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  • Harām Black Metal

    (published in Ablaze Magazine # 15, 2016)

    Among the enduring adversaries of Black Metal is Abrahamic monotheism. Compared to the countless anti-Christian lyrics, cover art, and interview statements by Black Metal bands, the artistic engagement with Islam is still in its infancy. However, current developments in Europe also show that Islam will influence the social and cultural life on this continent much more strongly in the future than in recent decades.

    How is the local Black Metal scene responding to this new challenge? Are there already (Black) Metal bands in Islamic-dominated societies, and if so, how do they express themselves, and what are their experiences? Does Islam even have a form of Satanism that a Black Metal band could invoke?

    In the Beginning Was the Fire

    The story of Satan in Christian mythology is well-known: he is the adversary of God, engaged in an eternal struggle for the souls of humanity and dominion over the earth. At the end of days, the Antichrist will even succeed in seizing world power—only to be ultimately defeated by the heavenly hosts led by the Savior and banished to Hell. In Islamic legend, there is a similar figure—the angel Iblis, created from fire. After Allah created the first human, Adam, and commanded his angels to bow before him, Iblis was the only one to refuse the divine order. Iblis said, “Shall I bow to someone You created from clay?” (Surah 17:61) Pride and arrogance led Iblis to rebel, and his followers joined him. Allah responded, “Go forth from here, for you are accursed, and My curse shall rest upon you until the Day of Judgment.” (Surah 38:74) Iblis and his followers, who would later become jinn (supernatural beings created from fire, endowed with reason, and coexisting with humans in the world), were banished from Heaven to Earth. But Iblis requested a reprieve from Allah, which was granted until the Day of Judgment. Until then, he promised Allah, he would “lead humans astray, except for Your chosen servants among them.” (Surah 38:82)

    Although the basic tone of the legends of Satan and Iblis is comparable, there is a crucial difference: Satan became the adversary of God, but Iblis remains the executor of Allah’s will. His antagonism is directed at Adam, and he promises Allah to tempt and mislead humans henceforth. For only in this way will it be revealed who the true believers in Islam are. Allah cannot be questioned, opposed, or even overthrown. He is all-powerful. There are no indications in Islamic mythology of the existence of an enemy of God that an Islamic Satanism could invoke. Compared to the rich array of occult, historical, and literary traditions of devil worship in Christianity, which converge into an inexhaustible source of inspiration for every Black Metal band, the question inevitably arises about the meaningfulness of a Black Metal band in an Islamic cultural context. Are there real examples of this, or is one chasing a chimera?

    Musicians Under Sharia

    As exotic or even alien as the Islamic-influenced cultures of North Africa, the Near, and Middle East may often seem to European observers, Western pop culture, including its subcultures and their music styles, has arrived in the Orient, not least thanks to global digital connectivity. Incidentally, there is no music ban in the Quran; even in strictly religious societies and states like Saudi Arabia, there is fundamentally nothing against the existence of Arab Metal bands.

    However, the social stigmatization, up to political persecution, of their musicians will be problematic for such a band, as even the hedonism inherent in a subculture, particularly its sexual permissiveness, meets with widespread rejection in a strictly conservative, religious society. This is not even about religious heresy, which is punishable by death in many Islamic countries, but generally about a deviation from traditional norms, customs, and practices.

    Given these circumstances, Metal bands in the Orient can only be perceived publicly where state institutions guarantee at least nominal secularism. Nowadays, with increasing limitations, this is only the case in Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria (as far as it is not in rebel hands), and Turkey. The video documentary Heavy Metal in Baghdad, which follows the Iraqi band ACRASSICAUDA between 2003 and 2007, vividly illustrates the difficulties a Metal band faces in an Islamic society. ACRASSICAUDA could only be publicly active during the time of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, but in the end, the band members lived as refugees in neighboring Syria.

    The astonishment in the Metal scene was all the greater after the publication of an article by American music journalist Kim Kelly in 2012, which reported on the then allegedly 28-year-old musician Anahita, supposedly based in Iraq. She is said to be the singer and bassist of the band SEEDS OF IBLIS, which in turn belongs to the “Arabic Anti-Islamic Legion”: a collective of bands or projects with names like FALSE ALLAH or MOSQUE OF SATAN. With their first single, “Jihad against Islam,” from 2011, SEEDS OF IBLIS made clear statements against the Prophet Muhammad and his followers. The Finnish label Hammer of Hate Records released their second EP, The Black Quran, the following year, and in 2013, their first and so far only full album, Anti Quran Rituals, was released. Lyrically, it once again targeted Islam, its prophet, and sacred sites:

    The flames are moving
    Between Al-Madina and Mecca
    As the hypocrisy is smoking the mosques
    my feet are above the ashes
    The ashes of Islam

    In the interview that Kim Kelly conducted with Anahita, the latter explained that her hatred of Islam stemmed partly from personal reasons—her parents and a brother were allegedly killed by a Muslim suicide bomber—but also from early doubts about the validity of the Quran, which is, after all, the word of God. Anahita also spoke of the constant danger she and her fellow musicians faced in Iraq and that there was still a Metal underground with numerous bands that could only rehearse and record their music under great difficulties.

    However, because Anahita and the other musicians of SEEDS OF IBLIS passed off photos clearly attributable to other bands (e.g., the German Black Metal band MORKE) as their own, doubts about her account quickly arose. Of course, it makes sense that strict anonymity for all musicians who rail against Allah and Muhammad in an Islamic country is absolutely necessary for security reasons. But it is precisely this security aspect that casts doubt on the legend of SEEDS OF IBLIS. The recordings of SEEDS OF IBLIS are professionally performed and cleanly produced, and a considerable level of technical skill can be heard in the individual songs. This requires regular band rehearsals and access to a recording studio—precisely what, according to Anahita in the interview with Kim Kelly, Iraqi Metal bands lack. This seems plausible: the more people know about the existence of a blasphemous band, the greater the risk of betrayal to state or religious authorities. Why SEEDS OF IBLIS should succeed in what no other Iraqi Metal band has managed so far, Anahita could not or would not explain. Therefore, there is suspicion that SEEDS OF IBLIS is indeed a band of Iraqis or Arabs, but they live abroad—some even say in the USA—and the legend of musicians in mortal danger is merely a clever marketing ploy. This could also be supported by the fact that the album Anti Quran Rituals was released by a U.S. label. Alternatively, there may be neither Anahita nor the other musicians of SEEDS OF IBLIS, as the band might actually be an anti-Islamic project by musicians who are neither from Iraq nor ever were Muslims.

    In contrast, there is no doubt about the real existence of the Lebanese musicians of DAMAAR, and the trajectory of this trio is likely exemplary of the fate of an anti-Islamic Black Metal band in a society dominated by Muslims. Although DAMAAR has existed since 2004, their first and so far only release, Triumph Through Spears of Sacrilege, was not published until 2007 by the renowned Metal label Nuclear War Now! Productions. By this time, the band members were no longer living in Lebanon but had already emigrated to Australia. Nevertheless, songs like “Ode to Blasphemy (Onward to the Gates of Mekka)” provoked such strong reactions that the band felt compelled to issue the following statement: “We never saw ourselves as anti-Islamic Black Metal. We are against the religious establishment in all its forms, and Islam is just one part of it.” Before DAMAAR, two of the musicians played in the classic Heavy Metal band NIGHTCHAINS, which even managed to release an album and perform concerts in their homeland. However, NIGHTCHAINS’ lyrics contain no religious or blasphemous references.

    Even AL NAMROOD, a Black Metal band from Wahhabi Saudi Arabia (though the band’s label is based in Canada, leaving the musicians’ whereabouts uncertain), shies away from overly explicit anti-Islamic rhetoric, preferring to draw on mythological and pre-Islamic antiquity of the Arabian Peninsula in their five albums and various other recordings. However, depicting fictional stories from antiquity is unlikely to find favor with devout Muslims. MOGH, whose founder Lord Faustoos originally hails from Iran and now lives in Germany, also deals with pre-Islamic religion. He focuses on Aryan spirituality and religion (Zoroastrianism) as it existed before Islamization in Persia and India and, to a limited extent, still does today. In this sense, MOGH can be most closely compared to European Pagan Metal; both engage with ancient values and religious traditions lost through aggressive Christianization or Islamization. For MOGH, there is also the aspect of personal religious discrimination in their homeland, where Lord Faustoos and his family belonged to a non-Muslim minority, denied not only religious practice but also any sense of tradition. Since living in Germany and performing with MOGH, there have been deliberate desecrations of the Quran on stage. With this, Lord Faustoos aims to demonstrate that Islam must not be tolerated—not even in the form of so-called “moderate Muslims”—because the Quran does not teach or allow peaceful coexistence with non-believers.

    Black Metal Reconquista

    “The problem today is simply that anti-Islam is very, very quickly perceived as political… Religion in general rubs me the wrong way, whether it’s Christianity, Islam, or other offshoots of insane fairy tales. Since, according to statistics, we have an estimated ridiculous 5% Muslims in Germany, Christianity will remain my main verbal and musical target. Especially when I see how strong Christianity is in countries like the USA or Poland. Drep de Kristne!” says Adrastos of the West German Black Metal band TOTAL HATE in an interview with Legacy magazine. A statement like this, or something similar, would certainly be made by numerous other Black Metal bands in Germany, Europe, and America to explain why they continue to focus on Christianity as their main adversary while paying no attention to Islam. Yet, with 1.2 billion followers, Islam is the second-largest world religion, and the number of Muslims in Europe is growing rapidly. In Islamic societies, non-believers and dissenters are mercilessly persecuted and threatened with death if they do not convert to Islam. There is no equivalent to this from the evangelical movement in the USA or the Catholic Church in Poland.

    A growing number of Black and Death Metal bands in Europe, America, and even Australia have come to the conclusion that verbally or otherwise attacking Christianity has become akin to beating a dead horse. Christians, for example, are persecuted and killed by the “Islamic State” in the Levant, without their fellow believers or church leaders in Europe even wanting to talk about it, let alone call for a new crusade against the descendants of Saladin. Such an impotent religion holds no worldly power, and declaring a “Black Metal war” on it borders on laughable. Even the Norwegian Black Metal activists feared that modern Christianity had nothing in common with the crusaders and grand inquisitors of the Middle Ages. “We burn churches to stoke the anger of Christians,” said Varg Vikernes in a 1993 interview, “so we can perhaps wage war with them.” As we know well 25 years later, this religious war never materialized. And incidents where Christians actually confronted the self-proclaimed Satanists and neo-pagans of the Black Metal scene are so rare that the recent clash between a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Austrian band BELPHEGOR at St. Petersburg airport stirred the global Metal scene for days.

    However, there have been early signs of anti-Islamic lyrics in Black Metal. Perhaps the oldest example is the song “Marsch nach Süden” by the German band COVEN OF THE WORM, released in 1992 on their demo Crush the Dogs. It reads:

    With lightning and thunder, we descend
    Our warriors send burning arrows
    Toward the heavens
    Our battle songs resound proudly

    The army approaches, impossible to defeat
    Corpses pave its path to the south
    God is dead, Allah lies dying
    The northern realm casts the dogs into ruin

    A few years later, there was an uproar over the song “Purify Sweden” by the Swedish Black Metal band LORD BELIAL. Their label at the time, No Fashion Records, refused to release the song. Although the lyrics lash out against all foreign religions, which, according to the band, have no place in Sweden, it was likely the mention of Islam that particularly displeased the label:

    Purify Sweden!
    All fucking mosques must burn
    Purify Sweden!
    Molest all Islamic believers

    Due in no small part to such controversies, anti-Islamic lyrics and statements soon became a hallmark of the emerging NSBM scene in Europe and America. AD HOMINEM from France had Muslims face annihilation on their 2002 debut album:

    Allah’s forsaking you
    Your ignorance is all that you own now
    Do you realize?
    You’ll never soil my land again
    I killed you with my own hands

    The band has since distanced itself from NSBM, but it has retained its anti-Islamic stance, as evidenced by their recent album Antitheist from last year:

    Death to the prophet
    Death to his mongrel sons
    Impaled Muhammad
    Impaled Muhammad

    From Canada comes the Death/Black Metal band SVOLDER, whose debut album Desecration of the Five Holy Pillars was released last year, among others, by Iron Bonehead Productions.

    Torched is the black cube, once again
    Destroyed by the infidel,
    Worthless mass is crushed to pieces

    Stone the Imam for his blasphemy
    Befoul the Islamic property
    Bring to ruins the primitive philosophy

    However, the band is not only concerned with fantasies of destruction regarding Islam, as have been commonplace in Black Metal in the form of anti-Christian declarations of war for 25 years, but on their self-titled EP from 2012, they also accuse the “Western man” of not doing enough to counter the advancing Islamization of his homeland:

    “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger”
    Who utters this incessant blasphemy?
    Culpable for the Islamic Spectacle
    Shameful cowardice permits our infection

    Precarious robed men distribute propaganda
    Armed gangsters on the street
    Their Islamic stench stings the nostrils of the Westerner

    Precarious robed men distribute propaganda
    Veiled gangsters on the street
    Their Islamic lies boil the blood of the Westerner

    The strong reactions that criticism and hostility toward Islam provoke, not only in (Black) Metal but also in Western mainstream society, can probably be easily explained: while there is a growing number of native converts to Islam, the majority of Muslims in Europe and America are immigrants and their descendants. Thus, the rejection of Islam goes hand in hand with the rejection of mass immigration. It’s not just that Islam supposedly doesn’t belong to Europe, America, and Australia—i.e., the West: the Muslims already present, often living in parallel societies, are also expected to disappear. This connection is openly addressed, for example, by the Silesian Black Metal veterans DARK FURY on their latest album. The band aims to highlight “how, on the one hand, Islam has repeatedly reached into Europe and even established itself here for centuries, and how, on the other hand, a people and its culture inevitably disappear when the ethnic majority in a country shifts.”

    For this reason, left-leaning individuals often speak of “Islamophobia,” an irrational and compulsive fear of Muslims and Islam, equating it with “xenophobia,” the fear of the foreign. However, it is precisely these left-leaning groups that behave irrationally toward Islam, refusing to acknowledge, in their enthusiasm and applause for increasing immigration from Islamic countries to Europe, that they are also importing a religion with a value system and moral code incompatible with leftist ideals and hostile to any “social progress” that has brought us same-sex marriage here and unisex toilets there.

    It is therefore unsurprising that the most outspoken proponents of anti-Islamic sentiment in (Black) Metal are also convinced nationalists. Their antagonism toward Islam is accompanied by a commitment to their own nation and culture, which they seek to protect from foreign influence. With NORDVREDE from Arctic Tromsø (interview in Ablaze #3), there is a powerful Black Metal juggernaut that has set its sights on Islam. Their latest album, Confrontation, invokes the conflict between Occident and Orient, which is inevitable due to historical principles and whose outcome will be either the rebirth of Europe or the Islamization of the West. The same message is proclaimed by TWO RUNES from Finland, whose debut two years ago bore the programmatic title Herää Eurooppa! (Europe, awake!) and whose cover artwork depicts how this awakening is envisioned: a Black Sun stands in the firmament, and beneath it, a mosque with its minaret crumbles to dust. Also from Finland, SIELUNVIHOLLINEN’s briskly played Black Metal is finding increasing resonance among fans. The band doesn’t dwell on religious subtleties but states bluntly what it’s about: “There is a new enemy in our midst, and it doesn’t turn the other cheek when struck. And it must be struck, again and again, until it realizes that Europe will never belong to the Islamic world order.”

    However, a not insignificant difference between the nationalist-tinged anti-Islamic sentiment and the anti-Christianity of Black Metal stands out. The latter almost always has a religious character, whether through the glorification of the devil as a serious adversary of God and ruler of this world or through the worship of pre-Christian gods and the associated rediscovery and revival of European paganism. Indeed, thanks to the Enlightenment, one can also draw on numerous philosophers and poets who criticized Christianity and advocated for its abolition. There is no equivalent at the core of anti-Islamic sentiment, nor can there be: the Quran never released Iblis from his dependence on Allah. Iblis may act as a tempter of humans, but not for his own cause: he aims to prepare for the Last Judgment, where the faithful are separated from the sinners and non-believers, for Allah. Iblis is not a figure Black Metal can identify with; he is not one who would rather rule in Hell than serve in Heaven. Nor can there be a return to pre-Islamic spirituality in European Black Metal, as Islam emerged centuries after Christianity, and where it gained a foothold in Europe, Christianization had long been completed. One may regret or even condemn it, but Christianity has been part of European civilization and culture for roughly two millennia. When a Black Metal band in this part of the world rebels against Christianity, it is also a form of coming to terms with the past: either one was baptized and raised Christian, or one has Christian ancestors. In contrast, Islam typically leaves no trace in one’s personal biography or family history. It is something entirely foreign.

    Thus, Black Metal cannot adopt the same historically rooted, biographically charged, and religiously-culturally shaped antagonism toward Islam as it does toward Christianity. Instead, Islam in Black Metal must always be perceived as an external and acute threat; as a conqueror from another world seeking to subjugate us. Indeed, the campaigns of the Islamic Moors and later the Ottomans in Southern Europe and the Balkans left deep marks in the collective psyche of the affected European peoples. The Reconquista of the Spanish kings, the defeat of the Serbs in the Battle of Kosovo, the fall of Constantinople and thus the demise of the Byzantine Empire, the victory of the united armies of Germany and Poland over the Ottomans before Vienna: Islam has always appeared as an aggressor in Europe, and this experience continues to resonate today. Black Metal would not be a Eurocentric music genre if its musicians did not process the conflict-laden relationship between Europe and the Islamic world in a manner similar to other Western artists before them.

    In the Crosshairs of Fundamentalists

    At the latest, since the bloody and violent reaction of fanatical Muslims to the so-called “Muhammad cartoons” published in European newspapers following the attacks in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, the sensitivity of art critical or hostile to Islam has been evident. Whoever insults the Prophet Muhammad deserves death. An Islamic hit squad stormed the editorial offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on January 7, 2015, killing eleven people. Charlie Hebdo had repeatedly published cartoons about Muhammad and Islam.

    In European historiography, one must go back a long way to find comparable cases where blasphemy in word and image led to draconian punishments. On the contrary, one can cite numerous examples from antiquity where adherents of different religions and denominations mocked each other without immediately fearing for their lives. Nowadays, however, every publicly expressed criticism of Muhammad and Islam inevitably raises the question of potential consequences; this applies to cartoonists as much as to Black Metal musicians. This experience was already faced by TAAKE when the band was nominated for the Norwegian Spellemann Award four years ago, and Arab media reported that the band had written “xenophobic and anti-Islamic lyrics.” Specifically, it concerned the song “Orkan” on the album Noregs vaapen from 2011. Hoest defended himself by claiming that TAAKE was about religious criticism in general—and that they rejected Christianity and Islam equally.

