Heathen Front
{{short description|Defunct neo-Nazi organization}}
File:Flag of the All-Germanic Heathens Front.svg (SS-rune)]]
The Allgermanische Heidnische Front (AHF) was an international neo-Nazi organisation, active during the late 1990s and early 2000s, that espoused a form of racial Germanic Neopaganism. It grew from the Norsk Hedensk Front (NHF), which was claimed to be led and founded by the musician Varg Vikernes in 1993, although he and the organisation denied it. The program was based on his first book, Vargsmål (1994), published shortly after he was convicted for church arson and the murder of fellow musician Euronymous.
Formation and Vikernes association
Norsk Hedensk Front (Norwegian Heathen Front) was founded in 1993.{{sfn|Gardell|2003|p=307|}} Its program was based on Vargsmål (1994),{{cite book |last1=Goodrick-Clarke |first1=Nicholas |author-link=Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke |title=Black sun : Aryan cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the politics of identity |date=2003 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=0-8147-3155-4|page=205}} a book by Norwegian black metal musician Varg Vikernes. It was written shortly after he was convicted for church arson and the murder of Euronymous as a rebuttal to the media.{{harvnb|Moynihan|Søderlind|1998|p=159}} Swedish scholar Matthias Gardell states in his 2003 book Gods of the Blood that Vikernes launched the Heathen Front through which he advocated "national socialism, anti-Semitism, eugenics and racist paganism."{{harvnb|Gardell|2003|p=307|ps=, quote: "Advocating national socialism, anti-Semitism, eugenics, and racist paganism, Vikernes launched Norsk Hedensk Front in 1993, which soon evolved into a network of independent tribes called the Allgermanische Heidnische Front (AHF)"}} The Encyclopedia of White Power (2000) said that Vikernes was the "self-proclaimed leader" of the Norwegian Heathen Front{{cite book |last1=Cattarinich |first1=Xavier |editor1-last=Kaplan |editor1-first=Jeffrey |editor1-link=Jeffrey Kaplan (academic) |title=Encyclopedia of White Power: A Sourcebook on the Radical Racist Right |date=2000 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=9780742503403 |pages=319–320 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nNWbbhUYv8oC&q=Varg%20Vikernes%20%22heathen%20front%22&pg=PA319 |access-date=12 November 2019 |language=en}} and the historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke mentioned that Vikernes underlined "his role as chieftain of his Norwegian Heathen Front" with the writing of Vargsmål, "formulat[ing] his heathen ideology using material from Norse mythology combined with occult National Socialism".{{harvnb|Goodrick-Clarke|2003|pp=204–205}} As of 1999, Heathen Front's website was selling Vargsmål.{{cite news |last1=Ward |first1=Eric K. |last2=Lunsford |first2=John |last3=Massa |first3=Justin |title=Black Metal Spreads Neo-Nazi Hate Message |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/1999/black-metal-spreads-neo-nazi-hate-message |access-date=21 March 2019 |work=Intelligence Report |publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center |date=Fall 1999 |language=en}}
The Heathen Front denied that Vikernes was in charge. According to the 2003 book Lords of Chaos, Vikernes' direct involvement with the group is difficult to ascertain, and speculated that the denial may have been to protect him, as Norwegian prisoners were prohibited from leading political groups. In addition, the organization's listed address was the same PO box Vikernes used in prison, which the authors state would have made it "very hard for him [Vikernes] to do an effective job" at leading the organization, as all letters would have been screened by the prison personnel.{{cite book |last1=Moynihan |first1=Michael J. |last2=Søderlind |first2=Didrik |author-link1=Michael Jenkins Moynihan |author-link2=Didrik Søderlind |title=Lords of chaos : the bloody rise of the satanic metal underground |date=2003 |publisher=Feral House |isbn=9781932595529 |page=177 |edition=New |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v0xjCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA177 |access-date=25 March 2019}} In a 2009 interview with Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet, Vikernes stated: "I have never formed or been a member of such organisations".{{cite web |author=Midtskogen, Rune |title="Greven" angrer ingenting |date=4 July 2009 |url=http://www.dagbladet.no/2009/07/04/magasinet/innenriks/kriminalomsorg/kirkebrann/drapsdom/7051663/ |access-date=25 August 2009 |language=no |trans-title="The Count" regrets nothing}}
