By FOIA Research
on August 21, 2019 - Last updated: December 23, 2020

Haus Montag Pirna

By FOIA Research on Wed, 08/21/2019 - 20:06

The Haus Montag Pirna ("House Monday Pirna," HMP) is a neo-Nazi hot spot in Pirna, Germany, a small town close to Dresden, and serves as "the brain" of the local far-right scene.

Logo of Haus Montag Pirna. The "26" probably refers to its location in Hauptstrasse 26. The "451" is a reference to the book Fahrenheit 451. "MMXIII" stands for the founding year 2013.

The HMP officially founded on October 11, 2013, is a project of the NPD district association "Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge" and  is located in the same facility as the office of the NPD state parliament delegate Dr. Johannes Müller.1 The building is owned by Eirik Ragner Solheim, a previously convicted neo-Nazi, who lives in Norway.1

The main initiators of the HMP are Thomas Sattelberg, a far-right extremist local NPD politician as well as Kraftquell member, and the NPD functionary and military historian Dr. Olaf Rose,2 known in the scene for his historical-revisionist books and movie productions. In an interview with the two in Der Aktivist, the publication of the "Young Nationalists" (the youth wing of the neo-Nazi party NPD), both say that the house is primarily used for local party meetings and events.3

According to a local Antifa blog Thomas Sattelberg had already an illustrious past in the neo-Nazi scene:1

His path led him from the youth organization of the DSU [Deutsche Soziale Union] over the Viking Youth to the comradeship 'Skinheads Saxon Switzerland' [Skinheads Sächsische Schweiz] (SSS), which he headed. He was also a singer of the far-right rock band '14 Nothelfer.' In 2001, the SSS was banned and a little later the members stood before the Dresden district court for forming a criminal organization. Thomas Sattelberg was in 2003 sentenced as a ringleader to two years on probation. In 2006, the court sentenced him to eight months imprisonment for continuing the banned organization.

According to Der Spiegel, Thomas Sattelberg had engaged in "paramilitary exercises to train for hunting down foreigners."4

Fahrenheit 451

The community attached to he Haus Montag seems to be venerating Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and its screen adaption with an almost cult-like rigor. The walls are plastered with references to the book and the movie. Furthermore, the “451” resounds in the name of Haus Montag, which is called after “Guy Montag,” the main figure of Bradbury’s novel, whose job it is to burn books for a fictitious regime, and in the course of the novel slowly realizes his mistake. "Casa Montag" was the first occupied house of the Roman fascists before they occupied the "Casa Pound."5

The “open house project” hosts a conference room, a library, and even a fitness studio. The library, as of 2013, consisted of 1500 non-fiction books.3

Conference room of the Haus Montag Pirna.
Fitness room of the Haus Montag Pirna.
Library in the Haus Montag Pirna.
News stand in the Haus Montag Pirna.

A Facebook page of the HMP appeared sometime in 2013, and ever since provides an endless stream of far-right merchandise and neo-Nazi memes.6 The HMP’s preference for hipster aesthetics is not much unlike the one of the Identitarian movement. For example, the program HMP had published in 2014 has a very modernist and professional design, and on the first look could be almost confused with the flyer for a hippie festival, if there was not the last line: “More Fascism.”7

But looking deeper, its nasty neo-pagan and militaristic character becomes fully visible. 

Kryptonit Mail Order

Prominent among the far-right merchandise the community is pumping out are t-shirts with slogans such as “Make Love and War” or “Defend the Occident,” sporting Mary with a machine gun. The items can be bought in an online shop called Kryptonit mail order (Kryptonit-Versand).8

"Make love and war" t-shirt by Haus Montag Pirna.
"Defend the Occident" t-shirt by Haus Montag Pirna.

Connections to CasaPound

The HMP, located in the center of Pirna (Hauptstrasse 26), is very much modeled after the Italian neo-fascist house project CasaPound, and from the start the HMP had close connections with the organization.