    So far, there are no known threats or attacks by Islamic fundamentalists on Western Black Metal musicians; however, it is reasonable to assume that with the growing number and increasing popularity of anti-Islamic Black Metal bands and the rapid spread of information on the Internet, an Islamist activist will sooner or later take notice of the Black Metal scene and respond to the musicians’ thus-far verbal declarations of war in their own way. Among the recruits of the “Islamic State,” there are numerous young men and women born and raised in the West who are familiar with subcultures and music styles that have hardly spread in the Orient.

    A glimpse of the arbitrary brutality with which Islamic terrorists can also target music fans and supporters of a rock band was seen during the attack on the Bataclan venue in Paris on November 13, 2015, during a concert by the American band EAGLES OF DEATH METAL. Three supporters of the “Islamic State,” armed with assault rifles and grenades, carried out a massacre among the concertgoers; 89 people were killed. EAGLES OF DEATH METAL frontman Jesse Hughes commented on the events in a recent interview: “I saw fear spread like a blanket over the entire crowd, and they fell like wheat in the wind—like before an idol. … The next day, Muslims in the stadium booed the minute of silence, and the press barely reported it. I saw Muslims celebrating in the streets during the attack. I saw it with my own eyes.” When asked how it came to the point that Islam, with all its fundamentalist and terrorist facets, became a serious threat to public order and safety in the West, Hughes has an answer ready. He blames the leftist zeitgeist with its doctrine of political correctness for this situation. “They (the Islamists, Ed.) know that out there are large groups of white youths who are stupid and blind. These are the rich white kids who grew up with a leftist curriculum from the time they were in kindergarten, flooded with lofty ideas that are nothing but hot air. You see where that has led them.”

    Whether such a devastating attack could also occur at a Black Metal band’s concert can so far only be speculated, but it cannot be categorically ruled out. This is not only clear to musicians who—like TOTAL HATE—prefer to continue targeting Christianity instead of dealing with Islam, but also to fans who “still like to go to concerts without having to watch out for some guy next to me who might blow the ‘infidels’ in the venue into nirvana with him,” as someone put it in the online forum of the German music magazine Deaf Forever. The fear is already present, even before an attack is even hinted at.

    This is also why anti-Islamic Black Metal will primarily face resistance from groups that, paradoxically, are not Muslims at all. On one hand, there are the advocates of so-called “multiculturalism,” who, for ideological reasons, support mass immigration from Islamic countries, and on the other hand, there are those naive do-gooders who would rather not see any Muslim offended, lest the “peaceful coexistence” be disturbed and a violent reaction from those affected provoked. Against this backdrop, Black Metal can play to its great strength: from the beginning, deliberate taboo-breaking has been a hallmark of this genre and its scene; it consciously aimed to stage a counterculture in opposition to societal rules and norms, and where Satan worship and death obsession are now met with collective shrugs, slaughtering the sacred cow of the politically correct zeitgeist—and that means Islam—becomes the new imperative in Black Metal.

    There is probably not a single anti-Islamic Black Metal band in a country where Islam is the state religion and dominates all public life. When one faces the death penalty for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad, it takes an incredible willingness to sacrifice to still play or even listen to blasphemous Black Metal. Western Black Metal bands and fans still have the freedom to criticize and propagandistically combat Islam. Mass immigration to Europe continues, and with it, Islam will further establish and spread among us. One can either speak out against it or let it happen out of cowardice and opportunism. However, it is high time to decide.

    “O you who believe, fight those of the disbelievers who are near you! Let them find harshness in you. And know that Allah is with those who fear Him!” (Surah 9:123)

    Sources:

    takimag.com/article/surrendering_to_death_gavin_mcinnes/print#axzz48gKLoVO9

    de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iblis

    metal-archives.com

    http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/07/when-black-metals-anti-religious-message-gets-turned-on-islam/259680/

    http://www.legacy.de/newsflash/music-news/item/33475-total-hate

    http://www.metal-hammer.de/taake-wegen-anti-islamischer-texte-angegriffen-310438/

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  • Interview for “Iut de Asken” (2009 – 2012)

    by Heiko U.

    “Iut de Asken” was an influential and professional, but also controversial fanzine in the German Black Metal scene; with the “Blutvergießen” fanzine by the same editor being the immediate predecessor. It catered to a niche audience but was criticized for its content and affiliations. The final issue (No. 6) was published in 2012 and featured interviews with bands such as Rotting Christ, Profane Prayer, Empty, Monstraat, Svarrogh, Eminenz, Paria, and Thorybos. Another issue was in the making but remains unfinished and unpublished. Today, it remains a relic of the underground scene, valued by collectors but also cited as an example of the intersection of Black Metal and far-right ideology. The following interview was done between 2009 and 2012 and never published before.

    Thanks for taking the time to chat. I know your past interviews have sometimes been used against you, so it takes guts to do this on a platform like Iut de Asken, which both friends and haters read. You’re probably aware that you and ABSURD are still surrounded by a cloud of lies, half-truths, and rumors. This convo will only come alive if you don’t just stick to my questions but also share some juicy details from your life. Some of my questions come from stuff I’ve heard about you over the years—not necessarily my own views, but what the average reader might think. You ready?

    Yeah, I’ve been burned before—my words – among other things, of course – in some obscure, photocopied fanzine got me four years in prison. So, I’m not naive; I know even “friendly” interviews can be read by folks itching to twist my words into something they can use against me, especially in this so-called “freest state on German soil.” But I trust IDA readers are smart enough to read between the lines.

    As for opinions about me, there’s a ton out there. Some call me a “dim-witted poser,” others a “vile criminal,” or an “intellectual lightweight.” Then there’s the crowd that admires or respects me (for what I’ve done). I don’t take any of it too personally. Most of these people don’t even know me! Their judgments are built on rumors, half-truths and hearsay, so I just tune out the noise. This interview won’t change that circus much—some will feel validated, others might rethink their views, but I’m not sweating it. Let’s do this!

    Why did you agree to this interview? Last year, you weren’t keen on it, and I totally got why.

    After getting out of prison, I wasn’t in the mood for interviews, even with scene mags. I spent nearly seven years locked up, no parole, no breaks. One day I’m “too dangerous” for even a supervised leave of absence, the next I’m kicked out the door as a free man, rebuilding my life from scratch. That kept me busy, and I didn’t want to be back in the public eye. I’ve never cared for that spotlight—count my non-scene interviews on one hand despite tons of requests. But when a cool guy like you asks smart questions, I’m game. That said, this is probably one of my last interviews. At some point, everything’s been said. I’m not that interesting!

    Your name is tied to ABSURD, so let’s start there. What made you decide to form the band? Were the events in Norway a spark? How did you even stumble across Black Metal in the early ‘90s? It wasn’t exactly mainstream.

    I can’t speak for ABSURD as a band anymore—I haven’t been an active member for nearly a decade, just contributing lyrics and concepts. The band’s lineup today is totally different from back then. But back in ‘91/’92, Wolf, Dark Mark Doom, and I decided to start ABSURD. We were already jamming together, but we wanted to make it official, inspired by bands we loved, like old VENOM and BATHORY, not just the Norwegians. Their key albums only dropped in ‘92/’93.

    Still, we kept tabs on Scandinavia as best we could in a pre-internet world—through music mags like RockHard’s DARKTHRONE interview, letters, fanzines, and underground distros like Malicious Records. Our imaginations filled in the gaps, making it all seem mysterious and epic. Early demos from BEHERIT and BURZUM hit us hard emotionally—it was more than music, like an archaic, rebellious vibe that clashed with the world around us. ABSURD wasn’t meant to be just a band but a manifestation of our own “counter-reality.”

    Counter-reality? Isn’t that just romanticizing the past?

    Nah, I’d say the real revisionism comes from those Scandinavian bands who now call their early beliefs “juvenile folly.” We knew Black Metal was more than music back then. Check out interviews from ‘92/’93—it’s barely about music, more about ideology and conjuring an alternate reality. We lived in a world we didn’t choose, but in our heads, we were in a place where the Middle Ages never ended, Christianity never took over, and the world war was still raging. Dark Mark Doom once described to me his vision of a battle tank parked in front of a castle—pulled by horses. Absurd? Sure, but we meant it. The “criminal energy” in Black Metal’s extreme acts was a declaration of war against a world we didn’t want to live in.

    What kind of person was the young Hendrik who found his way into the scene? A typical teen craving provocation? A brooding outsider frustrated with the world? Or just a guy into Metal?

    I grew up in the DDR, a state obsessed with controlling every aspect of life. Things kids in West Germany took for granted—like music or travel—were impossible for us. That made every little freedom, like taping Western radio or snagging a record on the black market, feel huge. I can’t pinpoint when I started feeling alienated from “real existing socialism.” My Christian family probably played a role, though I never cared for Christianity or the state’s ideology. I was more into my grandparents’ stories about the pre-war era, which sparked my love for history and heritage. Punk and Metal became my way to voice that rejection of the present. When the DDR collapsed, I had the freedom to dive into Black Metal—it was the most radical counterpoint to reality, and it hit me on a deep emotional level.

    Punk? What bands were you into? Did that come with an anarchist lifestyle, like panhandling on the streets?

    The usual suspects—German punk, British punk, some American stuff. No panhandling or anything like that. I wasn’t part of the local punk scene; they thought we were too weird, and we found their “hobo vibe” off-putting. There was some beef when we rehearsed at the local youth center—rumors we stole gear from a punk band, which, honestly, might’ve happened, haha!

    Sounds chaotic. How were those early rehearsals? A bunch of kids drinking beer and blasting Metal, or was there some real focus?

    We were definitely rowdy teens, full of youthful energy and chaos. Early rehearsals were all over the place as we learned to play as a band. But we had clear goals: record a demo (which we did months after forming), get a record deal, play shows. Beyond that, ABSURD was about shaking up the status quo. We even dreamed of moving to Hammerfest, Norway, to join the “war against Christianity” or touring the Arctic Circle through remote Siberian villages. Sounds naive now, but we were dead serious. Music was just a tool to change the world.

    What were the first songs you guys worked on?

    If I remember right, classics like “Böse” and “Vampire” were among the first. Those tracks on the “God’s Death” promo from June ‘92 were ABSURD’s starting point.

    How’d you come up with the name Jarl Flagg Nidhögg?

    Kinda by chance! I started with “Randall Flagg,” the dark warlock from Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” and “The Stand”. Later, I added “Jarl,” a Norse noble title, thinking if Varg Vikernes was planning to kidnap a Norwegian princess to join their royalty, I’d need a fancy title to present myself to the new “King of the North,” haha. “Nidhögg” is the dragon gnawing at Yggdrasil’s roots in Norse myth—I relate to that world-destroying vibe. As crazy pseudonyms fell out of fashion in Black Metal, I shortened it to initials, though that caused mix-ups, like when ABIGOR credited “JFK” for a lyric!

    ABSURD stood out for its raw, almost cheeky simplicity compared to other early Black Metal bands. Some said it wasn’t “real” Black Metal, more like punk or even compared it to STÖRKRAFT. How do you see your early days now? A misstep by inexperienced kids?

    Come on, saying there was a strict definition of “real” Black Metal in ‘92/’93 is rewriting history. You were Black Metal if you called yourself that! The “Nordic” sound wasn’t even dominant yet. Listen to MAYHEM’s “Deathcrush”, BEHERIT’s “The Oath of Black Blood”, or BLASPHEMY’s “Fallen Angel of Doom”—raw, amateurish, but undeniably Black Metal. ABSURD was always Black Metal too. Some German fans just didn’t like that we outshined bands like MYSTIC CIRCLE, who fit their “fake blood” aesthetic better. We spilled real blood, and that authenticity was too much for some. I’m proud of how ABSURD shaped the German scene, even if it made us “socially unacceptable.” The rough early recordings were due to our circumstances, but “Der fünfzehnjährige Krieg” shows the potential in those songs.

    Your early lyrics had a dark, misanthropic, sometimes melancholic vibe, typical for Black Metal. But some try to pin songs like “Pesttanz” or “Werwolf” as “Nazi” due to certain buzzwords. Were those lyrics a reflection of a “right-wing” mindset, or just teenage rebellion to piss off the local priest?

    If words like “Jew” or “Zyklon-B” make something “right-wing,” that says more about the hysteria of our critics than our politics. Back then, we didn’t have a clear worldview. The collapse of the DDR killed our interest in politics—we were just anti-everything, wanting to carve out our own world, not fit in. The “priest in Sondershausen” was just a metaphor for Christianity, not a specific target.

    Speaking of Christianity, where did your disdain for it come from? Growing up in the atheist, materialist DDR, why rebel against Christianity? Did the DDR’s anti-religious stance lay the groundwork?

    I encountered Christianity early through church lessons, but it never clicked—philosophically or spiritually. Bible stories didn’t resonate, except maybe the Apocalypse for its dramatic imagery. The DDR didn’t push anti-Christian education; religion was just irrelevant, and the secret police had the churches under control. My rejection grew from learning about paganism and Europe’s forced Christianization. I saw the church as responsible for a historical misstep after the Roman Empire’s fall. Even if it played a minor role in the DDR, I developed a deep, historically rooted aversion to it.

    Were you a Satanist back then in any meaningful way?

    We dabbled in Satanism and occultism, but it was surface-level, more for shock value than deep belief. I was never a devout Satanist—to believe in the Devil, I’d have to believe in God, which I didn’t. If Satanism means rejecting the mundane world, I can still relate. I wouldn’t lose sleep if three-quarters of the world’s population vanished, but I’m not a misanthrope.

    How’d you end up rehearsing in a church-run youth center? That’s pretty ironic.

    You’re thinking of the “House of Youth” (HDJ), a community youth center set up in ‘91 in a place that once belonged to the youth organisation of the Socialist state party. We got a rehearsal room there, alongside punk and blues bands. The Christian Youth Association (CVJM) was also based there and soon caught wind we were “Satanists.” One time, Dark Mark Doom was alone and spun wild tales to CVJM folks about animal sacrifices and wanting human ones too. They ate it up! Then a mentally retarded kid who overheard it went home, threatened his parents with a knife, yelling, “Satan is my father!” That became the town gossip. The CVJM complained to the mayor, who sent the youth office to inspect our rehearsal room. They found “Satanist” signs but let us keep rehearsing, probably hoping social workers could “save” us. We got fed up with the drama and moved to my dad’s cabin outside town by summer ‘92.

    How did ABSURD make early connections outside your small town? It’s not like you’d know to write to Varg Vikernes or MARDUK from rural Thuringia.

    Even in ‘92/’93, there were fanzines like Daemonium Aeturnus from Holland or Infernus from Thuringia, which had a MAYHEM interview answered by Varg himself. RockHard’s DARKTHRONE interview blew our minds. You could order Scandinavian records from places like Nuclear Blast or underground distros like Malicious Records. Demo inserts had contact addresses, asking for international reply coupons or to “send back the stamps”. That’s how connections formed—no hierarchy, just a tight-knit “us vs. the world” vibe. News, like Varg’s arrest for church burnings, was electrifying. We even rode mopeds one night to toss Molotovs at a village church—made of stone, so it’s still standing!

    Were big mags like RockHard on top of early Scandinavian Black Metal?

    There wasn’t much coverage, which made them “on point” in a way. Black Metal wasn’t meant for mainstream mags or festivals—it’s not just another Heavy Metal subgenre. It was deliberately separate, and blurring those lines dilutes it. Look at RockHard’s 2010 Black Metal Special—full of mainstream nonsense. Black Metal should boycott those outlets.

    Some online sources claim your Scandinavian connections are made up. What’s the truth?

    I’m a firsthand witness to the ‘90s scene, unlike Wikipedia editors who weren’t even born then. I’ve got stacks of letters from Norway, but I don’t feel the need to “prove” anything. It’s pathetic when old contacts like Christophe Szpajdel or Josef Klumb downplay their ties to us. I’m disappointed by those who know better but lie, not by clueless critics.

    Your second prison stint—due to a Hitler salute and parole revocation for the “Satanic murder”—made you a martyr on some websites. Did you know about these “Free Hendrik M.” campaigns?

    Yeah, I knew about them. In the US, there were petitions to officials, even protests outside the German embassy in D.C. They were symbolic but meant a lot to me and sent a message to the system. I’m grateful for the support—letters, donations, protests.

    Do you see yourself as a victim of ideological persecution or a political prisoner? Murder is a crime everywhere, not a political issue.

    The 1993 killing had nothing to do with the “speech crimes” I was pursued for from 1998. I was back in prison for exercising rights supposedly guaranteed by the German “constitution”. That’s textbook ideological persecution. Murder wasn’t the issue; it was about silencing me.

    Wasn’t it naive to expect those “rights” to protect you, knowing they don’t apply to “extreme” views?

    It’s not naive to use your supposed rights—it’s naive not to expect the system to twist them. Getting jailed for a Roman salute proves there’s ideological justice here, not freedom. They admit it’s about “speech crimes,” which you’d expect in China, not Germany.

    How did your family handle the fallout from your actions? It couldn’t have been easy being the “Satanic murderer” or “Nazi” son’s family.

    My family suffered more than I did. I did 12 years in prison, but they faced social stigma, moved cities, and rebuilt their lives. They’ve asked “why” plenty, but our bond stays strong. Family sticks together, no matter what. I’m grateful for that. Ideologies that attack family reveal their true aim: destroying the nation.

    There’s a wild story about your US stay with the White Order of Thule, where someone tried to strangle you. What happened?

    I lived with WOT folks for six months in Spokane and Richmond. A money dispute led to an attack while I slept—my stuff was stolen and sold on eBay. They knew I couldn’t go to the police as a fugitive. Later, the main guy, Nathan Pett, got badly injured in a revenge attack and ended up in a coma. He’s since “reformed” and talked to the SPLC. The WOT leadership didn’t know about his actions. The US scene has its share of crazies.

    How was prison in Germany vs. the US?

    Prison’s prison—a closed-off world. Germany and Scandinavia are “humane” compared to other places. I don’t dwell on it—not because it hurts, but because there’s nothing left to say. Varg’s probably the same; it’s just old news.

    Let’s talk about the Black Metal scene back in the ‘90s. You mentioned it had a religious vibe, not just a musical one. Can you explain that?

    Sure thing. Black Metal in the ‘90s wasn’t just about riffs and screaming—it had this spiritual edge. The lyrics, the imagery, the whole vibe screamed something bigger, almost like a cult. It wasn’t just a “youth scene” or some edgy subculture. It tapped into something primal, like a rebellion against the modern world that felt almost holy. You can’t pin it down rationally—it’s like trying to “science” your way through religion. It’s not about that. Black Metal felt like the soundtrack to the end of the world, like Ragnarök in music form. That’s why I roll my eyes at people calling it a “juvenile subculture infiltrated by extremists.” That’s just lazy academic nonsense. Black Metal was about tapping into something ancient and chaotic, not just being a punk kid with a guitar.

