Leading role On 20 April 1990, Althans organised a
Holocaust denial conclave in the
Löwenbräukeller in Munich at which the guest of honour was
David Irving. The evening consisted of both speeches and performances mocking
the Holocaust. By this time Althans had broken from Remer, leading to personal bitterness between the two, and he sought to develop his own profile internationally, working closely with
Yvan Blot in France and
CEDADE in Spain. Within Germany Althans, working with
Christian Worch, sought to expand neo-Nazi operations be it through working in secret with less underground groups that officially disavowed Nazism like the
National Democratic Party of Germany and the
German People's Union, reuniting the pro- and anti-Kühnen factions after his death, or building stronger organisational bases in the former
East Germany. Althans also allied himself to the
Institute for Historical Review and attended a number of their conferences. In the early 1990s, Althans emerged as a press representative for German neo-Nazism, taking advantage of his rhetoric, which allowed him to seem sophisticated, his imposing personal appearance (6 feet, 4 inches tall) and his fluency in
French and
English. At the time, he had his own office in a high-end district of
Munich with a picture of
Adolf Hitler displayed in the window. Althans began to look for new allies in
Eastern Europe and spoke at events for the veterans of the
14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Ukrainian) in
Ukraine in 1993, whilst also making trips to
Russia to open contact with
Russian National Unity leader
Alexander Barkashov. Althans' journeys were mostly funded by Holocaust denier
Ernst Zündel and the two went to Russia together in August 1994 where relations with Barkashov and other
far right leaders were cemented. The pair also met
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, although Althans was unimpressed with the
Liberal Democratic Party of Russia leader, suggesting that Zhirinovsky's anti-Semitism was merely opportunistic rather than ideological like his own. Althans later said that Zündel was paying him 16,000 Deutsch Marks a month: "I was suddenly rich. Before that I had nothing. Now I had everything. It was a great job for a provocateur." Althans and Zündel was interviewed and their activism and daily private lives documented on the depth by
Swedish Television SVT in one show of the investigative documentary program
Dokument utifrån, episode
Yrke Nynazist ("Occupation: Neonazi") which aired on 20 August 1994 and caused some controversy in both Sweden and some cities in Germany that refused to show it since it contains scenes where Althans and Zündel promote Nazism openly without interruptions or counter-comments. In the documentary, Althans also publicly shows support for the Croatian
Ustaša movement.
Imprisonment In December 1994, Althans was imprisoned for distributing a video that denied the Holocaust and, whilst still in jail, faced further charges relating to disrespectful comments he made in a documentary about him,
Beruf Neonazi, claiming that
Auschwitz concentration camp was little more than a holiday resort, despite how horrific it was in reality. During the trial Althans attempted to defend himself by claiming that he had renounced neo-Nazism and had been an agent for the
Verfassungsschutz since 1991—Althans later said: "It was a rumour placed in [a weekly news magazine] by a friend. It was meant to help me. But it wasn't true and the judge was too clever for that. He saw through it" On 10 July 1995,
Der Spiegel reported that Althans had been working for the
Bavarian Intelligence agency, until the collaboration had been terminated by the agency because of "lack of truthfulness of reports". During the Althans trial at
Berlin Regional Court, Bavarian intelligence chief Gerhard Forster on 1 August 1995 denied
Der Spiegels allegations, but admitted to two meetings of intelligence officials with Althans in 1994. During a first meeting on 23 February 1994, Althans offered "extensive files" on the German neofascist scene for a sum of DEM 360,000. During a second meeting on 10 March 1994, this offer was rejected by the intelligence officials. Ultimately his defence failed and he had an additional -years added to the sentence he was already serving. == Personal life ==