Profession neo-Nazi

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Movie
Original title Profession neo-Nazi
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1993
length 83 minutes
Age rating FSK -
Rod
Director Winfried Bonengel
script Winfried Bonengel
production Ost-Film Hoffmann & Loeser Production (Potsdam)
camera Johann Feindt
cut Wolfram Kohler
occupation

Profession Neo-Nazi is a German documentary from 1993.

action

In the film, the young neo-Nazi Ewald Althans is accompanied through his "everyday work". The film dispenses with off-screen comments and leaves Althans' remarks uncommented. The way in which Althan's self-staging and monologue are strung together makes Althan's political position clear.

The film begins in Canada with Ernst Zündel , for whom Althans works as a “contact man”. Zündel leads the camera team through his office and demonstrates his ideology using various utensils, such as imitation concentration camp inmate clothing that he wore when he went to prison , demo signs, and audio and visual material. The next scene shows Althans in front of a courthouse where a trial of the history revisionist David Irving is taking place. A demonstration against Irving is also on site. Althans says he is staying out of Canadian politics. In Zündel's office, he called him his confidante, his voice in Germany, where he himself was banned from entering the country.

In Munich, Althans guides you through the offices of its AVO (Althans sales channels and public relations), a dispatch point for propaganda material, and introduces its employees. A visit to Althans' parents caused lively discussions because his parents rejected his political convictions.

Then he goes to a neo-Nazi meeting in Poland. One scene shows Althans on the grounds of the Auschwitz Memorial , where he denies the mass murder of European Jews . Among other things, he disrupts a tour and discusses the "Holocaust lie" with a young person. He repeated the denial on a slide presentation in front of “comrades”, among other things, because he claims to have discovered a swimming pool, allegedly for concentration camp prisoners, off the “official tour”. Some slides show Althans and confidants during the Hitler salute . A very old employee of Althans is interviewed, who gives a fiery speech about Adolf Hitler and Rudolf Hess and describes Zündel as their legitimate successor.

The next scenes show volunteers from the Croatian war reporting on their experiences and a German event at which Althans asks for donations for the Croatian fight. The film ends with a speech by Althans to neo-Nazis and skinheads in Cottbus .

Prohibition

The film was banned from showing in some cities and caused a lot of media attention. A few weeks later it was shown to people over the age of 18, although some clarifying words had to be read out by the organizer / cinema operator before the film. Discussions about the film were then often held.

Aftermath

Althans was sentenced in 1996 to a total imprisonment of three years and six months for denigrating the state and incitement to hatred in unity with denigration of the memory of the deceased and insult. The statements documented in the film served as evidence.

The sociologist and social psychologist Hans-Dieter König examined the neo-Nazi profession in detail using methods of depth hermeneutics . He stated that Althans could not only be perceived as a “malicious and cynical anti-Semite”, but also as a “smart and handsome young man”, as a “yuppie Nazi” who was also “authoritarian, consumerist and medial modes of social adaptation”. represent. König explained this contradiction on the one hand through the "postmodern zeitgeist" in which the film was made, and on the other hand through the political climate in which Helmut Kohl wanted to "archive" the Holocaust as a historical experience during his chancellorship and freeze feelings of shame and guilt. This, according to König, made it possible for neo-Nazis like Althans to reinterpret "the former extermination camp [Auschwitz] as an amusing excursion destination".

literature

  • Hans-Dieter König: The Holocaust survivor and the grinning neo-Nazi . In-depth hermeneutic reconstruction of a scene sequence from the Bonengel film Profession Neo-Nazi . In: Psychosozial 18, 1995, Issue 61 ( Medial staging of right-wing violence ), pp. 13-25.
  • Horst-Eberhard Richter: Escape into the authoritarian? The film "Profession neo-Nazi" as a lesson . In: Psychosozial 18, 1995, Issue 61 ( Medial Staging of Right-Wing Violence ), pp. 43–46.
  • Hans-Dieter König: A neo-Nazi in Auschwitz. In-depth hermeneutic reconstruction of a film sequence from Bonengels profession neo-Nazi and its effect in the cultural climate of postmodernism . In: Hans-Dieter König (Ed.): Social psychology of right-wing extremism . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1995, pp. 372-415.
  • Hans-Dieter König: “Today I wear a Jewish star in the shape of a swastika!” In-depth hermeneutic biography research using the example of Bonengel's documentary Occupation Neo-Nazi . In: Politisches Lern 15, 1997, Heft 3 ( Politisches scenisch decrypteln ), pp. 141–176.
  • Hans-Dieter König: How students see “Profession neo-Nazi”. About the effect of the film on high school and vocational school students. Deep hermeneutic media effects research (Part I) . In: Practical Media 19, 1995, No. 4, pp. 20–26.
  • Hans-Dieter König: How students see “Profession neo-Nazi”. Criticism of ideology and scenic understanding. Deep hermeneutic media effects research (Part II) . In: Medienapy 20, 1996, Issue 1, pp. 36–40.
  • Hans-Dieter König: How students see “Profession neo-Nazi”. Gender competition and conflicts of authority. Deep hermeneutic media effects research (Part III) . In: Medienapy 20, 1996, Issue 2, pp. 52–56.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Since Zündel is a German citizen, this is obviously untrue. However, there was an arrest warrant against him.
  2. ↑ Summary based on Hans-Dieter König: Tiefenhermeneutik . In: Uwe Flick, Ernst von Kardorff, Ines Steinke (eds.): Qualitative research. A manual . 6th edition, Reinbek 2008, pp. 556-569, here pp. 562-566.