    There’s this huge book, Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries, a 720-page beast full of old interviews with Black Metal pioneers. Does it set the record straight on the scene’s history, or is it just preaching to the choir?

    It’s not gonna fix the revisionism. The book’s awesome for those of us who read Slayer back in the day—it’s a treasure trove of raw, unfiltered history. You see the racism, antisemitism, and “fascist” vibes in those ‘90s interviews, no sugarcoating. But the kids who discover Black Metal through Metal Hammer or EMP catalogs? They’re not picking this up. They’re happy with Black Metal as the “naughty kid” of the Metal family, something they can enjoy at Wacken without getting called out for “fascism.” They don’t wanna know what their idols were really saying back then. So, no, it won’t flip the narrative—it’s for the old-school fans who already get it.

    The term “NSBM” (National Socialist Black Metal) bugs me. I’m pretty sure it started as an Antifa slur before some bands, mostly in South America, Eastern Europe, and Greece, ran with it. Wikipedia claims it’s a “scene term,” but there’s no proof. You mentioned it in the Night & Fog sampler foreword. What’s the deal?

    You’re right to question it. NSBM, as “National Socialist Black Metal,” was coined in the scene, specifically for the *Night & The Fog: A Tribute to National Socialist Black Metal* sampler in ‘98/’99. Before that, it didn’t exist—maybe “Nazi Occult Metal” floated around, but that’s it. Back in the early to mid-‘90s, Black Metal didn’t need a label like NSBM because tossing in NS or fascist imagery was just par for the course. Look at NÅSTROND’s “Toteslaut” with an SS skull, sold by Napalm Records as straight-up Black Metal. It wasn’t until the late ‘90s, when Black Metal started getting “respectable” in mags like RockHard, that some in the scene decided to double down. NSBM was a middle finger to the commercialization and domestication of Black Metal—a way to keep it raw and untouchable by the music industry. The bands on that sampler weren’t even overtly “political”—they were satanic or pagan, like most Black Metal acts. But by tying themselves to the ultimate taboo, National Socialism, they guaranteed no mainstream label would touch them. It wasn’t about “Nazifying” Black Metal; it was about keeping it extreme and free from sellouts. Without that move, Black Metal might’ve turned into a cheesy vampire show like it already was at VENOM’s heyday.

    You run a distro and label, giving new bands a shot in a flooded scene. Is that still necessary?

    Totally. The scene needs fresh blood, or it’ll die out. I’m picky about new bands, but supporting the next generation is a no-brainer. It’s part of what keeps my label going.

    Why not just focus on reissuing old demos? There’s tons of forgotten German and international stuff worth reviving. Some labels in Greece and the US are all about that.

    I could, but who’s it for? Just because I’m nostalgic for some old demo doesn’t mean anyone else cares. Younger fans often hear a classic like SILEXATER’s stuff and go, “Meh, I’ve heard better,” not realizing those newer bands were inspired by the old ones! Reissues of obscure ‘90s stuff, unless it’s MAYHEM or BURZUM, don’t sell. SILEXATER’s reissue, for example, just sits on shelves. I’ll reissue some oldies, but my focus is on new recordings from active bands.

    What about the “I only collect old cult stuff” mindset? You know, “new stuff sucks except my band”?

    That’s a dead end for a label. As a fan, sure, collect what you love. But running a label like that? You’d be stuck in a niche with no growth.

    Any new bands you don’t release that blew you away?

    Not exactly “new,” but SKUGGEHEIM and ETERNUM hit me hard. SKUGGEHEIM brings back that raw, feral Norwegian Black Metal vibe, and ETERNUM nails the old-school Polish sound from the TTF era. I’m not into “Post Black Metal” trying to reinvent the wheel—it’s a done genre. Just keep reworking the classics, like MOTÖRHEAD’s been doing since ‘75.

    How’s the Black Metal scene’s buying habits now compared to your distro days in the ‘90s?

    It’s all about instant gratification now. Back then, you had a tight budget, bought a few CDs or LPs, and lived with them for weeks. Now, people download everything instantly, listen a couple times, then delete it for the next thing. Fans today are more consumers than connoisseurs. But there’s also more collectors, especially for vinyl, some chasing limited editions for social media clout. You’ve got profiteers too, buying up rare releases to flip on eBay for big bucks. None of that existed in the ‘90s.

    In your distro, what sells better—vinyl, CDs, or tapes? Are cassettes dead?

    Merch like shirts and patches outsells everything, then vinyl, CDs, and tapes. Surprisingly, tapes still have a decent following, even though they were written off years ago. CDs are actually fading faster in this digital age—analog formats like vinyl and tapes have a collectible vibe that digital can’t match.

    When will Darker Than Black drop its last CD? Or is it still too profitable?

    As long as there’s demand, we’ll keep making CDs. They’re cheap to produce now, so even a flop won’t bankrupt us. CDs will outnumber vinyl releases for a while.

    How are magazines doing? Better or worse than 10-15 years ago?

    They’re still selling strong. People don’t read much online beyond emails or forums. You can take a mag anywhere, unlike a computer. Print’s not going anywhere in the scene.

    Are fanzines and mags still relevant with all the online info out there?

    They’re less crucial for news—back in the ‘90s, you needed a fanzine to even hear about a new band. Now, you’ve got forums and Metal Archives. But mags are still key for shaping opinions. A good journalist can hype a band or tear them down, keeping the scene’s quality in check—not through ideology policing like RockHard, but by focusing on the music.

    Your distro’s gotta be slick and professional now, right? Nobody’s ordering from some dude with a photocopied list anymore.

    Yeah, an online shop is a must. Printed catalogs are ancient history—stock changes too fast, and customers want instant updates. But I don’t think underground labels should try to compete with giants like EMP. Find a niche, build a loyal customer base, and you’re golden.

    You offer legal, paid MP3s of your releases. How’s that going? Would you recommend it to other labels?

    It’s a bust—MP3 sales bring in less than $100 a month. I only offer them to counter the free downloads on sketchy blogs. It’s not a money-maker, and I wouldn’t push other labels to bother. Physical formats like vinyl or CDs are way more satisfying—you don’t get that sensory thrill from a mouse click.

    The remastered “Asgardsrei” dropped on April 20, 2012. I got a sneak listen, but my setup’s crap, so I noticed more samples and a beefier bass. What changed, and why was a redo needed?

    The original “Asgardsrei” was recorded in a few days in a backyard studio in ‘98. We had zero studio experience, and our sound guy, L’Hiver, bailed before mixing, so we fumbled through it ourselves. The result was rough—not the songs, but the sound. The master tapes (VHS, not ADAT, oops) got seized in a police raid and sat in evidence for years. When we got them back in the mid-2000s, no one cared to remix since the album was already out. But when it got banned two years ago, we saw a chance to fix it. Finding a studio to read those old tapes was a nightmare, but Thomas Tannenberger worked magic, remixing every track. It’s still 100% the 1998 recordings, just way punchier and rawer. The drums were rearranged using the original tracks, we found buried guitar solos, and the bass finally shines. New samples and a fresh layout rounded it out. “Asgardsrei” went from the weakest link in ABSURD’s discography to a German Black Metal masterpiece.

    Rumor has it you’re such a mediocre drummer that “Asgardsrei’s” drums had to be redone by someone else.

    Haha, yeah, right. The drums were actually played by Hellhammer, vocals by Dead, and guitars by Euronymous. Oh, and Count Grishnackh handled bass. Gotta love how rumors work—anyone can make up whatever!

    What about those hand-played double-bass drums?

    Must’ve been the Devil’s left and right fists, man!

    You also organize gigs. Is that worth it, with all the hurdles and bans on certain bands?

    Festivals over a weekend are way more cost-effective than one-off shows, but we’re not in it for profit. If ticket sales cover costs, we’re good. It’s about giving a stage to bands you’d never see in Germany, like GOATMOON, DARK FURY, or DER STÜRMER. We’ve been the first to book them here. The scene’s full of naysayers whining about why stuff won’t work, but we prove it’s doable with enough grit and know-how. We’re the antidote to promoters who cave to Antifa’s complaints and ditch “controversial” bands.

    Is the vibe at concerts still like the old days? What’s changed?

    The energy’s similar—booze-fueled chaos at the stage! But the logistics are trickier now. Back in ‘98/’99, we’d throw shows with NAGELFAR or NARGAROTH, no permits, no cops, no hassle. Now, you need a lawyer on speed dial because authorities can shut you down on a whim, often illegally.

    I heard from the Gothic scene that their events are mostly 30s and 40s folks now, no young blood. Is that true for Black Metal gigs?

    Nah, Black Metal’s still a young crowd, probably 21 to 26 on average. It’s a youth culture, and you see that at shows—plenty of new faces, not just old-timers.

    Back to Black Metal as a “counter-reality.” Can a 13- or 14-year-old today feel the same way we did back then? Kids often start with mainstream stuff like CRADLE OF FILTH or DIMMU BORGIR—can that still lead to the raw, underground roots?

    No way a kid today can feel what we felt in ‘92. Back then, Black Metal was mysterious—hidden identities, cryptic lyrics, rare demos. It left room for your imagination to go wild. A BURZUM lyric like “Inn I Slottet Fra Drømmen” hit me deep, like it was speaking my own thoughts about a hidden world. Today’s Black Metal is too exposed, too polished. CRADLE or DIMMU might hook a kid, but it’s hard to imagine them finding that same primal, rebellious spark we did. Still, I hope some kid out there feels it, against all odds.

    You keep mentioning this “counter-reality” concept. What does it mean, and is it still possible today?

    Reality’s tricky—what’s real to me might not be to you. Our brains piece together what we see, hear, smell into a “reality,” but it’s just a slice of what’s out there. Animals sense stuff we can’t, so who’s to say our reality’s the only one? The idea that our world is the only way it can be is BS. Black Metal’s counter-reality is about rejecting that and imagining a world where ancient gods, dark sorcerers, or grim warriors exist. It’s like in “Apocalypse Now”—Colonel Kurtz’s jungle kingdom feels as real as the “civilized” world, but it’s the opposite. Black Metal opens a window to that other world, one you feel like you belong in, like this one’s just a temporary exile. That’s what the old Romantics were chasing, and Black Metal’s in that same vein. Without that drive to break free from “reality,” it wouldn’t exist.

    Black Metal’s gotten kinda “soft” lately, with all the depressive/suicidal stuff. Bands like FORGOTTEN TOMB or XASTHUR lean into that emo vibe. Your take?

    People mix up “Romantic” with “sappy.” Real Romantics, like the 18th/19th-century ones, were hardcore with wild ideas, not whiny teens. Black Metal shouldn’t be about self-pity, but society’s pushed this “it’s okay to cry” vibe, especially with all the gender-neutral nonsense. Kids today are raised to overshare emotions, so you get bands like SHINING milking that “lost soul” aesthetic. It’s gross. What’s so bad in these kids’ lives to justify this gloom? Nothing, usually—it’s just trendy to be depressed for attention. Bands like FORGOTTEN TOMB cash in on that, especially with female fans. Black Metal should be fierce, cruel, destructive—not a pity party. Kick the weak egos down; maybe that’ll spark some fight in them.

    Why keep running your distro and label? You could just go off-grid in Mecklenburg or something.

    I could also crown myself king of Andorra, haha. I’m a creature of habit—I do what feels right, what I’m good at, and what gives me purpose. The label’s my way of chipping away at the demiurges’ relentless fist holding our world together. If I can help make things a bit more chaotic and adverse for him, I’m happy. Farming can wait till after the apocalypse.

    You’ve been traveling to East Europe a lot. What’s the draw? Scene stuff or just personal interest in the countries?

    Mostly personal. I’ve been fascinated by this world region since I was a kid, from my grandpa’s war stories about the Eastern Front to the DDR’s “Soviet friendship” propaganda. It was abstract—Russian class in school, Red Army monuments—but it stuck with me. My first real contact was at a youth camp in Poland in ‘87 or ‘88. The former “East Bloc” feels closer to me culturally and emotionally than the US, even if the reality doesn’t match the hype.

    Would you ever move there or anywhere else?

    Not really. I don’t have a beef with Germany itself, just its political and legal BS. When I fled to the US in ‘99, it was to dodge jail, not because I hated Germany. I like my life here—other places, even neighboring countries, don’t match the vibe or comfort. I love traveling, though, and soaking up other cultures for a bit.

    Ever just hop on a train to some random Russian village or city, like in those travel docs?

    Nah, I’m too much of a planner for that. Randomly ending up in Siberia sounds less like an adventure and more like a survival test. Same with wandering a strange city. Some folks travel with this arrogant assumption they’ll find “exotic” versions of home, or they’re naive enough to think everyone’s friendly. That’s a recipe for a reality check.

    You’ve mentioned your love for dogs. How’d you get into them? Berlin’s all about urban beekeeping, not dog taxes, haha.

    I’ve got a white German Boxer, an 8-year-old male. Met him in Russia, and while it wasn’t love at first sight, he grew on me fast. Like Schopenhauer said, “The more I know people, the more I love animals.” I don’t baby him, but we’ve got a father-son thing going. Dogs need discipline and care, and they give back pure loyalty—something humans can’t match. They’re great for folks with social issues or anyone wanting to learn responsibility before kids. I’ve had him since ‘09, and when he’s gone, it’ll hit hard.

    As a cat owner, I get the dog love. But dogs as kid prep? Feels like in Germany, dogs replace kids for some.

    Yeah, for older folks whose kids moved out—or never had any—dogs fill that void. But younger people? If they’re too self-absorbed for responsibility, a dog’s as annoying as a kid. I grew up in a big family, helping with my four younger siblings, so I knew the drill. For only children, a dog’s a better way to learn duty than jumping straight to parenting. Too many kids end up messed up because their parents weren’t ready.

    A musician once told me his dad got awards for animal rights, and it made him feel like his music obsession was pointless. You’ve spent your life on Black Metal, the scene, your distro, or in jail because of it. Looking back, any regrets? What’s next?

    I’ll quote Rudolf H.: “Even if I could, I wouldn’t erase this time from my life. I regret nothing. If I started over, I’d do it the same, even knowing a pyre awaits me.” I don’t do “what ifs.” Life’s about choices and their fallout. I hate people who dodge the consequences of their actions and blame others. Owning your path shows strength; whining about it shows weakness. Love your fate, you know? As for the future, I’ll keep doing what I do—stirring the pot, pushing boundaries. Who knows where I’ll be in ten years, but I’m not slowing down.

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  • Interview for “Come Lupi Tra Le Pecore / Wolves among Sheep” (2015/2023)

    by Davide Maspero and Max Ribaric

    In the complex and ever-changing scenario of Nineties extreme metal, after the season of the arsons and once we entered that process of transition that would see the genre take two distinct directions – on one hand that of large-scale commercialization and on the other that of radicalization at all costs, taking the rudimentary ideological concepts expressed by the early representatives of the genre to the extreme – two characters strongly emerge, imprinting themselves on the collective imagination as the ultimate exacerbation of those anti-system concepts expressed by black metal: Varg Vikernes and Hendrik Möbus. Both with a blood-stained background, both with a charismatic personality and the protagonists of this genre’s musical history. Moreover, willing or unwilling, they are both considered NSBM’s putative fathers.

    Today, Vikernes never misses an opportunity to emphasize the distance that separates him from anything that is even remotely associated to black metal, although banishing the ghosts of a past that has given him notoriety is not a simple task. Diametrically opposite is Möbus’ choice: once released from jail, he actively returned the the scene. Abandoning his career as a musician, he started managing Darker Than Black, which to this day is a a label strongly committed to digging into the underground in search of bands that are unfit for the mainstream music industry. Therefore, no one was better qualified than him to help us review the current state of the NSBM scene and the historical origins of this phenomenon.

    Let’s take a step back to your activity as a musician. Absurd are widely considered as the pioneers of the soon to be called NSBM, and albums like Asgardsrei had a crucial impact on the scene, paving the way for other bands. How do you relate to this past and its legacy? 

    I am fine with it. Unlike many others from that era, I have never denounced who I am and what I have done. Black Metal was meant to be extreme music for extreme characters and it is a logical conclusion that “political extremism” can be included, too. If Black Metal shall be “more than music”, if it shall make an impact on the world beyond the realm of art – then “politics” is a means to this end, as a matter of course. Hence I have never drawn a line and said I, or Absurd for that matter, have to be “unpolitical” or whatever… Quite to the contrary, I think the only line can be drawn when it comes to “politically correct Black Metal”, because that’s nothing but an oxymoron.

    The ideas and ideals that can be found in National Socialism, namely Social Darwinism and Individual Elitism, Aryan Supremacy and Anti-Judaism, Blood Mysticism and Neo-Paganism, among others, do suit Black Metal very well. Although I am not interested in “party politics” any longer, I do not deny that my world view remains the same more or less and that Black Metal is one medium for expressing me myself as well as a mirror that does reflect me myself, if you know what I mean…

    During those years you also created Darker Than Black Records. In almost 20 years of activity it has become one of the most long-lasting labels focused on politically incorrect extreme metal, it’s been raided and shutdown by the police and was finally reborn in 2007. Not exactly the usual routine for a record label. What were your goals then and what are they now?

    Well, I do prefer the old-fashioned position of a patron of arts. Maybe you have noticed that I do sign and produce “newcomers” first and foremost. I want artists and music bands to express their innermost creativity in an environment where they do not need to compromise their artistic vision. Many record companies and music magazines want Black Metal to be castrated and domesticated for the sake of improved “marketability”. From my point of view, that’s anathema to the true and original spirit of Black Metal. D.T.B. Records stands for the freedom of art and expression. There shall be no restrictions imposed on Black Metal.

    Contrary to popular belief, I do not necessarily release “NSBM”-bands only. If you look at the release roster and schedule for D.T.B. Records, then you will find all sorts of Black-/Pagan Metal there. No band I am working with has to swear allegiance to my own, private worldview. They are free to express themselves how it suits them best. Needless to say, I draw a line where any band would advocate ideas diametrically opposed to the ones I have subscribed to myself. In all the history of the record label, it has never, ever happened that a band and I have had a falling-out over “politics”, though.

    And what about your current relationship with the authorities regarding DTB’s activities?

    I am sure they keep monitoring me, and what I am doing. Well, that’s one brave new world we are living in, is it not? A music compact disc can be more dangerous than, say, one kilogram of TNT. Words as weapons. Music of mass destruction. For as long as nobody does disturb my circles, I could not care less for what others, the “authorities” included, do think, say or write about D.T.B. Records, though.

    How do you see NSBM today and which differences do you see between the current situation and the years when bands like Funeral/Kristallnacht, Absurd or bands from the Temple of Fullmoon moved their first steps?

