By FOIA Research
on January 16, 2019 - Last updated: November 22, 2021

Der III. Weg

By FOIA Research on Wed, 01/16/2019 - 20:26

Der III. Weg ("The III. Path"; T3P) is a minor far-right and neo-Nazi political party in Germany. It was established on September 28, 2013, with significant support by former officials of the neo-Nazi NPD party, among them founder chairman is Klaus Armstroff, as well as activists from the banned "Free Network South" (Freies Netzwerk Süd, FNS).1 T3P is considered an attempt to continue the FNS under the protection of the party privilege.2

The party's The party mostly operates in Thuringia, Bavaria and Brandenburg3 and does not aim for a strong expansion; their current members see themselves rather as a "conscious neo-nazi elite that is not looking for growth."4

T3P has connections with Assad's government in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon,5 the National Corps, Right Sector and Svoboda in Ukraine6 and the Nordic Resistance Movement active Scandinavia.7 T3P has also allied with the by now Europe-wide Reconquista movement, having its roots in Ukraine.8

A majority of T3P members are deemed as extremely violent by German domestic intelligence (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz).4

Ideology

The party calls for a so-called "German socialism" as a supposed "third way" besides communism and capitalism. Their program is generally based on an extremely völkisch view of mankind in close alignment with historical Nazism and the militant camaraderie scene.1 2 T3P understands itself ideologically as "national revolutionary" and tying in with the program of the so-called "left wing" of the NSDAP around the Brothers Strasser. In tune with his ideology Armstroff said during a march in Plauen in May 2014: "Capitalist entrepreneurs [...] put the Germans on the siding of long-term unemployment and crave for fresh blood of foreigners." At the Federal Party Congress 2014, he called for spreading leaflets in front of refugee shelters and to rally people against foreigners.9 The party expressly opposes Christian values, which are to be replaced by a "pagan Germanic" esotericism of the Artgemeinschaft ("Species Community").10

T3P is networking with various far-right and neo-Nazi parties abroad, among them the Greek neo-Nazi party Chrysi Avgi,11 Hungarian, Ukrainian and Russian right-wing extremists, the far-right Swedish Resistance Movement and the Syrian Assad regime.12 Furthermore, the T3P demands in a historical revisionist way the "restoration of Germany in its borders under international law," which, according Bavaria's domestic intelligence agency, means in the borders of the German Reich.13 The party is also anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist.14 15

According to Germany's domestic intelligence agency:

In terms of ideology, the party calls itself "national revolutionary", and pledges for "German Socialism" in its "Ten-Point Program." This does not imply the historical ideology in opposition to National Socialism. Rather, it is a tribute to the "left wing" within historical National Socialism. The völkisch and biologistic picture of people and society, which underlies the program of the party founded in autumn 2013 by former NPD officials as well as by some neo-Nazis, is incompatible with the individual human rights in the framework of the Basic Law.1

Activities

The party is trying to use charitable activities for propaganda and for the recruitment of voters, such as donations in kind for homeless people16 ("German winter aid") or clothing donation campaigns, much alike CasaPound in Italy, with which T3P is in close contact. In contrast to charitable organizations, which allocate their aid to whomever needs it, donations are given exclusively to Germans.17 T3P also distributes a booklet in which racist resentments against asylum seekers are fueled and "tips to prevent refugee shelters" in the "own home" offer legal advice.18 The party increasingly initiates so-called "national patrols" (Nationale Streifen), which with their "martial appearance" give the impression of being a vigilante group. With its patrols, the party wants to prevent "criminal acts" of refugees and foreigners and give the German population the impression of security. In spring of 2016, the party started a nationwide postcard campaign, calling upon politicians and politically engaged people in Germany, to e.g. leave the country via the Balkan route to leave.19 20 21

