Heathen Front

The Allgermanische Heidnische Front (AHF) was an international organisation, active during the late 1990s and early 2000s, that espoused a philosophy known as "Odalism". The AHF's folkish heathenry was imbued with antisemitism, xenophobia, and blood and soil nationalism. It cited among its ideological forebears Richard Walther Darré and far-right German Greens such as Herbert Gruhl, August Hausleiter. These pronouncements placed the AHF firmly within the "green-brown" or ecofascist perspective.

History

In 1993, the Norsk Hedensk Front (Norwegian Heathen Front) was founded, rapidly evolving into the AHF, "a network of independent tribes."

The Swedish Heathen Front (Svensk Hednisk Front) was a small group formed around 1996.[1]

The German chapter, Deutsche Heidnische Front, was founded in 1998 by Hendrik Möbus. In 2001, the AHF claimed chapters in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, Canada, Russia, and Flanders.[2]

There was also a short-lived English Heathen Front closely associated during its inception with the British Movement but later linked by Searchlight, the anti-fascist monthly, to Tom Gowers, an officer of the British National Party based in the East Midlands, and to the militant odinist group Woden's Folk.[3] The EHF promoted ethnopluralism, metagenetics, blood and soil national ecology, and celebrated the ideas of English folkish thinker Rolf Gardiner, in particular his denunciation of "plutodemocracy".[4]

Norwegian black metal musician and heathen Varg Vikernes has been linked to the Heathen Front. In a 2009 interview with Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet, Vikernes states: "I have never formed or been a member of such organisations".[5] The claim that Vikernes was the leader of the Heathen Front was initiated by the Norwegian anti-fascist magazine Monitor.

In an interview, Vikernes states:

The NHF (Norwegian Heathen Front) was persecuted in Norway, by the Antifa/Monitor, who repeatedly wrote that the NHF was neo-Nazi and that leader was Varg Vikernes, and so forth. Even when the NHF told them that Varg Vikernes is not the leader of the NHF or the AHF they just kept on about it. Even the secret police claimed adamantly that I was the leader of the NHF when they interviewed one of the NHF guys ... He told them I wasn't the leader, but they just ignored him and trusted their own sources instead.[6]

Although not being a member of the Allgermanische Heidnische Front, Vikernes maintained an affiliation with them during his time in prison, writing articles for their magazine. Vikernes later ceased to be involved with the organisation.[6]

In 2005 the Allgermanische Heidnische Front was closed down.[1]

Ideology

The Heathen Front was at times accused of neo-Nazism, white supremacism and anti-semitism.[7][8][9] For example, a 2001 report by the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism describes the Svensk Hednisk Front (Swedish Heathen Front – SHF) as "an emerging Nazi organization" with an ideology blending "Odinism, anti-Christianity and antisemitism."[10]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Western Esotericism in Scandinavia, 2016, p.384
  2. ↑ Gardell, p. 307, referring to the now defunct homepage: http://www.heathenfront.org/chap.htm
  3. ↑ The English Heathen Front, Searchlight http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/features/article/24/new-bnp-same-old-nazis-and-thugs
  4. ↑ English Heathen Front website http://www.heathenfront.org/ehf)
  5. ↑ Midtskogen, Rune (4 July 2009). ""Greven" angrer ingenting" ["The Count" regrets nothing] (in Norwegian). Retrieved 25 August 2009.
  6. 1 2 "Interview with Varg Vikernes". 12 August 2004. Retrieved 29 August 2009.
  7. ↑ Searchlight Magazine: Nazi black metal leader arrested in the US
  8. ↑ Turn It Down
  9. ↑
  10. ↑ Antisemitism Worldwide 2000/1 - Sweden
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