    Well, you will be hard-pressed to find any Black Metal-band that openly admits to being “NSBM” nowadays. It is only Der Stürmer and Wolfnacht, both from Hellas, that have no problem whatsoever with saying so. Many others, even though they are sympathizers of National Socialism, will insist that their lyrics are about war, genocide, oppression, what-have-you… but not about “politics”, as a matter of course. So, there’s a difference: In the late 1990ties, many bands who were said (and said so themselves!) to be “NSBM” did not bother to make any “political statement” whatsoever, but today you have bands making “political statements” that are hell-bent on avoiding the “NSBM”-tag for themselves nonetheless. Alas, that’s not even a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”-approach but cowardice and opportunism, plain and simple. You want to play with fire but you don’t want to get burnt. Well, I am not here to blame anyone, though. To each his own, and I am in a position where my “public reputation” could hardly suffer any more regardless of how I think and feel about National Socialism myself, for instance.

    It’s a widespread opinion that NSBM is an extremization of black metal, triggered by the commercialization of the genre, which in turn led to the loss of its primary subversive force. Do you agree with this idea? In this sense could we say that NSBM retrieves BM’s original spirit?

    Actually, that’s a minority opinion for all I know. However, you hit the nail right on the head! The rise of “NSBM” started at the same time when Black Metal experienced a massive commercial exploitation, in the late 1990ties. All of a sudden, the bloodshed caused by Black Metal and the ashes of torched churches left behind did not make a difference any longer, because the “music business”, in as far as Metal music is concerned, eventually realized you can move tens of thousands of albums of one Black Metal-band. Yes of course, the band would need to be less extreme, less violent and less militant for appealing to an even broader audience. Plenty of bands, in particular from Scandinavia, were willing to sacrifice whatever radical zealotry there was in Black Metal for the sake of “fame” and “money”. Needless to say, this decline of Black Metal has sparked a new wave of radicalization and extremism among the underground scene.

    To some bands, the last resort that could effectively withstand the commercialization of Black Metal was to swear loyalty to National Socialism – if not in lyrics and “band image”, then in interviews and statements at the very least. In Western society, there is next to nothing left that a majority of people truly abhor and won’t ever tolerate no matter what. You can blaspheme Jesus Christ and hail Satan, so what? Nobody gives a fuck. You can talk about all sorts of sexual depravity, and they ask for more. In our day and age, it is only National Socialism that shuts all doors and turns all backs on you. Since Black Metal thrives best in isolation and self-induced hatred against the modern world, resorting to National Socialism as a means to keep untainted the pure essence of the genuine spirit of this particular genre ought not come as a surprise, actually.

    Compared to the Nineties, NSBM seems to be less  widespread in Western Europe, while it is very popular in the former Soviet territories, also in the form of pagan metal with racial implications. Do you think the succes of the genre in those areas is only due to the years spent under the Communist regime or could there be other reasons?

    Well, if you travel to Russia or Ukraine, then you will experience a lot of sympathy for National Socialism among the young people. Not among the elders who still remember World War 2, but the generation of their grandsons and –daughters, and especially their children, does have a positive perception of National Socialism actually. They have witnessed, or have been told by their parents, how Bolshevism imploded all by itself and left nothing but economic disaster and spiritual desolation behind. Whereas National Socialism was a vibrant and vital ideology that challenged the world, and thus the world needed to combine the strength of numberless nations to defeat and to eventually crush National Socialism in Germany and elsewhere. That’s one reason why National Socialism is so popular in East Europe.

    If there are “smartasses” over here who belittle this popularity and who call it nuts, because the “Nazis wanted to conquer, to enslave and to kill alls Slavs”, then it shows they, not the young folks over there, have no clue of history but keep parroting the propaganda hostile to National Socialism. Be that as it may, since you wondered why you have not so many obvious “NSBM”-bands in West Europe: You have to consider the legal situation in many countries, be them Germany or France or Benelux or Austria… in each one does exist “thought crime”-legislation that effectively outlaws any and all “glorification of National Socialism”. If a band does not want to be prosecuted, fined or even jailed, then they will surely attempt to “fly under the radar” so to speak. Sometimes it works, other times it does not.

    As it happened before with black metal, NSBM gained fame and it spread from Central and South America to far Eastern Russia and Southeast Asia. What’s your opinion on the large scale diffusion of the genre?

    Well, I will respectfully quote David Myatt in this regard: «With the defeat of Germany and its allies in the First Zionist War, National-Socialism was purified, emerging as a complete way of life, centered around honour, loyalty and duty. The political compromises needed to achieve power were gone, as were the supporters who did not understand or live up to the ideals of National-Socialism. The essence emerged as the shell covering the essence was destroyed in the crucible of that war. People who have described this essence include Savitri Devi, Miguel Serrano, and Leon Degrelle. Since we now consciously understand this essence, it is possible to create – and only now possible to create – a genuine National-Socialist society. This would be an entirely new type of society and while the inspiration would be National-Socialist Germany, it would in many ways be very different, although it would manifest the same ethos, the same ideals».

    That being said, I do not believe National Socialism in general and “NSBM” in particular ought to be limited to, say, Germany or European countries. However, the racial component cannot be faded out completely. If mongrels or Jews would be playing “NSBM”, then I’d consider this a really odd choice of genre for any of them. Since National Socialism, and thus “NSBM” too, is about Blood (= Descent) and Soil (= Origin) first and foremost, you would have to relate to this tradition in one way or another or else it is out of question you do realize – much less, comprehend – what this ideology is all about.

    Today, the NSBM label seems to include various ideas: paganism, white supremacism, social darwinism, Traditionalism, Nazi mysticism and all types of nationalism. According to you, are there any “requirements” that define a band as NSBM? Considering the variety of themes presented by such bands, does the prefix NS still make sense?

    There’s only one requirement I can think of right now: Namely, a band has to say they are “NSBM” to begin with. If you just look at the private worldview of musicians, then you could rightfully say Burzum too is “NSBM” even though Varg Vikernes would certainly disagree with this assessment, because Burzum is not about “politics”. However, you have plenty bands with obvious references to World War 2 or to NS-Germany that still deny to be “NSBM” or to be “political” at all. Be that as it may, the prefix NS does make sense now as before. It’s like a badge of honour; it proves you are at war with the powers-that-be while all alone in a hostile world.

    The growing “political threat” has also brought heavy metal in the sights of antifa organizations that started to hinder certain bands/events. Is it a problem that concerns Germany too?

    Yes, we have similar problems in Germany but truth be told, I do not deem it negative if Black Metal is considered to be a “menace to society” and dealt with accordingly. So-called “Antifa” is making much noise over Black Metal and many bands, even the popular ones signed to major record labels, encounter problems due to a “guilt by association”. That’s nothing to be deplored, though. A music genre so firmly opposed to the modern world and each and everything that does uphold the status quo, how could it be less than marginalized and boycotted by the “mainstream society”, I do wonder? How the “politically correct” ones react to Black Metal, all of their revulsion and antagonism, that’s the way this music genre, the bands and the fans alike, ought to be dealt with, actually.

    I would only be concerned if it was the other way around, with Black Metal being widely tolerated and absorbed by “mainstream society”. That would prove this music genre lost its edge, and thus the raison d’être too. For all I care, this must never happen. And for as long as I am here, running D.T.B. Records among others, I will see to it that Black Metal remains a genuine counter-culture meant to challenge, and to ultimately overcome, the reality we are forced to live in.

    What happened to Absurd and why there are now 2 versions of the band?

    Well, there is only one band as far as I am concerned. You surely know that I was a founding member of Absurd back in 1992, and that the only reason why I couldn’t continue with the band was that I left Germany and went into hiding in the USA, end of 1999. Two years later my brother Wolf came up with the idea of reforming Absurd with a completely new line-up, with him being the vocalist, and I have approved of this idea and gave it my public blessing, so to speak. That’s how Absurd kept going until 2012, when this line-up played their final concert and after their last studio recordings taking place in 2008, and the band ceased to exist in all but name.

    In 2017, Wolf explained to Alexey of Militant Zone that he’s done with Absurd, and with doing any music in general. That’s when I decided to return to active duty in Absurd, by taking over vocals and adding new members to the line-up. We have played a few concerts, in Ukraine, Italy, Finland and France, and started working on new recordings subsequently. In 2022 we have released the sixth and new full-length album of Absurd, “Schwarze Bande.

    In the meantime, an ex-member of Absurd used a studio session for another band in 2019 to record a few songs that were later released under Absurd as well, but that’s all there is to it. Hence, there is only one Absurd headed by the sole remaining founding member and that’s me. Concerning the biography of Absurd, in particular when it comes to changes in the line-up, the official website http://www.hordeabsurd.com can provide detailed insight to anyone who cares. Last but not least, Absurd are currently working on new songs and more concerts might happen too.

    NSBM (or we could say radical black metal, to avoid the strict NS category) saw an increasing popularity in these last 10 years. Bands like Goatmoon or Nokturnal Mortum gained a lot of attention even besides the NSBM milieu. Events like Hot Shower and, especially, Asgardsrei brought the festival experience to the public. Besides the covid/war stop, what’s your thought on the current status of the genre? 

    It’s simply about cause and effect, action and reaction. First of all, you need to consider the broader context: Although the loonie Left in the West pretends to be in opposition to a “racist” state and “bigot” society, it is absolutely self-evident that the mainstream in politics, culture and arts has gone full-blown “woke”. From the heads of the state via the global corporations to the entertainment and music industry, everyone is pushing a “woke” agenda of identity politics, gender theory and cultural marxism.

    If you subscribe to the same agenda, then you are 100% mainstream. There is zero rebellion in your words and no revolt in what you do, either. You are just one more cog in the wheel, period. However, this can’t be reconciled with the self-image of a subculture which is supposed to be anything but mainstream. Hence, the more you forcibly align Black Metal to the mainstream the more you will have bands and fans in this scene start pushing back, and their gravitation towards radical (i.e. non-conforming) Black Metal comes as the pendulum swings. With that being said, there are three specific reasons why this sort of Black Metal enjoys an increasing popularity.

    1. The loonie Left and their “guilt by association” that keeps expanding the definition of who’s radical Black Metal, with many bands and musicians suddenly considered “sketchy” even though there is nothing in their music and lyrics to indicate any of that. However, they have fans who are now less inclined to stay away from radical Black Metal, because if the bands they already listen to are supposed to be “sketchy” why not start listening to other “sketchy” bands too?  
    2. The musical merits of radical Black Metal, which have vastly improved during the last couple of years and can’t be denied even by their most rabid critics. There are numberless “Sketch-free alternatives to band XY?”-threads on Reddit, for instance. People there keep looking for “safe” and “woke” substitutes to NSBM- and other radical / “sketchy” bands, because they yearn to listen to such bands based on the music but can’t deal with the lyrics or concepts. Even though they oppose said bands based on ideological grounds, they acknowledge that their music is just great and right up their alley. It might be true that painting a swastika on your album cover might get your band attention, but if you want to get fans your music must be good. And some of the radical Black Metal-bands are top tier in the genre, with selling tens of thousands of records also to people who just appreciate their music but don’t care about the lyrics and image.
    3. The releases of radical Black Metal bands are widely available and easily accessible, even though YouTube and Bandcamp go to great lengths for deplatforming their music. If you go shopping at some of the biggest online vendors for extreme Metal, then you will inevitably come across a vast selection of all sorts of records from radical Black Metal to NSBM. Take Osmose Productions from France, for instance. Once upon a time, Hervé said he opposes any fascism in Black Metal and when Marduk recorded their “Panzerdivision Marduk”-album for Osmose, the original cover showing a German Tiger battletank from World War 2 was replaced by the photo of a modern tank from the Swedish army (also it was said that the band wasn’t aware of this until the CD was released) for not upsetting any distributors in Germany; but many years later when Osmose started to work with bands like Nokturnal Mortum and the editors of German Metal press advised Hervé to stop doing that or else they wouldn’t print his advertisement anymore, he told them to fuck off and from this point on he just wouldn’t care about Black Metal said to be “sketchy” or not anymore. Now you can buy pretty much all the releases of radical Black Metal from Osmose too.

    Contrary to the increasing popularity of the records released by radical Black Metal and NSBM-bands, the situation for live gigs has sharply declined since the start of Covid-related restrictions in Europe and elsewhere. For the powers-that-be it’s impossible to keep music from circulating once it was released, but it’s perfectly possible to cancel the live performance of this music if they know the date and place in advance.

    The Asgardsrei festival was always singular, because it was a public event in a major city that could be easily visited by tourists from all over the world, but now this ain’t possible anymore and you can’t pull off the same kind of festival at any other place in Europe or North America, either. Hot Shower already was much more clandestine, and smaller events were even less advertised and thus remained confined to a local audience only. Organizers and bands must go to great lengths to make gigs happen without paying extra, because the tighter the security and secrecy the smaller the audience and revenue.

    Furthermore, the local authorities also double down on their efforts to don’t let such gigs take place, at all. For instance, already in 2019 the Federal Police of Germany has seized my passport for one weekend and they didn’t let me fly to Kiew, because they said I want to attend a “Nazi gathering” there and thus they issued a worldwide travel ban for me. Now they keep doing the same to a lot more people whenever there is a concert or other event abroad and they presume that you might want to go there (either as band or as guest).

    I don’t think that there comes the time when we have zero gigs of radical Black Metal and NSBM-bands anywhere, but at least in Europe and North America we are unlikely to see big festivals with several hundreds or thousands of people anymore.

    In recent years, the pressures of antifa organizations on black metal (especially in the USA) have increased. But many “regular” listeners are getting tired of cancel culture and politically correct. Do you think this situation could create a rift in the public, pushing people towards more radical ideas since there is no longer a gray area in between?

    Yes of course, that is already happening and the loonie Left, spearheaded by so-called “Antifa”, keeps ceaselessly erasing any “grey zone” between the radical fringe and the self-proclaimed “unpolitical” main body of Black Metal. I’ve always reminded everyone, who believed “Antifa” would “just deal with the Nazis in Metal and leave everyone else alone”, that they follow a strict “with us or against us”-modus operandi and thus they will never cease targeting and hounding bands unless musicians actually swear allegiance to the “woke” agenda. It ain’t enough to say “Our band is not about politics!”, because for “Antifa”, everything is politics. Identity politics, minority politics, gender politics, you-name-it.

    Heavy Metal is a deeply conservative genre, it’s not “progressive” at all (just look at Manowar and you know what I am talking about). Even if there’s no NSBM anywhere to be found, there’s still so much more about Metal that offends “Antifa” and will provide them with ample reason to push their agenda in the Metal-scene no matter what. They are ignorant of any traditions and the history of this genre, because they are outsiders and strangers to Black Metal.

    Quite a few bands in this particular scene, especially the more popular ones, are comfortable with fence sitting. They enjoy their private meetings and talks with the “bad guys” of the scene but they will never come out of the closet and admit that they are on friendly terms with someone deemed “Nazi”. If “Antifa” keeps pushing them off the fence and forces them to pick a side and stand their ground, all the better. Once bands will be so pissed off at Antifa that they ask their fans to don’t affiliate with anyone or anything “leftist”, we can step in and reach out and take over. “Antifa” is so much better at rallying hitherto unpolitical Metal-fans behind our banner and to our cause than what we could accomplish ourselves, just let them bring it on and keep it up for all I care! For every concert of Marduk, Taake, Deströyer 666, etc., that they manage to get cancelled, we’ll get a hundred more fans and followers of radical Black Metal and NSBM in return.

    DTB was among the first label to catch the so called magick metal phenomenon, with Black Magick SS, Edelweiss and so on. What’s your thought on this subgenre? Do you think this kind of approach can “normalize” NS symbols and maybe bring new people to this kind of music/ideas?

    I have started to release Black Magick SS long before there was any “Magick Metal”-trend and later I have worked with some other bands playing a similar style of music, because I liked what they did with their music and wanted this to be properly released and distributed. However, to me it was always obvious that any symbols and references to NS on their records were not supposed to be a political statement, but it’s rather a tongue-in-cheek gimmick for the sake of controversy and notoriety. There’s the people who are sounding alarm bells when they see a SS-Totenkopf on display and then there are the people who keep laughing it off, because this Totenkopf also shows a witch’s hat and looks decidedly funny. Either way, you got people talking about your band and buying your records, and that’s all that matters to a whole lot of bands obviously. A CD of Black Magick SS is most likely not helping any more to “normalize” NS symbols than, say, “Inglourious Basterds” by Quentin Tarantino does. It’s just entertainment to most people, I’d say. Those who want to see the NS in “Magick Metal” will keep feeling vindicated by certain symbols and similar references, and those who don’t want to see any NS in it will find plenty reasons why none of it must be taken seriously.

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  • Interview for “Counter-Currents” (2024)

    by Ondrej Mann

    I know you are the founder of the NSBM genre, what did the term NSBM mean to you then and now?

    I wouldn’t call myself the founding father of NSBM because that implies that NSBM is a new phenomenon in Black Metal. However, this is a false assumption, as the genre of Black Metal has always dealt with historical, cultural, and esoteric references to fascism and National Socialism from the very beginning. For example, Bathory’s “Under the Runes” can very well be read as a portrayal of World War II from the perspective of the Germans and their Nordic volunteer units, which also aligns with anecdotes about Quorthon from that time. The Norwegian Black Metal bands from 1992 also used the swastika or the SS Totenkopf, made racist and anti-Semitic statements in interviews, and generally believed that Black Metal was only for whites. The reaction of the international metal scene to Black Metal at that time was a general boycott of bands and their releases, which was justified by the “fascist mindset” of Black Metal musicians. NSBM – or “National Socialist Black Metal” – simply articulated in 1999 what had been present in Black Metal all along. However, and I want to emphasize this, not as a political manifesto! The term “NSBM” was first used on the compilation “The Night and The Fog: A Tribute to National Socialist Black Metal”. However, this compilation also included bands that did not address any NS themes in their songs at that time. The common idea was different: Beginning in 1996, the mentioned boycott of Black Metal was slowly but surely lifted, and the music industry recognized the sales potential of Black Metal bands. Dimmu Borgir, who still wanted to “slit the throat of every colored person” in 1994, got a record deal with Nuclear Blast. More and more Black Metal bands from the early days became commercially successful and distanced themselves from the radicality of their earlier statements. So we realized that Black Metal would soon be successfully domesticated and castrated if we did not draw a red line within the scene. This red line was and is “NSBM”. The principle then and now is that it is impossible in the West to commercialize positive references to National Socialism. Of course, the Third Reich is trivialized and marketed in the form of alleged “education,” but this always happens under the premise of “Never again!”. However, if an artist today were to speak about the good sides of Adolf Hitler, their career would be over. So we were aware that the best way to immunize Black Metal against its appropriation by the music industry was to positively reference National Socialism within this genre – even if it was just by participating in a compilation like “The Night and The Fog”. Shortly after its release, I wrote and published an essay, “National Socialist Black Metal,” in which I described “NSBM” as the inevitable culmination point in the development history of Black Metal. I am still convinced of this.

