Michael Koth
{{Short description|German activist}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| party = {{unbulleted list |{{longitem|KDS (1999-2008)}}
{{longitem|PdAD (1995-1998)}}
{{longitem|KPD-Ost (1994-1996)}}
{{longitem|KPD/ML (1979-1994)}}
{{longitem|SEW (1971-1979)}}
{{longitem|FDJ (1969-1974)}}}}
| birth_place = Steglitz, Berlin
| image = Michael Koth.jpg
| nationality = German
| office = Gausekretär of Berlin/Brandenburg and Spokesperson for the KDS
| termend = 2008
| termstart = 1999
| office2 = Leader of the PdAD
| termend2 = 1998
| termstart2 = 1995
| office3 = Member of the central committee
of the KPD-Ost
| termend3 = 1996
| termstart3 = February 1994
| office4 = Leader of the KPD/ML in West Berlin
| termend4 = February 1994
| termstart4 = ?
| caption = Koth at a demonstration in 2007
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1955-10-16}}
}}
Michael Koth (born 16 October 1955) is a German National Bolshevik, supporter of North Korea, and advocate for the Querfront political strategy.{{Citation |last=Meyer |first=Ahlrich |title=Niederlande |date=2010-01-01 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.30965/9783657770236_005 |work=Das Wissen um Auschwitz |pages=52–71 |access-date=2023-05-09 |publisher=Brill {{!}} Schöningh |doi=10.30965/9783657770236_005 |isbn=978-3-657-77023-6|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite book |title=Handbuch Rechtsradikalismus: Personen — Organisationen — Netzwerke vom Neonazismus bis in die Mitte der Gesellschaft |publisher=Springer-Verlag |year=2013 |isbn=9783322975591}}{{Cite web |last=Bozic |first=Ivo |title=Verquere Welt |url=https://jungle.world/artikel/2014/21/verquere-welt |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230529173533/https://jungle.world/artikel/2014/21/verquere-welt |archive-date=2023-05-29 |access-date=2023-05-29 |website=jungle.world |language=de}}
He was a member of multiple socialist parties until becoming the leader of the national-communist Workers' Party of Germany. Koth later went on to become a founding member of the Kampfbund Deutscher Sozialisten, a German neo-nazi organisation, which aimed to unite the far-left and far-right through the Querfront strategy.
Life
Koth was born on 16 October 1955 in Berlin-Steglitz, where he grew up as an only child. Koth played football in Realschule and came into contact with the West Berlin section of the FDJ through his friends, which he subsequently joined on 7 October 1969. After his anti-communist parents found out that Koth had joined the GDR-aligned organisation, tensions in the household grew, which ultimately resulted in Koth moving out of his parents' house at the age of 16.{{Cite web |last=Archivar |date=2013-05-25 |title=Feinde von Einst… – Michael Koth referierte in Dresden |url=https://nwmarchiv.wordpress.com/2013/05/25/feinde-von-einst-michael-koth-referierte-in-dresden/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230428144032/https://nwmarchiv.wordpress.com/2013/05/25/feinde-von-einst-michael-koth-referierte-in-dresden/ |archive-date=2023-04-28 |access-date=2023-04-23 |website=Netzwerkmitte Archiv |language=de-DE}}
Koth completed his apprenticeship at the Deutsche Reichsbahn (later S-Bahn Berlin), for which he continued to work until being dismissed due to being a member of the far-right KDS in April 2004.{{Cite web |title=Neonazi-Mitarbeiter bei S-Bahn unerwünscht {{!}} Antifa Infoblatt |url=https://www.antifainfoblatt.de/artikel/neonazi-mitarbeiter-bei-s-bahn-unerw%C3%BCnscht |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423213738/https://www.antifainfoblatt.de/artikel/neonazi-mitarbeiter-bei-s-bahn-unerw%C3%BCnscht |archive-date=2023-04-23 |access-date=2023-04-23 |website=www.antifainfoblatt.de}}
After returning from a business trip with the Deutsche Reichsbahn in Tirana, during which the inner-German border was opened, Koth visited several former high-ranking members of the East German regime, including Erich Honecker, Heinz Keßler, and Erich Mielke. Koth later claimed that he was the last to visit Honecker and his wife before they fled Germany.