It appears that the HMP's Thomas Sattelberg  was the first who introduced CasaPound to the local NPD.

The earliest reference to CasaPound on the NPD website is from January 2011. During the New Year celebrations of the "forces loyal to the people" in the Muldetal/Leipzig region. The event had been organized by the JN local chapter in Muldental. A screening of a clip called "National Resistance Attacking" (Nationaler Widerstand im Angriff) was shown. After that Thomas Sattelberg from Saxon Switzerland was introducing the the fascist movement CasaPound "and their exceptional way of approaching people."9

On January 30, 2014, HMP organized an free information event about CasaPound on the occasion of its 10th anniversary.10

In 2014 it hosted a lecture on CasaPound, and in July of that year posted pictures of a graffiti that showed the logos of the two organizations side by side, together with a sticker by the JN, the youth cadre of the NPD.

How strongly the HMP links into the European neo-fascist scene is shown by a flyer the group had posted on Facebook in September 2015. It advertised an event with the who-is-who of European neo-fascist and neo-Nazi organizations and parties:

  • Associazione Culturale Zenit11
  • Blocco Studentesco, the youth organization of CasaPound
  • Lotta Studentesca,12 the youth and student organization of the Italian far-right Forza Nuova party
  • Dělnická Mládež,13 the youth cadre of the Czech neo-Nazi "Workers' Party of Social Justice" (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti, DSSS)
  • Српска акција ("Serbian Action")14
  • Suomen Vastarintaliike ("Finnish Resistance Movement"), Finnish chapter of the Nordic Resistance Movement
  • Golden Dawn, Greek neo-fascist and neo-Nazi party
  • Hogar Social Madrid,15 the CasaPound of Spain
  • Democracia Nacional, neo-Nazi party from Spain
  • Liga Joven,16 the youth arm of the now defunct Falangist party Movimiento Social Republicano (MSR) - Spain
  • Nation,17 the largest extreme right-wing party of French-speaking Belgium founded by Hervé Van Laethem
  • Ľudová strana Naše Slovensko ("People's Party Our Slovakia")
  • Nationalististische Studentenvereinigung ("Nationalist Student Association") - Flanders
  • Národní demokracie ("National Democracy") - Czech Republik

The speakers were:

  • Sebastian Richter, a German neo-Nazi cadre who heads the youth wing of the NPD, the Young Nationalists, since January 2018, and was formerly a member of the Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend, banned in 2009;
  • Dr. Tomislav Sunic, a Croatian-American translator and a former professor close to Alain de Benoist;
  • Udo Voigt, former MEP and chairman of the NPD party sentenced for incitement on several occasions;
  • Frank Franz, the leader of the far-right NPD since 2014.

The event was accompanied by several neo-Nazi bands among them Kraftschlag, Agharta, Heiliges Reich and Saubande.

2019

On August 10, 2019 one of HMP's initiators and Kraftquell member, Thomas Sattelberg, appeared in Kiev, as the Intermarium Support Group reported, together with another Kraftquell member, Thomas Villmannen.18 During the lecture, the party Der III. Weg must have been topic since its logo is shown during a power point presentation. Der III. Weg had also been part of the Paneuropa Conference.

The HMP, seems not to be affiliated with Der III. Weg directly, instead posts regularly calls to vote for the NPD, or flyers of its youth organization, the JN.

Olena Semenyaka and Thomas Sattelberg. In the background a presentation showing the party logo of Der III. Weg. Facebook post by the Intermarium Support Group on August 14, 2019.
Olena Semenyaka (left) and Kraftquell members Thomas Sattelberg (center) and Thomas Villmannen (right). Facebook post by Olena Semenyaka on August 12, 2019.
Lecture by Kraftquell member Thomas Sattelberg in Kyiv, Ukraine. Facebook post by Olena Semenyaka on August 12, 2019.
Kraftquell in Kyiv, Ukraine. Facebook post by Olena Semenyaka on August 12, 2019.
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