    Isn’t the term NSBM obsolete today? Bands like Kroda, Nokturnal Mortum, Temnozor cannot be put in the same box as Der Stürmer, M8l8th, Adolf Kvlt. These bands play more ethnic pagan black metal and don’t deal with NS even though they also play in the deep underground, like orthodox NS bands.

    The term “NSBM” is probably outdated for another reason. As I already mentioned, the idea that right-wing extremists suddenly thought of infiltrating and appropriating Black Metal is complete nonsense. Black Metal was proto-fascist from the very beginning, definitely reactionary and extremist. Practically all bands that later openly identified with “NSBM” were already founded as Black Metal bands and at that time also dealt with satanic and occult themes. So, “NSBM” has always been flesh of its own flesh, so to speak. In 1999, there was also no idea that “NSBM” had to explicitly be about Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. Such a thing only crystallized over time with some bands, and yet, in my opinion, it would be wrong to consider only these bands as “NSBM.” For several years now, there have been two tendencies in Black Metal, one of which has been brought into the scene from outside. This involves the leftist “guilt by association” thesis, according to which one is already a “Nazi” if one sits at the same table with another “Nazi.” In a sense, as a defense against this thesis, many Black Metal bands argue that this cannot be true because the representatives of “NSBM” – in their opinion, those bands that exclusively and offensively deal with the Third Reich and World War II in their music and lyrics – are only a small minority that one can simply avoid. Both tendencies obscure the overall picture, namely the original and still dominant character of Black Metal as an artistic expression of a counter-reality in which the pagan gods are alive and powerful, in which the Christianization of Europe never happened, and in which the Third Reich did not lose the war. Therefore, I am quite of the opinion that it must be acknowledged that Black Metal = “NSBM” and that any discussion about alleged infiltration and distinction is therefore superfluous.

    How is black metal different from metal in general – death, grind, heavy metal?

    Musically, there are certainly more similarities than differences between the various styles and subgenres in metal, even considering the fact that by 1992 there were clearly audible differences between Scandinavian, Polish, and Greek Black Metal bands. However, Black Metal never wanted to be just another subtype of Heavy Metal. On the contrary, in 1992, all bridges between the scenes were truly burned. There were even death threats from the Black Metal scene against Death Metal bands to make them cancel their concerts in Norway. At that time, there was an accusation from Black Metal against the very first scene representatives – Venom, for example – from the 1980s, and of course also against the Death Metal bands from that era, that they never meant it seriously. They only sang about death and the devil but did not practice any of it. This was now to be changed, and it was changed – the numerous church arsons, but also violent crimes up to murder, committed from within the Black Metal scene between 1992 and 1995, are impressive testimony to a “from words to deeds” philosophy of the bands and fans active at that time. The metal scene took very close note of this and reacted with disgust and rejection. At that time, it was absolutely possible to come to Black Metal without being interested in or enthusiastic about metal as such. That was the case with me, for example. Black Metal was extreme music for extreme people; a scene in which the line between reality and fiction blurs and can be crossed, and that is, of course, the crucial difference not only between Black Metal and metal as such but also between Black Metal and many other subcultures in the West.

    Is there an ideal type in black metal?

    For me personally, it’s simple: I place great importance on the synthesis of lyrics and music, as two sides of the same coin. If there are quality deficiencies on one side or the other, it diminishes the overall impression and I am not convinced. Of course, 30 years ago we didn’t hold ourselves to the same standards, which can be heard on our early recordings, but by now it should be a consensus in the scene that a band or solo project should only release something when they have mastered their instruments flawlessly and are also capable of expressing their thoughts in a lyrically sophisticated manner. A popular yet fundamentally false accusation against “NSBM” is that it is claimed to be inferior music, which is then “spiced up” with a swastika. In individual cases, this may be true, but overall, “NSBM” bands play at the same level as other Black Metal bands. A project like Wolfnacht, for example, is even much better than many other things released in contemporary Black Metal because Athalwolf is a perfectionist and places great importance on a flawless presentation in words, images, and sound.

    Does Richard Wagner and classical music mean anything to you? Richard Wagner created the Germanic myth, is black metal trying to do something similar in its ideal form?

    We probably wouldn’t be having this interview if I had no interest in Richard Wagner at all. For Richard Wagner is indeed the great conjurer of Germanic archetypes in the world of art. One could say he is the one who brought them to life – in a form that makes them appear before us in reality. What the German Romantics expressed individually in paintings, poems, and songs, Wagner combined in words, images, and music, and brought to the stage. It was only through this synthesis that it became a transcendental event, a sort of divine service, and someone like Adolf Hitler recognized himself in this living world of myths and wanted to transfer it from the realm of art into reality. This is precisely the approach taken in Black Metal: confronting this world with art as a tool and weapon to destroy and recreate it. A venture doomed to failure? Perhaps, yes. But if there is something in this world that endures death – not only the death of the individual, but also that of collectives, cultures, civilizations – and even triumphs over it, it is myth. The myth remains. If Germany ceases to exist one day, Wagner will still be there. His works might not hold the same significance in other cultures as they do for us, but instinctively, everywhere people still uphold tradition and culture, it is recognized that this is a universal and timeless work of art and cultural heritage. The myth, crystallized in music, song, stage design, and costumes. Black Metal will probably never hold this level of significance, but it is still right to hold oneself and one’s art to this standard.

    How do you rate the book Lords of Chaos today? You wrote a commentary on the book the year it was published. Michael Moynihan here, unlike other left-wing authors, claims that there has been a revival of the Wotan archetype in Norway through black metal. And that’s what fueled the transgressions, the murders, the church burnings. How do you feel about that?

    “Lords of Chaos” is probably the first serious attempt at a comprehensive description of Black Metal by an interested outsider, and Michael Moynihan has advocated a thesis that I also share. However, it was likely Gerhard “Kadmon” Petak who first introduced this thesis in connection with Black Metal: How the bourgeois children of a wealthy and largely secularized society, such as those found in Norway in the 1980s and 1990s, could suddenly become religious fanatics with a penchant for violence and a desire for apocalypse, cannot, in my opinion, be explained solely (or at all) by social and similar reasons. C.G. Jung’s theory of archetypes, particularly his “Wotan” essay on the rise of National Socialism in Germany, can provide a much more meaningful answer here. Unfortunately, the publisher of “Lords of Chaos” insisted that this book fit into its “True Crime” publications, and therefore too much emphasis is placed on various murders from within the Black Metal scene, even attempting to treat cases that have nothing to do with Black Metal in the same context. This sensationalism has harmed the book’s purpose, in my opinion. This is also evident in the fact that the rights were sold to Hollywood, resulting in a ridiculous „coming of age“-film being made.

    Have you noticed the so-called re-polarisation of the world, what was drive sacred is now profane and what was transgression is now the new normal? For example, nationalism, family, faith x child castration, pedophilia, sex change, interracial mixing?

    Our world has always been divided along fundamental differences, so it is no wonder that we are again observing an increasing polarization within society today. Certainly, there have always been phases of dialogue and compromise in between, but the binary “friend/foe” scheme is as old as humanity and will therefore continue to determine human interactions. Homo homini lupus! However, what you are addressing is a conscious and deliberate reversal of all previously valid values. Certainly, there have been epochs in human history where, for example, different sexual morals prevailed, but certain principles, especially those biologically determined like the fact of two genders, were never up for debate. This is supposed to change now. It’s not just about implementing a transhumanist agenda; no, it’s about establishing a pseudo-reality where 2+2 = 5. We already live in a reality that is not in harmony with the natural order, but we will soon have to live in a reality that is in direct contradiction to the natural order. The idea behind this is to question empirical reality, just as O’Brien says to Winston Smith when interrogating and torturing him in the “Ministry of Love.” No one should know or be able to say what is real and what is not. No one, except for the higher authority of an unquestionable entity, determines the truth. But even this truth is arbitrary and can change at any time. Even unconditional submission and blind obedience do not protect against thought crimes because what one believed yesterday may be false today. This way, independent thinking is trained out of people, conditioning them into a will-less subject of totalitarian rule; not as in the past, by forcing them to follow a certain ideology, but now by taking away every ideology and with it every certainty. The new totalitarianism is not characterized by a particular worldview; no, it is the denial of the assumption that the world can indeed be recognized, understood, explained as it is. This is evident, for example, in the „doublethink“-alike contradiction that on the one hand, a relentless identity politics is pursued that knows and allows no nuances and gray areas, but on the other hand, it is emphasized that there is no identity at all because it is only a social construct. Therefore, one can choose their own identity, even though it is not real, and be someone they are not. In such a world, it will be possible to manipulate people as brainless masses at will. That is precisely what it is all about.

    Is it possible to organize a NSBM concert in Germany?

    In the past, this was indeed feasible; for example, there have been concerts by Der Stürmer and Goatmoon in Germany. However, nowadays, such an undertaking is hopeless. It is often no longer even possible to organize song evenings for a handful of guests because the police intervene to prevent such events. Adding to the difficulty is the fact that it has also been made impossible for German bands to perform abroad. They receive a travel ban from the German authorities shortly before their performance. This is reminiscent of the conditions in East Germany before 1990, although at some point, unwelcome artists were expatriated. They could no longer perform in the GDR but could still perform abroad. This possibility no longer exists today because the German state wants to subject such artists to a general performance ban.

    Is there a dark soul of Germanicism? The Germans created and are very fond of Faust, Struwwelpeter, The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm?

    Of course, there is the “collective unconscious,” as C.G. Jung called it, among the Germans as well. The works you mentioned are unthinkable without German Romanticism, because this movement paved the way for the systematic exploration of German folklore. The Brothers Grimm were scholars who made it their task to collect, research, and preserve the fairy tales and legends from German folk traditions. This, in turn, led to great interest in pre-Christian, Germanic mythology, and the Neo-Paganism / Neo-Germanism of the 19th century would never have emerged without this groundwork. The dark side of the Germanic / German soul is not so different from that of all related communities of race and culture. For us too, much revolves around the abysses that a person wanders along throughout their life, often coming so close that they fall into them. Doctor Faust is such a genuinely German character, “who always desires the good but creates evil.” He allies with the devil, even selling his soul in exchange for access to knowledge and understanding. In Goethe’s work, it is the “naive” and innocent Gretchen whose love for Faust could save him from eternal damnation, but she too is eventually corrupted, led to infanticide, and only finds her way back to God shortly before her death on the gallows. A redemption that Faust is denied because he undervalues the key to it – his love for Gretchen. This is a very German tragedy and, in its ambivalence, also influential for many lyrics I write for Absurd.

    Has black metal in the past attempted a certain counter-reality? Fantasy, black metal, radical acts. Through metal to build a new reality, aesthetics, to change the world with magic and very radical acts and politics?

    Yes, I am convinced of that. The legitimacy of Black Metal lies in its claim to at least make an alternate reality conceivable. Unlike the thinkers of the “Frankfurt School,” I do not believe that reality can be arbitrarily deconstructed. For everything that is removed from the realm of reality (which is determined by perception), something of equal value must be created and put in its place. Those who want to change reality must destroy it but simultaneously recreate it. And this possibility has often existed in human history; for example, the outcome of every battle has always determined what the world would look like afterward. And it would definitely have been different from what it became if a different warring party had emerged victorious. So it is far from mere mental play to envision an alternate reality. The alternate reality always exists as a “What if?” and Black Metal can provide a glimpse of it. Through art, of course; but also through the inspiration for actions that can have an immediate impact on the prevailing reality and change it. As I said, every reality is determined by perception, and if one manages to influence this perception, then one can also see the world through different eyes. The Burzum lyrics for “Inn i slottet fra droemmen” are, in my opinion, an apt description of this striving for an alternate reality in Black Metal:

    Out from the mist

    Out from darkness

    Out from the big shadows of the mountain

    The castle of the dream…

    So ends the ride

    That lasted a lifetime

    For the master goes (in the castle of the dream)

    How can one find his own’s place in this world?

    By getting to know and love oneself. This naturally happens through interaction with one’s own social environment, typically one’s own family with its history, traditions, values, and principles. Through this path, one also finds their place in the world. However, it is our fate that we can rarely be truly happy in the world as it is. This world is simply too wrong, too inverted, too alien. We sense this, and it leads many to despair. But there are other worlds besides this one. Finding them, creating them, inhabiting them – this is a pursuit we should never give up.

    Why is black metal a chthonic, telluric and Dionysian music?

    Our pagan ancestors still knew that polarity is not dualism. Only with the triumph of the Abrahamic religions did a schism emerge between the Creator God and His adversary, but these opposites were united in pagan deities. Wotan is a prime example of this; as the Allfather, he rules over Asgard and Midgard, taking warriors and heroes from among humankind to Valhalla after their death, so they can defend the realm of the gods against the world’s enemies as a final reserve. Yet during the “Rauhnächte” at Yule, Wotan also returns to Midgard, leading the Wild Hunt to wreak havoc on Earth during the longest nights. Wotan is benevolent and wise, yet also cunning and deceitful. It is impossible to reduce him to just one aspect of his personality and appearance. Pagan gods were not one-dimensional. They created humans, and if humans, as the image of the gods, are contradictory and complex beings, then the gods must be the same. Since pagans believe in the Great Cycle, “as above so below,” and understand birth and death not as beginnings and ends but as transitions, it is entirely natural for telluric powers to have their rightful place in this mythology. However, during Christianization, these powers were literally demonized and unsuccessfully exorcised, driving them into the collective unconscious but not eradicating them. Black Metal brings these powers back to the forefront and manifests them in word, image, and sound. Suppressing them leads to neuroses and phobias, while rehabilitating them brings healing. They are needed for transformation, to initiate change. Wotan knew that Ragnarok would not be the end. The world will perish and be reborn, but he cannot initiate this process independently. For this, he needs the world’s enemies, who in turn are unleashed by Loki, at Wotan’s behest. In a certain sense, these motifs can also be found in biblical apocalypticism, but with the Kingdom of God, an eternal state of “blessed” stagnation is promised: Death is conquered, the lamb lies beside the lion, and humanity is back in Paradise. This notion is foreign to paganism, as it does not correspond to the natural order, which is inherently cyclical.

    How was your move to the US? Do you have any personal memories of William Luther Pierce?

    At the end of 1999, it became clear that I was to be sent back to prison. I was not in agreement with this and therefore looked for opportunities to flee abroad and wait for these political offenses to eventually become statute-barred. I finally chose the USA: for one, I speak English, and for another, there is freedom of speech there. I emigrated to the USA in December 1999 and first stayed on the West Coast, then on the East Coast, and finally in the Appalachians. The National Alliance had its headquarters there, and I was already acquainted with Dr. Pierce after he acquired Resistance Records and wanted to enter the music business with RAC and NSBM. He also relaunched the Resistance Magazine, for which I wrote several articles at the time. Although he personally had no interest in these subcultures and their music, Dr. Pierce understood that this was a way to reach young people and win them over to his political cause. Dr. Pierce was a very European gentleman and thus completely different from the Americans I otherwise met, but even in Europe, he would have been an exceptional figure. He was definitely more of an academic than an activist, but nevertheless, the National Alliance was entirely tailored to him, and with his unexpected death, this organization also immediately fell apart. During my time with the National Alliance, I had many conversations with Dr. Pierce, and he proudly showed me his private library. It contained many German books from the interwar period that he had purchased from the Library of Congress, and he asked for my help in translating and republishing some of them in English. It is very unfortunate that this did not happen, and his death was truly a loss for the entire movement, which he had inspired for so long with his essays, speeches, and books.

    You’re quite a well-known figure in black metal. What are the biggest myths about you?

    In the age of the internet and the social networks used there, it is inevitable that one will be talked about if one has achieved a certain degree of fame or notoriety in one way or another. My person polarizes, in Black Metal and beyond, and for some, I am the “Nazi” and for others a “Jew”. None of this affects me, should I even become aware of it, but it is remarkable how easily one can live rent-free in other people’s minds. What is annoying, however, and this is out of my very personal sense of honor, is the sometimes expressed insinuation that I am on the payroll of German intelligence agencies. Because the only German intelligence service I might have wanted to work for ceased its activities almost 80 years ago. And for the fact that I am supposed to be an informal employee of a German authority, the German state and its prosecutors are really far too interested in trying to put me back behind bars. I am probably the only German in this Black Metal scene who, on the one hand, has already served prison sentences for offenses related to “NSBM” and who is still being brought to court and convicted again on flimsy charges. You shall recognize them by their deeds, and also by their court records!

    What is your relationship and how do you feel about the German band Der Tod und die Landsknechte?

    Der Tod und die Landsknechte is the band of my older brother Wolf, and I am very happy and glad that he has managed to express himself artistically with this project the way he always wanted. He can be especially proud of the album “Wir fürchten weder Tod noch Teufel”, and rightly so!

    Is there an extreme spiritual path for extreme living in modernity?

    How is a “revolt against the modern world” conceivable and feasible in the present? Much of it takes place purely virtually, on social networks of the internet, and does not go beyond posting photos and memes. The excessive use and dependency on a medium that, like no other, stands for the current epoch in postmodernity is in combination with an alleged reactionary and anti-modern attitude the ultimate oxymoron. Personally, I have no problem with not being able to live in the 18th century or even earlier, that is, in the pre-industrial age. Anyone who seriously thinks they want to do without technological achievements in energy generation, mobility, communication, medicine etc., can certainly go into the wilderness as a hermit. However, I am sure that for 99% of all people who at least pretend that this is a desirable way of life, an early and probably painful death by starvation will be the immediate consequence. There is a reason why people have long since ceased to be hunter-gatherers, and it has to do with the struggle for survival in evolution. A person who has grown up in postmodernity can no longer survive in the free and wild nature.

    With all this, it should not be said that postmodernity is flawless. On the contrary, there are many reasons why the “Weltschmerz” (world-weariness) in this age does not cease. Materially, we may be better off than any generation before us, but morally we are corrupt and spiritually already dead. However, one must understand that there is practically no way to fight this age and violently abolish it because it is – as Kali Yuga – an unavoidable part of the cosmic cycle. Only at the end of this age does the divine transmutation from iron to gold occur, with the dawning of the new Golden Age.

    Of course, I am aware – and readily admit to behaving accordingly – that the instinctive reaction to the repulsive conditions in postmodernity is to want to somehow correct these conditions – by voting for right-wing and conservative parties, for example. But the sad truth that we understandably suppress is more likely that we should follow Nietzsche’s view and “push what is falling.” As I said, I fully understand anyone who thinks there must be another way out of this spiritually dark age. I look with much sympathy at all the luminous figures who opposed the agents of Kali Yuga and were defeated and executed by them, but I myself only have the modest hope of being able to make my existence in this age as bearable as possible because I do not believe that I will experience the Golden Age in my lifetime.

    How does prison change a person?

