jewish targets—including synagogues—on the anniversary of Krystal Nacht. Petra Scheim. and NATO as “the heart of the imperialist-feudal system. Around that time.” The West German government was identified as an integral part of the system without which U. imperialism could not be successfully waged. Although stridently anti-fascist. for example. For example. members of the RAF cast Zionism as a form as racism. who framed that issue in the context of a larger anti-imperialist struggle. claiming that they were not aware of the final solution. Ulrike Meinhof. the Federal Republic of Germany had the highest concentration of Palestinian students in Europe in large part to the gover nment’s generous subsidies in granting stipends to Arab students. Mahler identified the U. the Arab terrorists took a dim view of the permissiveness of their German counterparts. RAF leader. Increasingly.S. military. expressed approval of Black September’s murder of Israeli athletes at the Summer Olympic Games held in Munich in 1972. and in Europe. which was actually consistent with the Zeitgeist among Third World liberation movements during that period and culminated in the UN General . military bases that were located on German soil. managed to infiltrate and dominate some Palestinian student organizations and establish ties with left-wing organizations. Al Fatah. To demonstrate their solidarity with the Palestinians. “Money Jews”). over time.S.China. Latin America.S-led war in Vietnam had a catalyzing effect on the left both in the U. the Palestinian cause featured more and more prominently among RAF members. but rather Jews as capitalists. Monkika Berberich. the Tupamaros —West Berlin. some RAF members. Manfred Grashof. however. once described saw anti-Semitism as a manifestation of anti-capitalism in the sense that people resented their dependence on Jewish bankers (or as she put it. She argued that the people did not hate Jews qua Jews. as it was described as a courageous anti-imperialist commando raid. the armed branch of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). including Mahler. along with Hans-Jürgen Bäcker. Algeria. the RAF believed that by attacking the German government. The Middle East was seen as a vital strategic. While in Lebanon. Mahler. and economic region for the forces of imperialism. and Vietnam. In June 1970. As their struggle continued. Palestinian assistance to German left-wing terrorists usually took the form of training and offering safe havens. The U. Brigitte Asdonk. it could undermine the war effort. she sought to exonerate the working class from the culpability of the Nazi genocide.S. Furthermore. Although the West German government was only indirectly involved in the prosecution of the Vietnam War by way of U.S. some left-wing radicals. Using their lawyers as conduits. which resulted in the deaths of two guerillas and one hostage. Günter von Drenkmann was assassinated in his home. 1972. on the other hand. police stations. it brought down the wrath of West German authorities who mounted a massive manhunt for RAF fugitives.S. military bases. Mahler. subconsciously identifying with the Nazi era. leaders of the RAF were able to direct some terrorist operations while incarcerated in prison. most of the leadership of the RAF was under arrest and in prison. However. Shortly thereafter. and offices of the Springer Press. the president of the West German Supreme Court. On October 13. reacting against the recent past and sought to compensate for it and. On June 1. members of the RAF were “Hitler’s children” in the sense that they were. the RAF stepped up its campaign and bombed U. on the one hand. Gudrun Ensslin and Ulrike Meinhof were arrested as well. and Jan-Carl Raspe after a shootout. or a “freeing the guerilla movement. Increasingly. 1974 following a hunger strike to protest prison conditions sparked a renewed campaign of left-wing terrorism in Germany. four Arabs and three Germans—including a woman—hijacked the Lufthansa Boeing 737 in Morocco . An accidental explosion of the guerillas’ arsenal. In a sense. German authorities launched “Operation Watersplash” in an effort to round up RAF members still on the lam. police arrested Holger Meins. Andreas Baader. imperialism was merely a continuation of fascism. and Irene Georgens.Assembly Resolution 3379 announced in 1975 which determined that Zionism was a form of racial discrimination. Often evoking Germany’s Nazi past. On November 10. the RAF maintained that U. On April 25. the RAF became preoccupied with securing the release of its imprisoned comrades.” rather than effecting its political goals. According to the journalist Jillian Becker. six members of the Holger Meins Brigade seized the West German embassy in Stockholm. where they took twelve hostages and demanded the release of twenty-six political prisoners in Germany. the RAF idea lived on. along with Monika Berberich. The fall of 1977—Der Deutscher Herbst (The German Autumn) —was the high point of the conflict between the RAF and West German authorities. During the early 1970s. In May 1972. albeit in another guise. was arrested in an apartment on October 8.S. By 1976. Brigitte Asdonk. The June 2 Movement claimed responsibility. 