International spread
File:Algiz rune on flag of a Russian organisation - Algiz-Rune auf Flagge einer russischen Organisation.jpg (SS-rune)]]
The Norwegian Heathen Front soon became the Allgermanische Heidnische Front (AHF), a network of organizations in different countries. The Swedish Heathen Front (Svensk Hednisk Front) was a small group formed around 1996.Western Esotericism in Scandinavia, 2016, p.384, p.621 The German chapter, Deutsche Heidnische Front, was founded in 1998 by Hendrik Möbus.{{Citation needed|date=January 2010}} In 2001, the AHF claimed chapters in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, Canada, Russia[http://thule.primordial.org.ua/pagan-front.htm Website about the Russian Heathen Front] in Russian language. Retrieved 7 July 2018. and Flanders.Gardell, p. 307, referring to the now defunct homepage: http://www.heathenfront.org/chap.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020602053915/http://www.heathenfront.org/chap.htm |date=2002-06-02 }} 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.The English Heathen Front, Searchlight {{cite web |url=http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/features/article/24/new-bnp-same-old-nazis-and-thugs |title=HOPE not hate feature | New BNP? Same old nazis and thugs |access-date=2012-02-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604185000/http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/features/article/24/new-bnp-same-old-nazis-and-thugs |archive-date=2011-06-04 }}
Ideology
The organization described its specific ideas as "Odalism", derived from the SS-rune Odal (ᛟ). This movement rejected conventional academic research on history and archaeology, instead interpreting Germanic mythology as esoterically transmitted via ancestry.{{cite book |last1=Gregorius |first1=Frederik |editor1-last=Andrén |editor1-first=Anders |title=Old Norse religion in long-term perspectives : origins, changes, and interactions : an international conference in Lund, Sweden, June 3-7, 2004 |date=2006 |publisher=Nordic Academic Press |isbn=9789189116818 |pages=389–392 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gjq6rvoIRpAC&pg=PA390 |access-date=25 March 2019 |chapter=The "Allgermanische Heidnische Front" and Old Norse Religion}}
The Heathen Front espoused neo-Nazism, white supremacism and antisemitism.[http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/index.php?link=template&story=85 Searchlight Magazine: Nazi black metal leader arrested in the US]{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070303141349/http://turnitdown.newcomm.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=41 Turn It Down]}}{{cite web |url=http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw98-9/norway.htm |title=Stephen Roth Institute: Antisemitism and Racism |access-date=2006-07-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071118213318/http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw98-9/norway.htm |archive-date=2007-11-18 }} 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."[http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw2000-1/sweden.htm Antisemitism Worldwide 2000/1 - Sweden] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111105173829/http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw2000-1/sweden.htm |date=2011-11-05 }}
Closure
See also
References
{{reflist}}
=Works cited=
- {{cite book |last1=Gardell |first1=Mattias |author-link1=Mattias Gardell |title=Gods of the blood : the pagan revival and White separatism |date=2003 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-3071-4 |title-link=Gods of the Blood}}
- {{cite book |last1=Moynihan |first1=Michael J. |last2=Søderlind |first2=Didrik |author-link1=Michael Jenkins Moynihan |author-link2=Didrik Søderlind |title=Lords of chaos : the bloody rise of the Satanic metal underground |date=1998 |publisher=Feral House |isbn=0-922915-48-2 |edition=1st |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/lordsofchaosbloo00moyn}}
{{Neo-Nazism}}
Category:Germanic neopagan organisations
Category:Modern pagan organisations based in Norway
Category:Modern pagan organizations established in 1993
Category:Defunct modern pagan organizations
Category:Far-right modern pagan organizations
Category:Nationalist organizations