    That depends, because every person reacts differently to imprisonment. Most prisoners – and I am no exception – quickly adapt to the conditions of confinement. However, I have always made sure to question and challenge the decisions of the institution’s administration. As a result, I was seen as a troublemaker and malcontent in their eyes, but this spirit of contradiction comes from the Silesian part of my family. Deprivation of liberty is an evil, but even worse, I found the fact that I was condemned to inactivity. It was impossible for me to engage and develop as my personality dictates. The conditions of imprisonment in the USA were much harsher than in Germany, and there I spent almost a year in solitary confinement – without daylight or fresh air. Without robust resilience, one can quickly come to the brink of madness, and such conditions of confinement are recognized as torture for a reason. All in all, prison did not really change me; it certainly contributed to the person I have become, but the predisposition for it was already ingrained in me.

    How can one best realize a revolt against modern degeneration?

    I have already commented on this, but in addition, I can say that it is essential to maintain a critical distance from the ruling circles and their incessant agitprop through the media, “political education,” social engineering, etc. In the GDR, we learned many things in school that, from one day to the next, no longer corresponded to the truth. This made me realize that the “official truth” is always a lie. Imagine being taught as children and adolescents that Germany in the past was occupied by “bloodthirsty fascists” who could only be driven out by the “heroic” Red Army. For a long time, I didn’t even know who these “fascists” were. They were about as real as the monster under the bed or the alien from outer space. But then I understood that they meant my own grandparents! And that was impossible for me to comprehend, because I loved my grandparents and knew they were good people. Such an insight led to the first dissonance between my own perception and state propaganda, and when it suddenly became clear after 1990 that this propaganda was just a lie, I stopped believing or trusting the state at all. Any state that exists today! Only if you make this a principle will you be able to break out of the state-mandated matrix and resist the degeneration that is willed and created by the ruling circles. This “revolt against the modern world” is primarily a defensive struggle, because every day one is occupied with avoiding the harmful and destructive influences of the Kali Yuga. To protect oneself and those you love and care about, one will need to put on armor made of common sense, traditional values, and spiritual resilience. In the Kali Yuga, we are like astronauts in space: Alone in an extremely hostile environment that can kill us at any time if we face it without protection.

    What is the most extreme experience you have had in your life?

    In my 48 years, I have had quite a few extreme experiences and have found myself in dangerous situations (for example, in 2019 I was attacked by two dozen Antifa thugs who also would have wanted to take my life if they got the chance), but even though I didn’t choose many of these situations, I would still not give them too much attention. It is much more important to me that I am and remain capable of at least partially realizing my vision of an alternate reality in artistic form, and in my role as a band frontman, music producer, and record label owner, I am able to do so. One day, I don’t want to be remembered for what happened to me, but for what other people have experienced and learned thanks to my creative work.

    Can one search for the numinous essence in the modern world?

    In today’s world, hardly. Even the once sacred sites have now been profaned and at best only allow us to sense the numinous. But there are other worlds than this one, as mentioned. We can create an alternate reality for ourselves, at least in a private setting, perhaps even with an idealized past and a utopian future: Anything would be better than living in a dead, dark, cold world. The Greater German Reich was the last grand design of such an alternate reality, as a synthesis of the past and the future (in the form of a reactionary modernity), in which millions of people could partake. It was a world where the solstice was celebrated as once by the pagan ancestors, while ballistic missiles from the forges of the future ascended to the heavens above. A world that was thoroughly destroyed and obliterated. And with it, any hope of living in such a world before the advent of the Golden Age was completely dashed. But that does not mean that this world is impossible! We know that it existed and still exists – now, however, only as a memory, an inkling, a promise. As an alternate reality that we may glimpse for only a brief moment – for the duration of a song, for example – but each of these moments is precious and provides solace in a world we did not choose. We must focus on these moments, on these “tears in rain,” as the replicant Roy Batty so emotionally and poignantly described them in “Blade Runner,” and in them, the numinous continues to live and can be preserved until the day when the Golden Age once again illuminates our souls with a radiant divine glow.

    Thank you for the interview and good luck with the Counter Currents!

    Read the Interview on “Counter-Currents”, Part 1
    Read the Interview on “Counter-Currents”, Part 2
    Interview for “Counter-Currents”, 2024Download
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  • The Prophet of Green Eugenics:  Kaarlo Pentti Linkola (1932 – 2020)

    The end is nigh, now more than ever. The year 2019 was all about the “climate crisis”, in Western Europe at the very least. Every Friday, in any major city of Western Europe, you could see a pilgrimage of schoolchildren gathering and solemnly listening to a young female preacher from Sweden, who’s proclaiming the inevitable destruction of life on earth unless everyone in Europe and North America atones for their ecological transgressions and vows to de-carbonize the Western civilization instantly. The „Fridays for Future“-movement, along with the more radical offshoots like „Extinction Rebellion“, have caused a considerable media frenzy yielding political clout by the so-called Green Party and leftist political players in the national parliaments as well as the European Union. With the elections for the European Parliament in May 2019, the apocalyptic narrative concocted by “Fridays for Future” was believed to be decisive for victory or defeat at the ballot box. The Green Party and their leftist associates promised to make ecology their top priority and that helped them get many votes accordingly, whereas the other political parties were punished at the polls for sitting on their hands instead of saving the world, or worse, that they have been ignorant and doubted the climate change all along. Conservative lawmakers are indeed sceptic of the fancy idea that by reducing CO2-Emission in one single nation we could have any impact whatsoever on the world climate. Why impairing domestic economy, with entire industries shutting down and unemployment skyrocketing, when it won’t make any difference to the world climate? However, for the many new adepts of so-called “deep ecology”, our departure from fossil energy is long overdue. They predict a point of no return, with global warming exceeding 2 degree Celsius from here on, when the eco-system of the entire planet will collapse and the extinction of life on earth becomes a real scenario. 

    Well, with life on earth being as old as 3 billion years, there has never been a stable world climate that wouldn’t have changed profoundly at some point. We know of many periods of global warming and cooling but still, life prevails because it adapts and evolves. I have no doubt that there will be life on earth until the sun expands and makes earth inhabitable, but if this life will always include the human species remains to be seen. 

    In the Glare of the Burning Rainforest 

    Leftist political parties have become the patrons and cheerleaders of the new Green grassroots movement, willingly subscribing to the narrative of man-made climate change. Their political opponents rather support the climate change-skeptics among the academics, who don’t question that there is any climate change – because that is what climate did and keeps doing, it changes – but that this change is actually and exclusively man-made. In their opinion, which does have scientific merits indeed, humankind can’t be the prime cause of climate change, because empirical data shows periodic ups and downs of median temperatures in the course of human history, also at a time when men were few and there was no technology to speak of. Hence the global warming of the last decades could perfectly be a natural phenomenon unrelated to any human activity. Be that as it may, but this opinion is anything but popular nowadays. If you deny man-made climate change, then in the eyes of the “Fridays for Future”-disciples you commit heresy that will render you unworthy of participation on political debate. 

    We must not live in denial, I say. The world climate does change, indeed, and the adverse side-effects of global warming can be experienced in everyone’s daily life already. I have no doubts that there is a human factor to climate change, but it’d be wrong to point a finger at the Western man and hold his industrial society accountable. Quite to the contrary, Western engineering and technological progress made our countries so much greener and cleaner in the last 50 years or so, a fact that is best observed by comparing Europe to any backward place on earth. It is also an empiric matter of fact that in Europe, many species of flora and fauna are prospering instead of perishing. If there’s something in our own countries that is adversely affecting the eco-system, then it surely is neither our industry and technology nor our traffic and infrastructure, but our mechanized agriculture and factory farming which no longer serve self-sufficiency. The food thereby produced is not needed by us but required to increase the world food supply. Not so long ago the images of rainforest fires made the news in Europe and it was understood that the forest burns for the sake of growing soy, a vegetable that is used as animal feed in our factory farming. What was not equally acknowledged is the fact that the meat coming from the same animal farms goes into export to many countries all over the world. How can we deplore the blazing destruction of the Amazon rainforest but stay oblivious to the numberless people craving for the food coming from the ashes of the forest fires? If there’d be fewer people on earth, then factory farming would most likely not exist and the rainforest would not have to burn, either. 

    Environmentalism is not a leftist agenda 

    The political Left is not, and never was, genuinely concerned with environmentalism. There never was, or is, a leftist regime that addressed animal rights or nature protection. In the socialist countries with a state-owned industry, pollution of air and water by industrial poisons was commonplace. You were not supposed to talk about any of that lest you’d become an enemy of the state. The political Left stays ignorant of ecology to this day, because their core ideology is anthropinism. They support “Fridays for Future” for no reason other but to inject criticism of the political and economic system into this movement. The Green Party, in Germany at least, was originally founded by conservationists in the tradition of the early 20th century-youth movements, many of which wished to restore – quite an idealistic and romantic notion, no doubt – a harmony of man and nature whereas their leftist counterparts were busy toppling the old order in favor of a new world for a new man. The Green Party has come a long way of internal struggling and purging until it eventually emerged as another leftist political party. Although the Green Party would still speak of animal rights, renewable energy and nature protection, their political agenda is now the very same identity politics that you can find anywhere on the political Left these days. Hence the Green Party too advocates “open borders” and “refugees welcome”. This political party is now obsessed with their definition of “climate refugees”. That’s the migrant coming from a country devastated by climate change, and we have the duty to welcome him because it’s our industrial society responsible for melting ice and rising waters. Unsurprisingly, this narrative of Western man wreaking havoc on the climate of faraway countries is the new sequel to the old story of Western man colonizing and exploiting Africa, and equally backward places, for the last 500 years. The “White guilt”-complex is so deeply entrenched in Western culture that the kids and teenagers joining “Fridays for Future” just can’t wait to atone for the sins of their fathers. As always with a narrative concocted by leftist ideologues and demagogues, this is a hoax designed to seize political power, and nothing else. 

    No noble savage anywhere 

    There never was any age in human history when man did not interfere in the eco-system for the sake of advancing technological progress, and thus, raising his living standard. After the Stone Age, when man had the means and tools to start agriculture and abandon the life of nomads, his interference in the environment started to show: Man has cut down the forests to have space for cultivating crops and cattle; man built dwellings made of wood and stone; man decimated predators and domesticated other animals whenever they suited his needs. Do you believe that anywhere in Europe – save for a few remote areas always void of human habitation – is a place that wasn’t cultivated by man at some point in history? The forests we have in Germany, for instance: Almost all of them are man-made in one way or another. Man began cutting down the forests in the middle ages, just to see them grow back during the prolonged periods of war and pestilence, and then he went to cut them down all over again. When he started with forestry in earnest, he planted trees that would grow fast and yield a good timber harvest. That’s why there are so many monocultural forests in Germany. Or look at Iceland, for instance – we know it as a place void of trees but prior to the arrival of the first settlers from Norway, almost half of this island was covered by forests and it took man only two centuries to turn Iceland into the barren landscape we can see ever since. Yet man survived and life persisted. Man has interfered with the eco-system long before the advent of the Industrial Age, because his survival depends on taming the wild and unpredictable forces of nature. 

    The indigenous peoples so much admired for their presumably “harmonious co-existence” with nature? Well, they just lacked the means and tools to advance beyond that primal existence of hunters and gatherers. Once they too learned how to manipulate the environment to their own benefit, they never hesitated to replace the flintstone with iron and the arrow with the bullet. The age of blissful innocence can only exist when there is no man, at all. However, nature can and does adapt to the ways of man. And man can and does become mindful of the fragile eco-system that he still struggles to comprehend, but that he understands is the only sphere of life anywhere in the vast cosmos known to us. We in the Western World have come a long way from the mindless exploitation of nature to the point when we care so much for the environment that now we have legislation protecting wildlife, regulating forestry, and penalizing animal abuse. Never in human history has any high civilization been more considerate of ecological issues than modern industrial society. And do you know what without a doubt must be considered the most profound contribution to our green conscience and consciousness? Why, it’s the declining birthrate in Western countries, of course! 

    Quality vs. Quantity 

    I am aware that in our movement, the declining birthrate of Western women keeps setting off alarm bells. We uphold the traditional family image of the father, the mother and their many children; and yet we can’t deny that the reality in our countries looks so differently. Our movement feels very concerned about the demographic decline in Europe, and family values are promoted, with much ardor at that, as integral part of our political agenda. We are observant of the alien cultures where the women do have a much higher birthrate now as before, and it is our conclusion that their offspring could replace ours in a not so distant future. Although I am sympathetic to such sentiments, I believe we must not engage in a demographic arms race with any other race or nation in the world. Our Western civilization, with the high degree of industrialization, mechanization, and digitalization, requires few but highly trained workforce. Quality trumps quantity, as usual. That can be said about mechanized warfare too, by the way. One argument made for a higher birthrate is the fear that we could become defenseless if we have less men fit for military service. But if manpower would be so decisive in a modern-day war, then I wonder why the Arabs, for instance, can’t drive the Jews from Israel back into the sea even though they are outnumbering them easily. They can’t, because their enemy keeps the military supremacy using advanced weaponry not available to anyone else. Israel, just like South Africa before, perfectly proves that an ethnic minority can deter another ethnic majority with just the right show of force. But even though we must never become a powerless minority in our own countries, we still don’t need an inflated population in Europe anymore. 

    Once upon a time, the nomadic and tribal society always struggled to survive. Any newborn would make this society less vulnerable to extinction. During the middle ages in Europe, the population started to outpace the food production and new ways to deal with excess offspring had to be found; the girls could be married off but the boys, other than the firstborn that is, could either be delivered to one of the many Christian monasteries or sent away to the colonies. In other cultures where that was not possible, as it is known from the isolated Maya and Aztec civilizations of Central America for instance, the religious rite of human sacrifice was introduced. The sacrifice of infants and virgin girls would cull the population to never grow beyond the limits of food production. 

    Now that we live in the industrial civilization, we have much more sophisticated means of population control at our disposal. Why would we need a growing population, anyway? Western man got a much longer life expectancy compared to previous generations, while at the same time artificial intelligence, automation and robotization make life management so much easier than ever before. Those in favor of mass immigration keep saying that we need to import workforce to our countries lest our declining and aging society will experience a setback to our high living standard, but this is a moot argument considering the rapid pace at which artificial intelligence and robots occupy the jobs formerly done by humans. The migrants, almost all of them illegal aliens, coming from Africa and the Middle East to Europe are not fit to contribute to our economy, because many have zero school education to the point they can’t read and write, either. They end up as the dregs of society, and that’s exactly what they shall be according to leftist demagogues. Their agenda of re-distributing the wealth of a nation can’t have the desired effect if there’s no one in society who is poor and feels disadvantaged. Behind the slogans of “open borders”, “no nations” and “refugees welcome” is the age-old Marxist vision of the leftist rabble-rouser stirring up social unrest until the Lumpenproletariat takes to the streets and chases the powers-that-be away for a leftist regime taking over. 

    Battle of the Youth Bulge 

    We live in wealthy nations that are immensely attractive to people living in far less fortunate conditions, especially in Africa with tribal societies engulfed in endless civil war and smothered by cancerous corruption. However, the migration of millions of them, on their way up North, is caused neither by economics nor by the climate change in the first place. The so-called youth bulge puts an increasing pressure on the population of countries in Africa and the Middle East. Empirical academic research has linked an excess in young adult male population with a rise of social unrest, war and terrorism in the affected societies. A large population of adolescents entering labor force and electorate strains at the seams of the economy and polity, which were designed for smaller populations. If the society can’t cope with this challenge quick enough, by providing new opportunities of employment and political participation, then the youth bulge will likely upset the social and political order. This is exactly what happened in the so-called “Arab Spring” across North Africa and the Middle East, since 2011, because in this region we have countries with 50% and more of the population being younger than 30 years old. Left without any perspective in their homelands, this generation not only went to war turning their countries into failed states, but they also started migrating to Europe, in a kind of reverse colonialism. 

    Centuries ago, the Europeans turned South, exporting their own youth bulge to remote countries and continents, but now we can experience first-hand how history repeats itself under different conditions. Considering how the youth bulge in North as well as sub-Saharan Africa keeps growing at a fast pace and with no end in sight, migration to Europe is unlikely to stop unless we’d have a closed border turning the continent into a fortress. 

    Malthusian limits of Population Growth 

    Time and again we are reminded of the dwindling non-renewable resources exploited by industrial civilization and how that will rather sooner than later jeopardize the survival of mankind, but it’s kind of weird how overpopulation is almost never an issue in the political and medial debate about “The Limits of Growth”. If addressed by anyone at all, then in a rather dismissive manner: If more people on earth could enjoy the Western way of life, then their birthrate would drop by default. Hence it is predicted by the United Nations that after the year 2100, the human population growth – then believed to be exceeding 11 billion by conservative estimates – will peak and start levelling off subsequently, with less humans born in every coming generation. Until then, we are said to be well-equipped to feed an ever-growing human population by the means of industrial agriculture and factory farming. Just a few months ago, in July 2019, it was reported that European Union agri-food exports reached €13.07 billion. In a market economy, there will be a supply for as long as there is a demand. Exporting food to the Third World promises profit, and with more food readily available at the world market the global population can keep growing. Hence I am not that confident about the official prediction of so-called United Nations-“experts” concerning the growth of mankind in future. What if they are wrong? After the year 2100, mankind will know but then it could be far too late to do anything about it. Should we not be mindful and try to manage the growth of human population right here and now? We put so much effort in keeping global temperature from rising more than 2 degree Celsius, but what is being done about keeping human population growth under control? 

    The notion of overpopulation spelling the doom for civilization is anything but new. It was in 1798 when Thomas Malthus wrote about it in his “Essay on the Principle of Population”. His core theory was suggesting that man must be mindful of preventive population check, because if population growth remains uncontrolled, then “sickly seasons, epidemics, pestilence, and plague advance in terrific array, and sweep off their thousands and tens of thousands. Should success be still incomplete, gigantic inevitable famine stalks in the rear, and with one mighty blow levels the population with the food of the world”. This is known as the “Malthusian spectre” haunting mankind; when population growth outpaces agricultural production. It was later said that history proved Malthus wrong, because mechanized agriculture combined with industrial fertilizers produced a dramatic increase in productivity of agriculture, thus expanding the world’s food supply while lowering food prices. It is further predicted that world food production will be in excess of the needs of the human population by the year 2030. Man managed to outwit the constraints of natural growth, because he kept inventing and developing new technologies that made him far less vulnerable to the hazards of nature threatening his very survival. However, it is not true that Malthus’ warning could be dismissed so easily. In modern times, the two most densely populated countries are China and India. In both countries it was understood that without checks and balances put on the demographic growth, their ascent from pre-industrial agricultural backward nations to economic powerhouses of industrial society would simply be impossible. A starving and dying population can’t work in the industry, obviously. China adopted a strict one child-policy early on, which was partially revoked only now, whereas India offered incentives for men and women to get sterilized at special clinics. In both nations it was understood that children can be something else but a blessing for their family; if there are too many of them, they can also become a burden on society. Without their efforts on keeping their population growth in check, it would be quite unlikely that China and India made a major leap, in less than 50 years, from being underdeveloped countries to become serious competitors to Europe and the United States of America. They were mindful of Malthus’ warning, and rightly so. 