1975. the June 2 movement and various “Red Cells” continued their sporadic attacks . The death of Holger Meins on November 9. the RAF saw its activities as a way to expatiate guilt for Germany Nazi past. 1977. ended the incident. 1970. as new members picked up the banner of the organization and continued to carry out sporadic acts of terrorism. Despite these setbacks. By doing so. left-wing critiques of the RAF were probably the most scathing of all. members of the RAF had kidnapped Schleyer and held him for ransom. stormed the plane and ended the crisis. The hijackers intended to use the passengers as blackmail to release RAR members from prison. the RAF announced that they had killed Hanns Martin Schleyer. the president of the Employers’ Association of West Germany and also president of the Federation of German Industry whose body was later discovered in the town Mulhouse new the French-German border. the group formally announced its disbandment. In fact. Ulrike Meinhof had hanged herself earlier. the West German government took the RAF very seriously. The example of Weimar was often invoked by the media and leading politicians as an historical analogue insofar as the new West German democracy was again threatened by anti-democratic forces. the German government created a massive security apparatus.and ultimately settled in Mogadishu. A special counterterrorism squad—the Grenzschutzgruppe 9 (GSG 9)—flew in from Bonn. threatening to kill him if imprisoned RAF members were not released. Arguably.” Finally. in March 1998. as its violence did much to the discredit the far left in Germany. along with two British Special Air Service men. Andreas Baader. In order to avoid the “mistakes of the past. and Jan-Carl Raspe committed suicide at the Stammheim Prison where they were incarcerated. To combat terrorism. None of the captives were killed in the ordeal. Gudrun Ensslin. the leftists saw Schleyer as emblematic of the Federal Republic’s Nazi past. which resulted in the death of three hijackers and the wounding of a fourth. The RAF greatly overestimated its support from among the German populace. On October 9. As to be expected. the RAF managed to keep the extreme left from being effective on the political spectrum.” the government responded forcefully and resolutely to the RAF disproportionate to the violence that the latter unleashed. explaining that the concept of the urban guerilla was no longer relevant in contemporary German society. The terrorists became a liability to the more respectable German left. A month earlier. Prison . Members had the mistaken notion that revolutionary violence would spark a national conflagration that would drive the masses to its cause. with the collapse of the Soviet bloc. In 1992. A former SS-officer who served under Rheinhard Heydrich in Czechoslovakia during World War II. the RAF issued a communiqué announcing cessation to violence against “representatives of business and the state. Just a few hours after the episode. Mahler was sentenced to fourteen years in prison for his various convictions. Mahler recommended that his comrades accept the consequence of their actions without making specious complaints. Mahler faced several criminal trials. The following year. commenting that he refused “to justify the murder of unarmed civilians. Instead. who would go to become the German chancellor in 1997. Seeking to once again practice law. [and] kidnappings. the radical left in Germany failed to develop a mass following as the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre counseled the left to do Disillusioned by the violence of the RAF. Mahler was eventually released on parole in the early 1980s. In yet another trial in 1974. Mahler was convicted of forming a criminal organization.For his RAF-related activities.” “Acts like these” Mahler opined “are crimes against the revolution. When German radicals kidnapped Peter Lorenz. As he saw it. massacres. Mahler was found guilt for membership of an illegal organization. Mahler was tried for his part in the Baader rescue. Mahler refused to be included in the exchange. Schröeder helped Mahler regain admission to the bar in 1988. Once again. who would later go on to serve as Germany’s Minister of the Interior from 1998 -2005. To make matters worse. he was dismissed from the bar in 1974. he described the campaign of the RAF as a sign of weakness of the German socialist left insofar as it resorted to violence rather than seeking to develop power through legitimate and politically constructive means. along with Irene Goergens and Ingrid Schubert. In the fall of that year. he dismissed the charges of his fellow RAF inmates that they had been tortured in prison. Schily served as his defense counsel. which allowed Mahler to restart his legal business in Berlin. All totaled. as a form of anti-imperialist struggle. He would go on to use his