Rolf Michaelis (military writer)

Rolf Michaelis (* 1968 ) is an author and publisher active in the field of military history , who mainly publishes in right-wing extremist publishers and magazines with a focus on the Waffen-SS . Serious media classify his writings as apologetic to right-wing extremist.

Writing and political activity

Rolf Michaelis is self-taught. As such, he wrote and published a large number of books on SS units. He is the main author of the German military magazine (DMZ), which is assigned to the right-wing extremist spectrum by the federal government . He publishes for the most part in a self-publisher opened in 1994 (place of publication initially Erlangen, currently Berlin), further publications by him appear in Winkelried-Verlag , whose publisher is Eric Kaden , an employee of the NPD parliamentary group in Schwerin , who runs a right-wing extremist mail order book trade.

In 2006 Winkelried published three books on foreigners ( Ukrainians , Estonians , Russians ) in the Waffen SS. "Die Waffen-SS" was also published in 2006 as a special edition of the book previously self-published, as well as a book about the SS special unit Dirlewanger, notorious for its war crimes .

The publication The 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg" went a long way through various publishers . In 2004 it was self-published by the author, in 2006 by the right-wing extremist Nation Europa publishing house, and in the same year also for “Wydawn. Militaria ”in Warsaw and in 2009 in licensed edition by the right-wing extremist Dörfler-Verlag . Dörfler also publishes other books by Michaelis, and more were published by a small and grant publisher ( Leonidas-Verlag ).

Michaelis is a member of the Kameradenwerk Korps Steiner eV , founded in 1967 , the "Troop Comradeship of European Volunteers in the Waffen-SS 'III. Panzer Corps' ”. Felix Steiner was temporarily in command of the III. (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps .

reception

A reception of the numerous writings by Michaelis in serious contemporary history research is hardly discernible. As far as there was an isolated perception, the judgment is consistently negative. Serious voices agree on the assignment to apologetically to openly right-wing extremist journalism.

• Grandstand. Journal for the Understanding of Judaism (2000): Michaelis "draws attention to itself in right-wing extremists"
• the political scientist Thomas Casagrande (2003): Michaelis glorifies "soldier heroism without really going into the causes and backgrounds"
• the military historian Romedio Graf von Thun-Hohenstein in a review of Das SS-Fallschirmjäger-Bataillon 500/600 (2007): Although the text contains some information, it contains considerable technical defects in the sources. Overall, it turns out to be "very apologetic" and can "therefore only be used with reservations".

Web links

• Michaelis Verlag website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Evaluation of the magazine: The Federal Government's response to the minor question from MPs Ulla Jelpke, Inge Höger, Petra Pau, Paul Schäfer (Cologne) and the Die Linke parliamentary group: Contacts between the Bundeswehr and advertisers for the right-wing extremist German military magazine. Bundestag printed paper 16/9550, June 12, 2008 (PDF, 116 kB), accessed on April 1, 2012.
2. ↑ The SS Storm Brigade "Dirlewanger". Winkelried, Dresden 2006.
3. ↑ Publishers after a query at the DNB on April 1, 2012
4. ↑ Grandstand. Journal for Understanding of Judaism, Vol. 39 (2000), H. 153-156, p. 128; AVS-Informationsdienst, 20th year, 1999, p. CXIII.
5. ↑ Grandstand. Journal for Understanding of Judaism, Vol. 39 (2000), H. 153–156, p. 128.
6. ↑ Thomas Casagrande, The Volksdeutsche SS Division "Prinz Eugen". The Banat Swabians and the National Socialist war crimes, Frankfurt (Main) 2003, p. 305.
7. ^ Romedio Graf von Thun-Hohenstein: Rösselsprung (PDF; 8.7 MB) . In: Austrian military magazine XLV. Volume 1, January / February 2007, pp. 23–30, here: footnote 6), p. 30.