    Igniting the Population Bomb 

    Fifty years ago, in 1968, Stanford University Professor Paul R. Ehrlich and his wife published the best-selling book “The Population Bomb”. They described a not-so-distant future in which growing human population places escalating strains on all aspects of the natural world. Global famine is inevitable, causing hundreds of millions of people to starve to death. Although the predictions made in “The Population Bomb” did not come to pass, the Ehrlichs’ maintain that their general argument remains intact. Indeed, it should be hard to deny that the unchecked growth of human population could proceed without any repercussions on earths’ eco-system. The so-called “ecological footprint” of man is not only about consumption but about waste disposal too. In Western countries we go the extra mile to cope with the waste that’s related to our consumer behavior, but in less developed countries you have waste littering the landscape and contaminating the waters. Another part of the “ecological footprint” is the mass-consumption of agricultural and farming products. In the West we are eating too much meat, indeed, but globally, too many people eat just too much of anything. If the climate change is indeed man-made, then without a doubt the environmental side-effects of mechanized agriculture and factory farming, which we would neither need nor have in this magnitude if it wasn’t for the incessantly growing world population, have to do with it. If we talk of CO2-emissions contributing to global warming, then we must consider the millions of livestock bred and raised and slaughtered to feed mankind. It remains a mystery to me how anyone can call for a boycott of factory farming without addressing the problem of global overpopulation at the same time. The population bomb will go off as soon as there will be significantly less instead of more exports of agricultural and farming products, from Europe and North America to the rest of the world. 

    The Fisherman-Prophet 

    The “The Population Bomb” received much criticism from the political Left, which insisted that the real issue was one of distribution of resources rather than of overpopulation. They worried that Ehrlich’s work could be used to justify genocide, oppression of minorities or even a return to eugenics. At this point, the Finnish philosopher Kaarlo Pentti Linkola enters the picture. Linkola is a Finnish ornithologist and conservationist. He was born in Helsinki in 1932; his father was rector of the university of Helsinki and his grandfather was chancellor there too. Linkola never aspired to an academic career of his own, though. He donated much of his family inheritance to the Finnish Natural Heritage Foundation, an NGO created by him to preserve the forest for the Finnish society. Linkola lives in a wooden cabin in rural Finland, where he spends his time as fisherman but every now and then, he is writing letters and essays outlining his philosophy on life and earth. Almost a dozen books with his writings were published in Finnish, but there is one English compilation of some of his articles that introduced him to a worldwide audience. It is safe to say that his writings would go unnoticed if Linkola would keep talking about birds instead of humans. 

    According to Linkola, man must return and be confined to a much smaller place in the eco-system. To this end, human population must be reduced. Capitalism and free market economy, with its pursuit of unceasing economic growth replacing subsistence economy, must end. Not only the fossil but any energy, whether it’s coming from fossil fuel or renewable sources, must not be generated or used anymore. The democracy as well as civil liberties, must be abolished and man shall be governed by an autocratic regime with the best of natures’ interests at heart. Any human society and civilization must be based on the environmental balance; thus, the world view of man must undergo a transition from anthropinism to eco-centrism. Linkola does not believe that man, guided by the ethics of humanism and liberalism, could hope to avoid his extinction, because he will always prioritize human needs and wants over all else. It is our misplaced empathy for fellow humans that will be our undoing, because we wish to save everyone even though this means all life on earth must perish. 

    Sacrifice the Many to Save the Few 

    Unlike others who too consider human overpopulation as the greatest peril for mankind and the world, Linkola understands that nothing can be done or accomplished unless we challenge the notion that all human life is sacrosanct. Our healthcare is designed to prevent diseases, to cure illness, and to prolong life at all costs. In our society, it is a punishable offense to deny first aid to someone who’s injured or potentially dying. As soon as we see and hear in the news that there’s a famine somewhere in the world, we will go there distributing food aid among those starving. To Linkola, this is anathema: “If in some part of the world it is not possible to produce enough food for the whole population and there are people starving, there should be no food brought to them, doing that is extremely wrong, they should of course starve to death”, he said. In his opinion, we keep digging our own grave if we keep reproducing at the current global birth rate, but on top of that, if we keep people from dying even though that is natures’ way of shrinking the population back to a size when it can be self-sufficient. The more people in overpopulated countries perish, the better for our survival as global species. 

    His many critics consider him cruel and cynical, a misanthrope in disguise of the environmentalist. They say that Linkola abhors mankind and has no love for human life, but that would be a flawed assessment in my opinion. Linkola writes in the best tradition of apocalypticism; he doesn’t hate his fellow man but he is – to the point of having become a fatalist himself – outright despaired at man who keeps adding to the burden of human overpopulation without ever ceasing or, at least, considering the final consequence of his doing. Like any other prophet coming before him, Linkola contemplates the future where he can see the demise of humanity at our own hands, and he keeps warning us to don’t walk into this direction where, at the end, all life on earth will perish at our hands. As it happened with the other prophets from times of yore, his words go largely unheard and unread. If Linkola would not be concerned about the fate of mankind, then he couldn’t care less and keep silently living his secluded life as fisherman in rural Finland. Instead, he keeps pondering the question of what man ought to do at death’s door. He asks: “What to do, when a ship carrying a hundred passengers suddenly capsizes and there is only one lifeboat? When the lifeboat is full, those who hate life will try to load it with more people and sink the lot. Those who love and respect life will take the ship’s axe and sever the extra hands that cling to the sides.” That is Linkolas’ philosophy in a nutshell: Sacrifice the many to save the few. But this philosophy can’t go together with the idea of universal human rights and the equal value of each human life. Linkola admits as much when he says “I think that it is clear that the worth of an individual is smaller when there are a lot of humans, than when there are few humans. Actually, the value of the human is negative as long as there are too many people.” To Linkola, human life cannot have any worth different from the worth of life itself. “Life as such is a value”, he says. “Not only human life, all nature meaning animals and plants and fungi.” Whereas the eco-system void of humans will regenerate until the end of time, it is man who upsets and ultimately destroys the eco-system and thus, the foundation not only for his own survival but for all life on earth. 

    Green Shirts of Eco-Fascism 

    Nature cannot stop humans on their suicide mission to end life on earth, Linkola understands, but man can. To this end, he envisions a stern dictatorship based on “discipline, forbiddance, force and oppression”. Linkola is not a politician, but his advocacy of authoritarian rule for the sake of taking any liberty away from man has earned him the reputation of being a “fascist”. Although Linkola was indeed showing sympathy for the totalitarian regimes in world history, he is not interested in any political ideology or utopia, at all. There’s one major aspect of totalitarianism that made Linkola consider this to be a form of government much better than any other, including democracy: In a totalitarian society, there are severe constraints on what man can do and what he must not do. If in a democracy man enjoys the liberty to destroy nature, then it needs a dictator to take this liberty away from man. 

    The ideal human civilization, according to Linkola, would not be the totalitarian empire. It would be a rural and agrarian society akin to the Amish people in North America: No electricity, no motorization, no modern medicine, no internet; nothing that resembles the world of the 21st century. But contrary to the Amish who are having big families, a strict one child per family quota would be imposed on this Linkolanian society. That’s the paramount political objective for any future regime, according to Linkola. Unless the human population growth is not only stopped but reversed, mankind keeps digging a global mass-grave for all life on earth: “The only problem is that there are too many people. There is nothing else, all other problems are a consequence of this”, he says. What he proposes is eugenics, of course. If there shall be no more than one child per family, then it is in the best interest of parents as well as society to have a healthy child with the best genetical disposition. Procreation would not be left to chance, anymore. 

    The Choice to have Zero Children 

    Although Linkola would certainly insist that none of his warnings have been heeded by anyone but a few of his readers, it is undeniable that Europe does indeed experience a shrinking population since a few generations. Having a large family with many children has become a mostly romantic notion. Back in the days, people have had no choice in that matter. Contraception was either unknown or forbidden, and so were abortions. Nowadays, in Western society at least, people do have a choice. Unless there’s a conscious decision to have many children, be it for idealistic or religious reasons, many couples are perfectly happy having only one child of their own – or no child, at all. They rather enjoy the amenities of a Western lifestyle promoting individualism and self-expression, and they don’t need to feel the iron heel of any eco-fascist regime for living without children of their own. We might consider their choice selfish, but the second-best thing to doing the right thing for the right reasons is doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. As I said, I am aware of our movement emphasizing the ideal of the traditional family with multiple children, but I see no harm in coming to terms with a world where this ideal does not match our reality. Why, with already 7 billion people living on earth, and their number growing exponentially, we need to consider that less may be more. The worst-case scenario for world population growth predicts a staggering number of 18 billion people living on earth in 2100. In 1800, we have had less than 2 billion people on this planet. Although such numbers certainly corroborate Linkolas’ predictions about overpopulation, his proposed solution of stripping man off his liberties does not take into account how the liberty in having a choice on procreation did more to curb the population growth in Europe than any state policy could have accomplished in the same time. 

    Many people in the West are concerned about rising sea levels, but strangely it’s the same people who do not feel troubled by the prospect of world population about to triple in less than a hundred years, with no end in sight (unless we trust the experts at the United Nations, of course). Africa’s share of global population is projected to grow from 16% in 2015 to 25% in 2050 and 39% by 2100. But don’t we have so much more space on this planet? Can earth not afford billions of humans more? Well, there is a simple yet profound truth about man, that he cannot just live and prosper anywhere. The vast expanses on earth still void of humans are uninhabited for a reason; because man can’t live in the sea, or the desert, or the arctic. Even the huge forested areas in South America, Africa, but also Siberia, cannot provide the basis of life for humans. You can’t grow crops or keep livestock inside a forest, period. The areas suited for human habitation are not infinite, no matter how big the world might appear. The more people on earth exist, the more resources they require and consume. If we take for granted that the climate change is nowadays man-made, then any man who is alive, who is breathing, eating and consuming, must be held accountable. Not just we who live in Europe and North America, but everyone else too. 

    Rollback into the Stone Age 

    For Linkola, but also for his fellow traveler Theodore Kaczynski, known to the world as the “UNA-bomber”, one solution to the ecological world crisis would be dismantling our modern technological and industrial civilization. Whereas Kaczynski is more concerned about the prospect of man losing his freedom to machines, Linkola considers machines a menace to nature and the eco-system. In their righteous furor, both men have much in common with machine breakers destroying the steam engine in the 19th century, because they feared to be replaced by machines at the factories of the British Empire. And as they were, Linkola too is mistaken when he dreads technology. I don’t believe that undoing the industrial revolution is a feasible, much less preferable, option to deal with climate change and eco-crisis. Even if man would plunge back into the Stone Age, living as hunters and gatherers in caves once more, his brain is hard-wired for inventing and advancing technologies that will make him more independent of the unpredictable ways of nature. At some point, he’d discover and invent everything all over again. The same can be said about reducing the world population by any means of warfare, genocide, or pandemic diseases. It would most certainly take some time, but sooner or later we’d have an overpopulation of humans on this planet, once again. 

    Fewer people, fewer problems 

    Now we come to the point where I’d like to address how we can utilize the recent climate change-hysteria to advance our own political agenda of reducing the youth bulge in Africa and the Middle East, from where our countries are threatened with mass migration. The political Left will never address the problem of global human overpopulation, because they need the migration from backward places as the powerful weapon of demographic mass destruction that will uproot Western society and destroy ethnic homogeneity in the places where we live. 

    It is important that we understand and agree on: 

    • The climate change is happening, and it is man-made insofar we already have way too many people living on a planet of finite resources and capacities. 

    • Overpopulation of the human species in places like Africa is the root cause for pretty much every negative impact on the eco-system; reducing the human population in countries with an upward birth-rate is the key to solve the eco-crisis worldwide. 

    • The population there can easily shrink by considerate family planning on a private level and population control on a state level; there are many options such as sex education, birth control, or one child-policy. 

    • Any foreign aid to such countries must be tied to population control; if the countries don’t comply, they will be left to their own devices. 

    • Agriculture and farming must be limited to domestic needs based on subsistence economy. 

    • Migration is not a human right. We will not allow any migration to Europe until the youth bulge in other countries is no more. 

    The political Left, in disguise of environmentalists, propose only one solution to the eco-crisis: That we must abandon our Western way of life; we must give up our technology, we must stop using fossil energy, we must welcome immigrants, and we must distribute our economic wealth among the backward nations as sort of reparations for the damage caused by the climate change. If translated into real-life politics, this will no doubt end the world as we know it – also much sooner and more profoundly than any climate change could do the same, as a matter of fact. The only reason why this insanity is not questioned, challenged and dismissed in the public debate is the very absence of any public debate about climate change, at all. If we read and watch what our media keeps publishing and broadcasting to this subject, then there is man-made climate change caused by CO2-emission from using fossil energy in industrial civilization, period. It is up to us to start talking about climate change on our own terms and in our own media, reaching out to the people with the message that they must not abandon their way of life but they can help to protect the eco-system and save the world climate all the same. The solution is so simple: Less people in the world, less strain on natural resources and the eco-system. 

    The Nemesis of Man 

    Considering the magnitude of the ongoing climate change that is taking place neither locally nor regionally, but globally, it is safe to say that this process of global warming cannot be stopped even if we’d de-carbonize our entire civilization at once. No matter what the leftist Green Party proposes to do about the climate change, it will be too little too late. Or worse, it will just impair our industry and economy without yielding any positive effect on the world climate. Once the truth about this exercise in futility cannot be denied anymore, it is to be expected that we’ll witness a radicalization of the grassroots environmentalist movement. The British group “Extinction Rebellion”, for instance, is already trying to disrupt and block our vital infrastructure and it’s just a matter of time until they take one more step towards further radicalization. 

    As of today, the ideas of Pentti Linkola remain marginalized even among those deeply concerned about the frailty of earths’ eco-system. That’s about to change when any and all attempts at preventing the climate change, by reducing CO2-emission and de-carbonizing our industry, will fail and many more people eventually conclude that earth can’t suffer man anymore. As Nietzsche said, “when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.” All this doomsday talk begets the Nemesis of man, because now comes the hour of the Eco-Terrorist, who will act upon the anti-humanist ethics spoken about by Linkola. But unlike the Finnish fisherman, the Eco-Terrorist will not bother to talk reason into people in the faint hope they might change their ways. He knows there is only one solution, and he will act accordingly. The Eco-Terrorist will kill indiscriminately. Every human is a legitimate target. This is not a battle fought by one group pitched against another, because in this case, the enemy is us. Regardless of age, gender, race, political opinion or religious belief: Every human life does contribute to the collapse of the eco-system, and thus, to the extinction of all life. Hence no life can be deemed sacrosanct when all life is at stake. 

    Yes, we can! 

    If we do not wish to demolish our industrial civilization, but want to spare mankind from the Malthusian spectre as well as the rise of the Eco-Terrorist, then there really is no other way but to implement a policy of population control, with incentives as well as interdictions, in the parts of the world with rising birth rates. Do you deem this impossible? Why, China and India show that population control can be done at state level. Our own nations in the West prove that family planning is possible of one’s own accord, if contraception is easily available and abortion is not outlawed. Some may say that in Africa and the Middle East, there is a strong religious sentiment making birth control impossible. While it is certainly true that Abrahamic religion promotes procreation at any cost, we must not underestimate the unspoken wish of many women, living in a culture that compels them to bearing children no matter what, to take the matter of birth control and family planning in their own hands. In many European countries we still have a Christian society, but the birth rate there is almost on par with the countries having a predominantly secular society. Give people a choice on procreation and many will do what’s in their own best interest, religious doctrine notwithstanding. Finally, most of the mankind aspires to the same high living standard that we do enjoy in the West, but it is self-evident that 7 billion people on earth can’t live in a worldwide civilization resembling ours. That is not sustainable by any stretch of imagination. Only with a much smaller population, participation on our Western civilization becomes an option to others too. 

    Once the human population is shrinking, we’ll come to terms with the climate change. If this process cannot be averted, as I believe, then it can be managed instead. Western engineering and technical progress are the key to that; that’s why we must not, although Linkola insists we need to, rid us of technology but to the contrary, we must pool our resources to fast-track research in renewable energy as well as safe nuclear energy, eco-friendly agriculture, clean waste disposal, and so much more to make earth a planet where human life prevails until the end of time. If we fail to reduce the human population by political measures, then the Malthusian spectre will eventually catch up with most of mankind to do what we can’t do. There is no question about it that the climate change will adversely affect agriculture and farming in the Western countries providing a large share to the world food supply, but also the agriculture in less developed countries won’t be spared. First there will be a price increase, then food rationing becomes mandatory, followed by food riots and ultimately famines and pandemics. In nature there is no other way but mass extinction to deal with excessive population growth, but humanity does have a choice. We can secure the existence of our people and a future for our children, but we have no time to spare. There are on average about 250 babies born every minute – more than 130 million in a year. And if from here on you meet anyone talking about the climate change and what must be done about it, then speak up and say: “It’s the overpopulation, stupid!”. 

    Online resources: 

    www.materialworldblog.com/2013/03/invoking-the-apocalypse-a-promenade-with-pentti-linkola/ 

    qvadrivivm.blogspot.com/2015/12/pentti-linkola-interview-from.html 

    www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unabomber/manifesto.text.htm? 

    Offline resources: 

    Paul R. Ehrlich “The Population Bomb” 

    Josef H. Reichholf “Eine kurze Naturgeschichte des letzten Jahrtausends“ 

    Pentti Linkola „Can Life Prevail?” 

    Alan Weisman “The World Without Us” 

    Dudo Erny “Die Grünschwätzer: Evolution, Überbevölkerung und Umweltschutz“ 

    The Prophet of Green EugenicsDownload
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  • The White God of War: Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg (1886 – 1921)

    “I shall die a horrible death but the world has never seen such a terror and such a sea of blood as it shall now see…”, with this dark prophecy the so-called “Mad Baron” said farewell to Ferdinand Ossendowski, a Polish expatriate fleeing from the Red Terror of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, who met Robert Nikolaus Maximilian Freiherr von Ungern-Sternberg, known as Baron von Ungern-Sternberg, in Urga, the capital of Mongolia, a few months before the Baron was betrayed by his own men, captured by the Red Army, tried as “war criminal” and executed as one “enemy to the people”.