legal skills to defend Germany’s most prominent far right political party. to serve as his lawyer. While in prison. Mahler hired.” Mahler finally broke with the RAF in 1974. Mahler appeared to have a genuine change of heart with respect to terrorism. a former associate. a high-ranking official in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and pressured the West German government to release certain prisoners. Mahler was also tried for bank robbery along with other RAF members. defended Mahler during his 1971 trial for demonstrating in front of the Springer Press. describing the allegations as a “propaganda lie” intended to “morally blackmail” the left and “legitimate the brutal form of struggle” employed by t he guerillas seeking to extort the release of their imprisoned comrades. In 1978. Gerhard Schröeder. Otto Schily. in the aftermath of the events of 1977. . contributed to the sporadic success of far right parties.3 percent of the vote —the best result that an extreme right party achieved in a national election in postwar Germany. including concern over immigration and economic problems in the East. the founder of the neo-Nazi National Alliance. For example. after remaining politically dormant for many years. Udo Voigt took over the reins of the NPD. NPD leaders have cast doubt on the Nazi Holocaust. and Waldemar Schütz in Hanover as an umbrella organization of several extreme right and conservative parties. extreme right parties were effectively marginalized in the electoral arena. The NPD has interfaced with some American far rightists. several trends. As a consequence. Pierce. The party was founded in November 1964 by Adolf von Thadden. For years. most notably. by the 1990s. Fritz Thielen. William L. The ground is now ready for completing this enlightenment. It .000 members and publishes a monthly periodical called Deutsche Stimme. the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands).2 percent of the votes cast in the election. the NPD entered the Dresden parliament with 9. he drew a connection between the generation of 1968 and the development of a new German völkisch ideology: The 1968 generation destroyed tradition and religion as world-shaping conceptions…and brought our people a step nearer to maturity. Currently. though. its success had come to an abrupt end. in 2004.The NPD Far right political parties emerged in Germany at the time of the creation of the Federal Republic in 1949. We experience this result of the cultural revolution of 1968 as Hell. however. or the Legacy of the Generation of 68” he wrote for a right-wing newspaper called Junge Freihet. However. Mahler revealed his new political beliefs and announced his support for the NPD. But. With the economic slump in 1966. In an article titled “Trut h Revealed. In 1996. In 1998. which will simultaneously mean their surmounting. since also with tradition and religion our moral substance has departed…As a cultureless Volk we live in a second Stone Age. The platform of the NPD demands the reinstatement of Germany’s 1937 borders. by 1972. a new party. depicting it as a fabrication to bring guilt to the German people and stymie their nationalist aspirations. In the 1969 Bundestag election. the “Economic Miracle” of postwar Germany produced a broad legitimation of the new Federal Republic. the party has about 6. the late Dr. the party received 4. marked a return of the electoral extreme right in Germany. Soon thereafter. and in this sense as an historical service of the 1968 generation…. Mahler. In March 2003. Ultimately. Mahler called for the banning of Jewish organizations in Germany. Mahler decided to break with party politics and instead focus his efforts in the realm of ideas. the case against the NPD failed on procedural grounds. In a case of tit-for-tat.requires some effort of thought to really extinguish the mental vacuum —this condition of absolute negativity. right-wing violence has been a serious concern of the German government. the German federal government requested that the country’s highest court consider a ban against the NPD for its connections to neo-Nazi skinhead gangs. In 1999. especially in Landers in the east. he and Reinhold Oberlercher founded the Deutsches Kolleg. the Federal Constitutional court ruled that the evidence submitted against the NPD was tainted insofar as it included testimony from paid informants who had infiltrated the party and whose identities the government refused to disclose. represented the NPD in the court proceedings. which threatens to destroy us now as humans and as a Volk —and recognize as something positive. To that end. Eventually. . Let us be warriors of thought! Let us argue together—for God and our forefathers’ country! . Since reunification. Otto Schily. led the effort to ban the NPD. His old comrade. both houses of parliament —the Budesraat and the Bundestag—announced their intentions to ban the party as well. In an interesting twist. which began in 2002. the German Interior Minister.
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