In his book KGB: The Secret Work of Soviet Secret Agents (Hodder and
Stoughton, 1974), John Barron has thrown some interesting light on the
question:
‘Under KGB guidance, the Czech STB in 1956 started mailing virulent
neo-Nazi tracts to French, British, and American officials in Europe.
They bore the imprimatur of a non-existent organisation called the
Fighting Group for an Independent Germany (Kampfverband für Unabhängiges
Deutschland). Continuing propaganda from this phantom organisation
created the impression that a gang of fanatical resurgent Nazis was
active in West Germany.’
Communist organised swastika daubings of 1959-60 led to increased demand
for race legislation: "In some cases - Austria, Germany, Norway -
existing legislation has been supplemented as a direct result of the
swastika-daubing outbreak of the winter of 1959-60."
Later...
Germany's most notorious postwar neo-Nazi party was led by an
intelligence agent working for the British.....( Guardian Unlimited, 13
Aug 02)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,773568,00.html
Neo-Nazi leader 'was MI6
agent'
John Hooper in Berlin
Tuesday August 13, 2002
The
Guardian
Germany's most notorious postwar neo-Nazi party was led by an
intelligence agent working for the British, according to both published
and unpublished German sources.
The alleged agent - the late Adolf von Thadden - came closer than anyone
to giving the far-right real influence over postwar German politics.
Under his leadership, the National Democratic party (NPD) made a string
of impressive showings in regional elections in the late 60s, and there
were widespread fears that it would gain representation in the federal
parliament.
Yet, according to a report earlier this year in the Cologne daily, the
Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, the man dubbed "the New Führer" was
working for British intelligence throughout the four years he led the
NPD, from 1967 to 1971.
However, a former senior officer in German intelligence told the Guardian
this week that he had been informed of a much longer-standing link
between Von Thadden and British intelligence. His recollection raises the
question of whether the German far-right-winger was under the sway of M16
when he and others founded the NPD in 1964.
Dr Hans Josef Horchem, who was the head of the Hamburg office of the
Verfassungsschutz - the West German security service - from 1969 to 1981,
said he received regular visits from British intelligence liaison
officers.
"We held general discussions on security. At one of these - I think
it was towards the end of the 70s- they said, 'Adolf von Thadden was in
contact with us', and that that was in the 1950s". Mr Horchem did
not know whether the links between the German and British intelligence
had continued into the 60s and 70s.
According to the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, whose report passed virtually
unnoticed when it was published, the neo-Nazi leader met his British
contact at a hotel in Hamburg.
Germany's government is currently trying to ban the NPD on the basis that
its policies violate the constitution.
But the government's case is in danger of collapse after the disclosure
that some senior NPD members were agents of the Verfassungsschutz. This
has sparked debate about the extent to which counter-intelligence
officers were sustaining the far right in their efforts to monitor it.
Similar issues arise in Von Thadden's case.
The question also arises of whether MI6 was seeking help from the
neo-Nazi movement when far-left militancy was sweeping Europe after the
uprising of May 1968 in Paris.
Von Thadden left the NPD in 1975, and died at the age of 75 in 1996.
His younger sister, Barbara Fox von Thadden, said she had had no reason
to suspect her brother worked for British intelligence. But she added
that they had very different political views and steered away from
political discussion.
They had an English grandmother, and Ms Fox von Thadden said her brother
"did like coming to Britain, and did like Britain very much".