{"id":7491,"date":"2022-04-03T14:51:23","date_gmt":"2022-04-03T18:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=7491"},"modified":"2022-04-03T14:54:55","modified_gmt":"2022-04-03T18:54:55","slug":"gunter-deckert-1940-2022-r-i-p-german-nationalist-free-speech-warrior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=7491","title":{"rendered":"Gunter Deckert (1940-2022) R.I.P., German Nationalist &#038; Free Speech Warrior"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul id=\"nav\"><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.heritageanddestiny.com\">Home<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.heritageanddestiny.com\/manifesto\/\">About us<\/a><ul><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.heritageanddestiny.com\/manifesto\/newsletter-privacy-policy\/\">News<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">G\u00fcnter Deckert 1940-2022<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Posted by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.heritageanddestiny.com\/author\/admin\/\">admin978<\/a> on April 1, 2022 \u00b7 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.heritageanddestiny.com\/gunter-deckert-1940-2022\/#respond\">Leave a Comment<\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.heritageanddestiny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GD-candidate-Weinheim.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.heritageanddestiny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GD-candidate-Weinheim.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11114\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>H&amp;D<\/em> is shocked and saddened to report that our great friend and comrade G\u00fcnter Deckert, former leader of Germany\u2019s nationalist party NPD, has died aged 82. In fact those readers who knew G\u00fcnter will appreciate that we could never really believe he was 82 years old, let alone that he has died. G\u00fcnter always seemed the most energetic and committed comrade in the room, even when surrounded by fellow nationalists decades younger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Born in January 1940 G\u00fcnter Deckert developed a talent for languages as a very young man, first visiting London and staying with an English family in the 1950s (which was also when he first encountered British nationalists, when he happened upon a street rally of Sir Oswald Mosley\u2019s Union Movement). He went on to study English, French and other languages at the universities of Heidelberg, Kiel and Montpellier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.heritageanddestiny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GD-1962.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.heritageanddestiny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GD-1962.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11115\"\/><\/a><figcaption><strong><em>A young G\u00fcnter Deckert was an activist in the West German liberal party FDP from 1962-1964.<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>For twenty years (from 1968 to 1988) he taught English and French at German schools and colleges, until he was dismissed for political reasons. In fact the authorities had tried three times to dismiss him, but the first two attempts were defeated in the courts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some readers might be surprised that his initial political activism was with West Germany\u2019s liberal party the Free Democrats (FDP) in the early 1960s, though at that time (for complicated historical reasons) it was not unusual for German nationalists (and for that matter old national-socialists) to be in the FDP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>G\u00fcnter first joined the NPD in 1966 and was active during its most successful election campaigns of the late 1960s, when the party was led by Mosley\u2019s close friend and ally Adolf von Thadden. He was a parliamentary (Bundestag) candidate for the first time in 1972 and went on to contest many federal, state and local elections. One of his best election results was in 1974 when he received more than 25% of the vote in Weinheim\u2019s mayoral election. From 1975 to 1999 and from 2019 until his death he was a municipal councillor in Weinheim, sometimes for the NPD and sometimes for the \u2018Deutsche Liste\u2019 which he created during a time when he was forced to relinquish NPD membership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.heritageanddestiny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GD-2019-campaign.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.heritageanddestiny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GD-2019-campaign-1024x576.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11116\"\/><\/a><figcaption><strong><em>G\u00fcnter Deckert during his 2019 election campaign<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Just a few weeks before he died, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/d7PlAWYa83s\" target=\"_blank\">G\u00fcnter posted his party\u2019s official video response to the Weinheim city council budget<\/a> and would have been an election candidate again this year. Last month (shortly before his illness) he was expelled from the council chamber by police for allegedly \u2018racist\u2019 comments during a speech criticising the council budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>G\u00fcnter was elected leader of the NPD \u2013 Germany\u2019s largest nationalist party \u2013 in 1991, and remained party leader until 2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following a conference in 1991 where G\u00fcnter was translator for the American revisionist Fred Leuchter, he was prosecuted for \u2018inciting racial hatred\u2019. Even though he was actually translating someone else\u2019s words, prosecutors argued that he had translated too sympathetically and had therefore committed a crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>G\u00fcnter\u2019s case was a landmark in German legal history, because though at first convicted he won on appeal. This victory was because the appeal court ruled \u2018Holocaust denial\u2019 was not by itself criminal. In response the German parliament changed the law, making \u2018Holocaust denial\u2019 itself an offence. Consequently G\u00fcnter was tried again in 1995, convicted and sentenced to five years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.heritageanddestiny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/deckert-rieffel.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.heritageanddestiny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/deckert-rieffel.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11117\"\/><\/a><figcaption><strong><em>G\u00fcnter Deckert with the Alsatian German leader Pierre Rieffel<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>He was imprisoned at Bruchsal from 1995 to 2000, then again for five months at Mannheim prison early in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>G\u00fcnter Deckert was my first German comrade. We first met in 1993 when he addressed the BNP annual rally, and we later spoke together on many platforms in Britain, Germany and France. He addressed numerous meetings of British comrades in London, Yorkshire and elsewhere in England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last autumn we met (and were again fellow speakers) for the last time. It seems impossible to believe that I shall never see G\u00fcnter Deckert again, but his irrepressible spirit will continue to inspire our activism for decades to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An obituary to G\u00fcnter Deckert will appear in the next edition of <em>H&amp;D<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.heritageanddestiny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GD-speaking-in-2021.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.heritageanddestiny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GD-speaking-in-2021-1024x656.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11118\"\/><\/a><figcaption><strong><em>G\u00fcnter Deckert speaking in autumn 2021, at a private gathering also addressed by H&amp;D\u2019s Peter Rushton<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home About us News G\u00fcnter Deckert 1940-2022 Posted by admin978 on April 1, 2022 \u00b7 Leave a Comment&nbsp; H&amp;D is shocked and saddened to report that our great friend and comrade G\u00fcnter Deckert, former leader of Germany\u2019s nationalist party NPD, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=7491\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[844,4105,495,1902],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7491"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7494,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7491\/revisions\/7494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}