In addition to its 2017 revised and modernized website, the party runs a Facebook page, which - is called - according to the self-image as a pioneer in the neo-Nazi milieu - as a "guidepost". On the website appear daily news, some of them clearly written from and for a right-wing elite. In addition, T3P runs an online store to distribute its propaganda and an Internet radio station called "Revolution on Air" (Revolution auf Sendung), which broadcasts once a month.22 Among the material distributed is also the policy document National, Revolutionary, Socialist (National, Revolutionär, Sozialistisch) of the party. This political-theoretical text "should give the neo-Nazi scene an ideological orientation."23 Of the latter, however, "only a small part [...] will be able to capture this sophisticated and abstract text."23 The booklet is "a condensed outline of the foundations of a National Socialist worldview adapted to the present time" and to be understood as a "theoretical treatise for the entire right-wing extremist scene."24 It is "remarkable in its nature, since such fundamental considerations in this form were last presented in the 1980s and early 1990s."25

Timeline

2013

The party was founded on September 28, 2013, in Heidelberg. The former NPD functionary Klaus Armstroff was elected first chairman of the party. The party is a reservoir of a relatively small but very active group of radical völkisch nationalists who were previously active in the comradeship (Kameradschaft) Freies Netzwerk Süd. The majority of the approximately 500 party members are active in the federal states of Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony. In Bavaria, the six so-called "bases" 2014 reflected the centers of the former comradeship of the FNS.9

2015

In September 2015 the French New Right ideologue and founder of the paganistic neo-Nazi Thule-Seminar appeared as a speaker of a T3P event headlined "Community Day 2015: Bismarck's Legacy - Our Mission."26 An event summary on the T3P website reads26 :

The keynote speaker Pierre Krebs from the Thule Society, who traveled here from France especially for this occasion, recorded the cultural and historical origins of the Germans in his lecture "Basis of a worldview for a new Reich" (Weltanschauliche Basis für ein neues Reich) and explained the political, economic and military structure of a new, independent Germany.

2017

On July 15, 2017, in the framework of the far right festival "Rock Against Over-alienation" (Rock gegen Überfremdung), T3P represented the Reconquista movement.8 A post on the Interregnum-Intermarium Facebook page reporting on the event reads:

The Reconquista movement, which recently held its 1st Paneuropa conference in Kyiv, was also represented at the event. The visitors could get the leaflets (Eng., Ger.) informing about the Reconquista's activities and plans at the stand of Der Dritte Weg's party, the movement's ally.8

At the festival a Reconquista flyer was made available, where Andriy Biletsky was introduced as "commander of the Azov battalion and leader of the Ukrainian nationalists." According to Belltower News27 :

The texts [on the flyer], which have been translated into German, advertise with a militant language to "join the ranks of the best" in order to "save Europe from extinction." Biletsky's "ranks of the best" offer paramilitary training for the "Reconquista" - the reconquest of Europe. Especially on various social networks, "Azov" members display unveiled what political image is to be reconquered: countless photos show martial "Azov" soldiers performing the Nazi salute, SS symbols and swastika tattoos.

At the festival "Rock gegen Überfremdung" festival 2017 a Reconquista flyer was available, where Andriy Biletsky was introduced as "commander of the Azov battalion and leader of the Ukrainian nationalists."

Image Source
https://www.belltower.news/ukrainische-faschisten…

In 2017, "30 activists of the movement attended the annual March of the Nation on October 14, which is the Day of Ukraine’s Defender and a traditional Cossack warrior holiday, as well as the German military cemetery nearby Kyiv. This year [2018], 14 of them also marched under the recognizable green flags of Der III. Weg side by side with Ukrainian nationalist organizations."28

2018

Der III. Weg had a booth at the neo-Nazi event "Youth in the Storm" (Jugend im Sturm) on July 7, 2018, in Kirchheim (Thuringia). There exists a picture which shows Olena Semenyaka together with Hendrik Möbus, the neo-Nazi musician and convicted murderer, as well as Jerome Döring, a Leipzig neo-Nazi web shop owner and software developer, in front of Der III. Weg's information stand.29 Olena Semenyaka is the foreign affairs contact for the Azov Regiment, an armed militia of neo-Nazis fighting in the Ukraine conflict.

On October 15, 2018, members of Der III. Weg were present at the 2nd Paneuropa Conference in Kyiv, Ukraine. There, Julian Bender, "West Germany area leader of Der III. Weg," held a speech entitled "Germany - Revolution or Downfall."28

In early 2018, a delegation of T3P traveled to Rome, to attend the annual Acca Larentia march, commemorating the deaths of three members the Youth Front of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), an Italian far right party, that occurred in Rome on January 7, 1978.