Political career
Koth joined the Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin in 1971, where he later met his first wife during an FDJ meeting in 1974. After being expelled from the SEW in 1979, Koth joined the KPD/ML, where he became leader of the West Berlin sector.{{cn|date=May 2025}} After the mainline KPD/ML merged with the VSP and GIM in 1986, Koth split his section of the KPD/ML into its own party under the same name, which he claimed to be the legitimate successor of the KPD/ML. This group then joined the KPD-Ost in February 1994, which lead to Koth being admitted into the party's central committee.{{Cite web |date=26 May 2016 |title=Neonazis und Friedensaktivisten, die Nordkorea lieben |url=https://www.vice.com/de/article/querfront-extrem-deutsche-rechtsradikale-die-nordkorea-lieben/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230428144032/https://www.vice.com/de/article/8gbyz4/querfront-extrem-deutsche-rechtsradikale-die-nordkorea-lieben |archive-date=2023-04-28 |access-date=2023-04-23 |website=Vice.com |language=de}}{{Cite web |title=Verfassungsschutzbericht Sachsen-Anhalt 1994 |url=https://verfassungsschutzberichte.de/pdfs/vsbericht-st-1994.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230509060231/https://verfassungsschutzberichte.de/pdfs/vsbericht-st-1994.pdf |archive-date=2023-05-09}}{{Cite web |title=Verfassungsschutzbericht 1999 |url=https://verfassungsschutzberichte.de/pdfs/vsbericht-1999.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230509064800/https://verfassungsschutzberichte.de/pdfs/vsbericht-1999.pdf |archive-date=2023-05-09}}
After being expelled from the KPD-Ost in the summer of 1995 due to growing connections to nationalist and far-right personalities, which influenced his beliefs, Koth started calling himself a "national communist" and adopted the Juche ideology. Following this, Koth founded the Workers' Party of Germany in 1995 which he ran until its dissolution in 1998.{{Cite web |date=2007-12-01 |title=KDS 03 |url=http://aw.antifa.de/archiv/aw_texte_kds_03.html |access-date=2023-04-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071201164506/http://aw.antifa.de/archiv/aw_texte_kds_03.html |archive-date=2007-12-01 }} On the 7 February 1998, Koth was invited to the NPD-Party congress in Passau, where his Workers' Party of Germany had an info booth.{{Cite web |title=Links? Rechts? - Revolutionär! Von Hugin und Munin |url=http://www.trend.infopartisan.net/trd0399/t280399.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230512063239/http://www.trend.infopartisan.net/trd0399/t280399.html |archive-date=2023-05-12 |access-date=2023-03-12 |website=www.trend.infopartisan.net}} Koth additionally helped the NPD to get connections to North Korea, such as when, in 1998, Koth's PdAD and a NPD delegation were invited by ambassador Ri San Yu to attended an event hosted by the North Korean Embassy in Berlin.{{Cite web |last=NK |first=Daily |date=27 January 2015 |title=Koth's Bipartisan Push for the Third Position {{!}} Daily NK |url=https://www.dailynk.com/english/koths-bipartisan-push-for-the-thir/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230313011528/https://www.dailynk.com/english/koths-bipartisan-push-for-the-thir/ |archive-date=2023-03-13 |access-date=2023-03-13 |language=en-US}} Another NPD-delegation went on a trip to Pyongyang with Koth.
Koth was one of the founding members of the Kampfbund Deutscher Sozialisten, an organisation which aimed to unite the far-left and far-right through the Querfront strategy.{{Cite web |date=2010-12-11 |title=Aktuelle Meldung: "Kampfbund Deutscher Sozialisten" (KDS) löst sich auf - Berlin.de |url=http://www.berlin.de/sen/inneres/verfassungsschutz/aktuell/am_kds_28.07.2008.html |access-date=2023-05-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101211031152/http://www.berlin.de/sen/inneres/verfassungsschutz/aktuell/am_kds_28.07.2008.html |archive-date=2010-12-11 }} With Koth's background in left-wing politics and dedication to anti-imperialism, he became one of the main figureheads for the KDS, which has widely been considered a neo-nazi organisation with few actual leftists to properly execute a Querfront strategy.{{Cite book |last=Reitz |first=Axel |title=Ich war der Hitler von Köln: Mein Weg aus der Neonaziszene und wie Extremismus effektiv bekämpft werden kann – ein Aussteigerbericht |publisher=FinanzBuch Verlag |year=2023 |isbn=9783986092795}} Koth was proclaimed the leader (Gausekretär) of the Berlin/Brandenburg section of the KDS.{{Cite news |title=Berlin: Berlin wird zum Treffpunkt von Extremisten |language=de-DE |work=Der Tagesspiegel Online |url=https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/berlin-wird-zum-treffpunkt-von-extremisten-944014.html |access-date=2023-05-29 |issn=1865-2263}}{{Cite web |date=2009-07-03 |title=redok - Aufgelöste Querfront |url=http://www.redok.de/content/view/1188/38/ |access-date=2023-05-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090703161025/http://www.redok.de/content/view/1188/38/ |archive-date=2009-07-03 }}{{Cite web |title=Verfassungsschutzbericht Brandenburg 2003 |url=https://verfassungsschutzberichte.de/pdfs/vsbericht-bb-2003.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230509061731/https://verfassungsschutzberichte.de/pdfs/vsbericht-bb-2003.pdf |archive-date=2023-05-09}} Koth was additionally tasked with running the KDS's publications, including both its newspapers and, most prominently, its YouTube channel under the name "Der Rot-Braune Kanal" (The red-brown channel), which he continued to run even after the KDS had dissolved.{{Cite web |title=Verfassungsschutzbericht Brandenburg 2000 |url=https://verfassungsschutzberichte.de/pdfs/vsbericht-bb-2000.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230509060239/https://verfassungsschutzberichte.de/pdfs/vsbericht-bb-2000.pdf |archive-date=2023-05-09}}
After the KDS had dissolved, Koth went on to found the Anti-imperialist Platform (German: Antiimperialistische Plattform), a Juche and pro-North Korea group in Berlin.{{Cite web |first=Irmela |last=Mensah-Schramm |title=Querfront-Kundgebung am 1. Mai in Frankfurt (Oder) ohne Gegenprotest |url=https://inforiot.de/querfront-kundgebung-am-1-mai-in-frankfurt-oder-ohne-gegenprotest/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230529173538/https://inforiot.de/querfront-kundgebung-am-1-mai-in-frankfurt-oder-ohne-gegenprotest/ |archive-date=2023-05-29 |access-date=2023-05-29 |website=Inforiot |date=7 May 2017 |language=de-DE}}{{Cite news |last=Mai |first=Marina |date=2013-12-30 |title=Egon Krenz auf Buchtour: Zu Gast bei rechten Freunden |language=de |work=Die Tageszeitung: taz |url=https://taz.de/!5051779/ |access-date=2023-03-12 |issn=0931-9085}}