“Nazi druid” new-age extremist on trial for sedition after allegedly calling for murder of Jews

A “Nazi druid” is on trial in Germany on charges of sedition and violation of gun laws.

Seventy-one-year-old Karl Burghard Bangert, the so-called “Nazi druid,” is one of four men on trial. Mr Bangert is also charged with sedition over a series of social media posts in which he reportedly called for the murder of Jews, denied the Holocaust and incited hatred against refugees.

Mr Bangert and his three co-defendants are allegedly members of Reichsbürger, a right-wing, German conspiracy movement. They are charged with illegally hoarding explosives and weapons between 2015 and 2017. Weapons found in a 2017 raid by security services included a flamethrower.

According to reports, Mr Bangert is a former insurance agent who became well-known locally for his eccentric appearance and for a TV news report of 2008, in which he claimed to have been born 2,500 years ago and to have been raised, after his mother’s death, by an uncle “the great wizard Merlin.”

According to Nicholas Potter, an expert on the far-right from Berlin’s Amadeu Antonio Foundation, Mr Bangert had a “virulent antisemitic, conspiracy-driven worldview” alongside his belief in New Age spiritualism. In this world-view, Jews “have been waging a secret war against the German people for centuries,” explained Mr Potter.

Another far-right expert, Jan Rathje from the Centre for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy, said that Mr Bangert presented himself “on the one hand as a druid” and on the other “especially via social media” as an “antisemitic resistance fighter.” 

Extremism experts say that while New Age and far-right beliefs might “seem unlikely bedfellows,” their adherents share “an anti-authoritarian and anti-State mindset.” Experts also warn that connections between new age and far-right ideology have become “particularly visible during the pandemic.”

The trial, in Mannheim, has been adjourned until April.

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