2020

On August 18, 2020, an article appeared on the website of Der III. Weg, introducing the newly founded Ukrainian militia Centuria,30 launched by the neo-Nazi Azov battalion, now part of Ukraine's National Guard.31 Below an excerpt of the article:

"All or nothing, faith or perdition" - the motto of the organization [Centuria] refers to the history of Rome and the cradle of European civilization. It stands against chaos, for cohesion, against separation and for patriarchal values of brotherhood against the effeminacy and licentiousness of the masses.

A new organization with eternal values - perhaps exactly what was missing in the political (and above all meta-political) arena of Eastern Europe, where the hearts of resistant people beat ...

Representatives of the National Corps [Azov Battalion] said that this organization had developed within the ranks of their movement because the influence of anti-Ukrainian forces had increased very much and that corrupt forces were expressing the desire to ban their revolutionary movement more and more loudly.

Centuria, thus, seems to have been created as an Azov replacement, which internationally has been recognized as neo-Nazi militia, and whose image has been tainted beyond repair. The images that so far have emerged of the Centuria militia seem in no way less martial and neo-Nazi than its predecessor.

On August 29, 2020, members of Der III. Weg took part in a mass demonstration of Corona deniers in Berlin, among them hardcore neo-Nazis, Reich Citizens (Reichsbürger), Identitarians, anti-vaxxers, adherents to the Qanon conspiracy theory, and other proponents lured into the "crossfront" under an anti-scientific and conspiracist umbrella.32

2021

In 2021, a member of Der III. Weg from Franconia, Susanne G., received a six year prison sentence by the Munich Higher Regional Court for sending death threats to politicians and preparing an arson attack. The court considered it proven that the alternative health practitioner had sent greeting cards with assassination threats to, among others, a mayor and a district administrator in 2019 and 2020. In addition, she had stocked up on weapons and materials to build a gasoline bomb. With it, she had planned to hit a public official or a Muslim, according to the presiding judge, Michael Höhne, who stated there was no doubt that the defendant's actions were based on a "Nazi attitude."33  

Susanne G. was first a member of the Nuremberg motorcycle club Gremium MC, then became a member of Der III. Weg, for which she also acted as a steward at marches.

She had also been involved with the so-called "Prisoners' Aid" (Gefangenenhilfe), which provides care for right-wing motivated offenders in prison. This brought her into contact with members of the neo-Nazi terrorist group National Socialist Underground, Ralf Wohlleben and André Eminger, with whom she exchanged letters and whom she later visited privately. Wohlleben called her "Susl with the magic hands."33

Susanne G. was defended by the neo-Nazi celebrity lawyer, Wolfram Nahrath, who cited both, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels, during the trial. Nahrath headed the neo-Nazi Viking Youth (Wiking-Jugend) from 1991 until its ban in 1994, which saw itself in the footsteps of the Hitler Youth, and later became a functionary of the neo-Nazi NPD party. According to Süddeutsche Zeitung33 :

On the last day of the trial before the verdict, G.'s defense attorney Wolfram Nahrath left no doubt about what he was concerned with in these proceedings. In his plea, he referred extensively to Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels, who had declared that the Nazi Party forbade "any unlawfulness." "It forbids every act of violence against the state, opposes political assassination in the strongest terms," Nahrath quoted Hitler. This was apparently intended to show that followers of Hitler did not plan assassinations of politicians, as Susanne G. was accused of doing. The lawyer also quoted the words of Goebbels: "Germany is ready to cooperate in peace with a true heart."

In the run-up to the 2021 German federal elections, Der III. Weg made headlines with an aggressive poster campaign against the Green Party. The party placed its election posters reading “Hang the Greens” immediately next to campaign posters of Green Party candidates. The city of Zwickau prompted the party to take down the posters, but Der III. Weg successfully appealed against the ruling. The responsible court allowed the party to hang up its posters, however, with at least 100 meters distance to Green party posters.34

In October 2021, the party called for a vigilante-style "border walk" near Guben on the German-Polish border to stop potential illegal immigrants from crossing. The police sent off around 50 people equipped with pepper spray, cutting and stabbing weapons.35

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