    Yes, the Baron was quite right in his last words to Ossendowski. His death was anything but glorious and heroic. He died at the hands of his sworn mortal enemy, the Bolsheviks and their Red Army, who seized power in Russia a few years earlier and ever since hunted their adversaries, the remaining Monarchists and Anti-Bolshevik White forces, deep into the dense woods of Siberia and far away plains of Mongolia. It was the 15th of September, 1921, when Baron von Ungern-Sternberg was shot dead after a tribunal lasting for seven hours. He died alone, far away from his ancestral home and also removed from the kingdom that he ruled for a brief time and where he was hailed as the wargod incarnate. But for the Bolsheviks he was just one of many renegade officers formerly serving in the army of Czarist Russia; an insurgent taking up arms against the new powers-that-be and attempting to roll back the Communist, the Red Revolution in Sankt Petersburg and Moscow. He would no doubt be long forgotten by now, like so many other White officers fighting in vain against the Soviet Union, but he is not. Today we still remember, and talk about, this extraordinary man and his brief yet epic life and struggle. Oswald Spengler, the heralder of the Decline of the West, mentioned the Baron in a speech he held in Würzburg three years after the death of Ungern-Sternberg: “Around 1920, in Central Asia, there appeared as a free corps leader the Baron Ungern von Sternberg who managed to gather, in a short period of time, an army of allegedly 150.000 men fiercely loyal to him, trained skillfully and willing to go wherever the Baron commanded them to be. This man was killed by the Bolsheviks not long after, but if he’d succeeded we couldn’t tell what events would have unfolded in Asia and how the world map would have been re-shaped today.”

    Who was this mysterious man once deemed more than fit to change the course of history and to reshape the world? In his death, we’ll find no answer to that. It is said that he refused to acknowledge the tribunal that sentenced him to death, because in his opinion, it was just as illegitimate as the new powers-that-be in Moscow. He was accused to be the agent of hostile powers, funded and armed by foreign adversaries of the Bolsheviks for the sake of sabotaging the Red Revolution and stir unrest and civil war in the Far East. Hence he was believed to be the enemy of the ordinary Russian people, of the workers’ and peasants; a villain who wished to impose the yoke of aristocracy upon them, once again. Already during his lifetime, the reality of his life and actions started to blur with the assumptions and anticipations of admirers and adversaries alike.

    Birth and childhood

    It is surely true that the Baron was one descendent of age-old noble families from Hungary and Germany, but unlike so many others in his day and age, he wholeheartedly despised anything decadent and he rather joined his low-ranking men at the frontline instead of indulging in the worldly pleasures provided to his own social class. It is said that the lifestyle of the Baron, in particular when he was living in the Far East, resembled the ascetic exercises to be found in a monastery and he equally imposed this stern discipline upon his own men, as well.

    The families of Ungern and Sternberg are said to have participated in many historic conquests and crusades, until they settled in the Baltic territory where some may have joined the Teutonic Knights Order and helped Christianize the pagan tribes from Lithuania and Estonia. From the Baltic, some family members started to sail the seas as merchants and privateers. Also alchemists and mystics are said to have been among the Ungern-Sternberg family members, according to Baron von Ungern- Sternberg himself.

    Born on the 10th of January 1886 in Graz, a city located in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Baron was soon moving with his mother and her new husband to their ancestral holdings in Estonia. Hermann Graf Keyserling, the renowned German-Baltic philosopher, used to live in the same neighborhood and in his “Voyage through the Time”, he recollects his earliest memories of the young Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, a distant relative of himself whom he met when he was teenager, portraying him as predatory in appearance and character, with bright eyes reminding him of the sparrow hawk – a bird said to enjoy killing and mauling his prey.

    By all accounts, we are told that the young Baron was a wild and unruly child, rebelling against his teachers and not caring much for their attempts at educating him. According to Keyserling, the Baron was not one to contemplate anything, because, in his view, contemplation equals cowardice, and so he was not used to communicate his thoughts, either. Quite to the contrary, the Baron was an intuitive genius but with stark animalistic instincts and this intrinsic character put him at odds with rules and regulations imposed on him by institutions like school or, as it turned out not long after, the military academy.

    As a boy, Ungern-Sternberg had an extreme pride in his ancient, aristocratic family; but despite his German origin, he identified himself very strongly with the Russian Empire. After his stepfather secured a place at the naval academy in Sankt Petersburg for the young Baron, hoping in vain that there he could finally be disciplined, Ungern-Sternberg learned to appreciate the Russian national soul in all her unrestrained vastness and deep mysticism. At this time, he felt more at home among the Russians than to be back at the German-Baltic estate of his family, where his mother died in 1907, thus making his grandmother the only remaining relative he cared about. Prior to his mothers’ death, he was expelled from the naval academy in 1905 after beating a superior officer. Without perspective, the Baron decided to join the Russian army as a private serving in the Russian-Japanese war that lasted from 1904 until 1905 and ended with a sound defeat of the Russians at the hands of a superior Japanese military force. Although the Baron came too late to the frontlines for more than a few combat experiences, he was promoted corporal until the war ended. He returned deeply impressed by the Far East and, in particular, by the military prowess of the Japanese army.

    Military School and World War Experience

    After returning home in 1906, the Baron was admitted to the Pavlovsk Military College in Sankt Petersburg, where he joined the Cavalry. It is said that during this time, he, who had already converted to Russian-Orthodox Christianity at this point, encountered Buddhism for the first time and was introduced into Occult studies, as well. However, the Baron also told Ossendowski that one of his grandfathers, who sailed the Indian Ocean looting British cargo, became a Buddhist and introduced Ungern-Sternberg in this religion. Be that as it may, he graduated from the Military College and asked to be transferred to a Cossack Cavalry Regiment in Siberia where he served as an officer in the 1st Argunsky and then in the 1st Amursky Cossack regiments, where he got used to the lifestyle of nomadic peoples such as the Mongolians and Buryats. Ungern-Sternberg had specifically asked that he be stationed with a Cossack regiment in Asia, as he felt drawn to the Asian peoples and wished to learn more. But still, his irritability and flaring temper caused him problems once more; at one point he brawled with a fellow officer, what almost got him court-martialed this time. It was probably his kinsman, the General Paul von Rennenkampff, who helped to avert the worst for Ungern-Sternberg. However, at the same time he became an excellent horseman earning the respect of the Mongolians and the Buryats due to his skill at riding and fighting from a horse, being equally adept at using both a gun and his sword. In 1913, at his equest, he was transferred to the reserves.

    Ungern-Sternberg travelled to Outer Mongolia with the plan to assist the Mongolians in their struggle for independence from China, but the Russian officials declined his request to join the garrison of the Russian consulate there. He later arrived in the town of Khovd in western Mongolia where he served as out-of-staff officer at the Russian consulate. Because he didn’t have much else to do, he spent his time by learning the Mongolian language and customs. That is the official story of his travel there, but Keyserling tells this of Ungern-Sternberg’s adventures in the Far East: “For months he lived as a hermit having visions, until he was possessed by a wild lust for plunder and pillage. Then he looted monasteries, probably killing the monks too. When his possession faded off, he became a dreamer once more. And as a dreamer he accomplished much of what he did, even if he looted, if he killed or performed heroic deeds all on his own.” In early 1914, Baron von Ungern-Sternberg left Mongolia and returned to his ancestral home in Estonia.

    On 19th of July 1914, Ungern-Sternberg was back at active duty in the outbreak of World War One. He took part in the Russian offensive in East Prussia and was fighting in Poland and Galicia until 1916, when he also participated in rearguard-action raids on German troops and was injured four times. Throughout the war on the Eastern Front he gained a reputation as an extremely brave – but somewhat reckless and mentally unstable – officer, a man with no fear of death who seemed most happy leading cavalry charges or being in the thick of combat. He was decorated with several military awards during his time in active combat, but despite his many awards, he was eventually discharged from one of his command positions for attacking the adjutant of the Russian governor of Chernivtsi in a brawl, in October 1916, an incident for which he was detained for two months. After his release from military prison in January 1917, Ungern-Sternberg was again transferred to the reserve and sent to Vladivostok, just to be fighting in the Caucasian theatre of the conflict not long after, where Russia was confronting the Ottoman Empire. The February Revolution that ended the rule of the House of Romanov was an extremely bitter blow to the monarchist Ungern-Sternberg, who saw the revolution as the beginning of the end of Russia that he knew. In the Caucasus, Ungern- Sternberg met again Cossack Capt. Grigory Mikhaylovich Semyonov, whom he already knew from his time in Poland. The friendship of Semyonov and Ungern-Sternberg would soon become decisive for the future of the latter. Together they started to organize a volunteer military unit composed of local Assyrian Christians, but then Semyonov departed for Siberia in March 1917, joined by Ungern- Sternberg, and the Kerensky government officially approved their plan to raise a regiment among the local Buryat population for the war in Europe.

    Joining the White Counter-Revolution

    However, the Bolshevik-led October Revolution of 1917 would soon see Russia depart from the Western theatre of war and turn to civil war hostilities instead. Semyonov and Ungern-Sternberg declared their allegiance to the Romanovs and vowed to fight the revolutionaries. In late 1917 Ungern-Sternberg, acting on orders from Semyonov, and a small Cossack-detachment crossed the border on a train and they peacefully disarmed the 1500 men-strong Russian garrison of Manzhouli in Manchuria, who had rebelled against their officers. The soldiers were put on a train and sent to the West. For a time the occupied railway station of Manzhouli served as stronghold of Semyonov and Ungern-Sternberg in their preparations for war in Transbaikalia, a region of strategic importance to all war parties. They started to enroll volunteers in a Special Manchurian Regiment, which became a nucleus for anti-communist forces led by Semyonov. Ungern-Sternberg and his local Buryat fighters would soon proceed to disarm the Russian troops in Manchuria, but the Chinese became increasingly afraid of his rising power and they captured him and his men eventually. In response, Semyonov sent an armored train into Chinese territory and thus Ungern-Sternberg was released, at last.

    From March to July 1918, the Special Manchurian Regiment repeatedly attempted to seize and occupy Russian territory along the border with Manchuria, but they were soundly defeated on July 13th and had to retreat deep into Manchurian territory. However, when Japanese troops and weapons arrived in August 1918, Semyonov and Ungern-Sternberg were back on the offensive and this time, they managed to conquer all of Transbaikalia where Semyonov, in Chita, declared himself Ataman. He promoted Ungern-Sternberg to the rank of major general, and appointed him with guarding the strategically important railway station at Dauria, southeast of Lake Baikal. It was here when Ungern-Sternberg started to act independently and as a commander in his own right. He kept enrolling new troops under his command, forming the Asiatic Cavalry Division, but at the same time his regime over Dauria became more severe and violent. Nearby villages as well as trains in transit were terrorized, with Ungern-Sternberg’s wrath directed at anyone Non-Russian but at Jews in particular. He blamed the Jews for the Bolshevik revolution and the murder of the royal family; hence Jews were ushered off the trains and executed at once. His hatred for Jews went so far that he is said to have contemplated genocide among them once the Bolsheviks were defeated and all of Russia liberated by the armies of the White counter-revolution. Although the tensions between Semyonov and Ungern-Sternberg kept increasing, because the latter complained about the corruption, squandermania and philosemitism of the former, Ungern- Sternberg was awarded the St. George’s Cross 4th class and promoted to Lieutenant general in March 1919.

    Baron von Ungern-Sternberg was taking care of the dirty work Semyonov would rather not take responsibility for; for instance, captured soldiers of the Red Army were transferred to Dauria where Ungern-Sternberg had them summarily executed. The Asiatic Cavalry Division was quite a motley crew which included Russians, Buryats, Tatars, Bashkirs, Mongolians, Chinese, Japanese, Polish exiles and many others. This Division likely resembled a band of medieval “Landsknechte”, mercenaries, and without the unconditional loyalty to their commander, Baron von Ungern-Sternberg, and the discipline he enforced on his troops, it is hard to imagine how else they’d fought together instead of fighting one another. The Baron reinforced the train station at Dauria, turning it into a fortress from which his troops launched attacks on Red Army forces.

    Liberator of Mongolia

    During 1920, the military situation for the White counter-revolutionaries became increasingly difficult. Admiral Kolchak, the internationally recognized leader of the Anti-Bolshevik forces fighting in Russia, was defeated and ultimately murdered by the Bolsheviks, also General Wrangel was forced to retreat from Crimea, and that left Transbaikalia to be the only Russian territory still under control of White troops. Ungern-Sternberg anticipated the coming offensive of the Red Army and he started looking for a place where he and his men could find a new safe haven for their operations against the Bolsheviks.

    Already in 1919, taking advantage of the weakness of Russia’s government caused by revolution and civil war, the nationalist Chinese government sent troops to end the autonomy of Outer Mongolia and rejoin it with China. This violated the terms of a tripartite Russian-Mongolian-Chinese agreement signed in 1915, which secured the autonomy of Outer Mongolia under the rule of the Bogd Khan, who was the spiritual as well as political leader of Mongolian Buddhism. When the Chinese returned in 1919, he was removed from power and put under house arrest. The Bogd Khan sent a letter to Baron von Ungern-Sternberg, urgently asking for help against the Chinese occupation. Ungern-Sternberg complied with this request, and he and his soldiers – said to have numbered no more than 1500 men – crossed into Mongolia in an attempt to drive the Chinese out of there. After first attempts failed, Baron von Ungern-Sternberg decided to wait through the winter before he’d march on the capital of Mongolia, Urga, where the Chinese had deployed 7000 men, with artillery and machine guns, in fortified positions. The local Mongolians started to aid Ungern-Sternberg and his men with food, horses, new recruits and more weapons. The Bogd Khan sent his blessings and prophesied a victory over the Chinese in the coming spring. Baron von Ungern-Sternberg asked Mongolian astrologers and seers to counsel him in his decisions, and the Mongolians supported him all the more, because they understood his earnest desire to become their liberator and protector.

    It was also in 1920 when Baron von Ungern-Sternberg revoked his former allegiance to Semyonov, who was eventually defeated by the Red Army and forced into exile, because he wanted to pursue political ambitions far exceeding the agenda of the White counter-revolution in Russia. Ungern-Sternberg wished to reinstate and strengthen monarchy everywhere, starting in Asia where he dreamed of a Great Empire akin to the one ruled by Genghis Khan, but also in Russia and all of Europe too. He fervently believed in the divine right of Kings and Emperors, whom he considered a bulwark against the decline of civilization. The Jews, on the other hand, were to him the root of all unrest, anarchy and civil war that he witnessed in Russia and elsewhere. Woe to any Jew who found himself in the dominion of Baron von Ungern-Sternberg! Basically all the Jews in Mongolia, with only a few exceptions, were killed after Urga fell to the Asiatic Cavalry Division.

    On January 31st, 1921, Baron von Ungern-Sternberg ordered the assault on Urga. Despite heavy losses and initial setbacks, his troops eventually defeated the Chinese occupation forces and drove them out of the city. The Bogd Khan was rescued from his house arrest, and the capital city was finally taken on the 4th of February. After the battle, Ungern-Sternberg’s troops began plundering Chinese stores and killing Russian Jews who were living in Urga, but a few days later he ended the looting and enforced discipline among his soldiers, once again. The Chinese were not yet expelled from Mongolia, though. A string of subsequent battles outside of the capital had the remaining Chinese troops retreat to Northern Mongolia, from where they hoped to reach China by rounding the Mongolian capital to the West. However, they were soon overtaken by their Russian and Mongolian pursuers and after a final battle raging from March 30th until April 2nd, the Chinese were routed and chased across the Southern border of the country. Thus Mongolia was liberated from Chinese occupation, once again. Already on March 13th, Mongolia was declared an independent monarchy with the Bogd Khan as head of the state. The Bogd Khan identified Baron von Ungern-Sternberg as incarnation of the Begtse, the lord of war and in origin a pre-Buddhist war god of the Mongols. When the Bogd Khan was crowned as Khan of Mongolia, he made Ungern-Sternberg a Khan too. The Bogd Khan presented Ungern-Sternberg with a ring depicting a swastika, a treasure that was believed to have been passed down all the way from Genghis Khan himself.

    Furthermore, the Baron was promoted to the rank of General. Ever since this day, he would be dressed in the yellow coat of Mongolian princes. It was a dream come true! In effect, Baron von Ungern-Sternberg became the dictator of Mongolia for a short period of time. Even though his regime was ruling with terror and intimidation once more, Ungern-Sternberg also attempted to modernize Urga by imposing street cleaning and sanitation, promoting religious life and tolerance in the capital, introducing a national currency and attempting to reform the economy of the Mongolian kingdom.

    Betrayal and Death

    In Spring 1921, Baron von Ungern-Sternberg crossed back into Russia and raided several Red Army outposts, but during his absence from the capital, Red Army detachments, together with the Mongolian People’s Army, captured Urga and ended the rule of the Bogd Khan in favor of a secular, pro-Communist regime. Although he made initial territorial gains in his crusade up North, his hope to get help from his former ally Semyonov and the Japanese government turned out to be in vain.

    When the Red Army sent large forces to counter his offensive, Ungern-Sternberg decided to retreat to Mongolia but many of his formerly loyal soldiers wished to escape to Manchuria and put an end to the fighting which they considered a hopeless cause by now. The Baron vowed to keep fighting, and he hoped to make it all the way to Tibet from where he wanted to realize his vision of a Pan-Asiatic Empire, at long last. His troops however mutinied and tried to assassinate him. With nowhere to go, Baron von Ungern-Sternberg was hunted down by the Red Army and ultimately betrayed by a Mongolian prince, who turned him over to his pursuers on August 21st, 1921.

    Some sources say that he was offered amnesty if he joined the Red Army, but he refused to betray his ideals and before he was shot dead in the prison yard of Novosibirsk, he managed to swallow the St. George’s Cross so it could not be defiled by his enemies’ hands. His swastika ring, however, was taken from him and is rumored to have ended up in the possession of the legendary Red Army Marshal Zhukov, in 1936.

    From the Man to the Myth

    The life of Baron von Ungern-Sternberg lasted not much longer than 35 years but it is nothing short of extraordinary, to say the least, and there is so much more to it than what meets the eye. According to Ferdinand Ossendowski, Roman von Ungern-Sternberg once told him: “My name is surrounded with such hate and fear that no one can judge what is truth and what is false, what is history and what myth.”

    Hermann Graf Keyserling believed that for the most part of his life, Roman von Ungern-Sternberg was a severely divided personality, who could either be holy or be cruel or be both in the starkest expression, but who’d be unable to reconcile the tension caused by opposing forces in one and the same personality. Roman von Ungern-Sternbergs’ biological father is said to have been committed to a mental asylum once, and to some observers this would explain that he too was mentally unstable, but by all accounts no hard evidence of any hereditary madness could ever be found in the family history of the Ungern-Sternberg.

    Roman von Ungern-Sternberg surely was called the “Mad Baron” or “Bloody Baron” for the violence and bloodshed he has inflicted upon others, with torturing those he suspected to be “Red Spies” as well as executing even his own soldiers for the slightest offense. However, the instances of arbitrary killings and mass-murder in the Russian civil war can hardly be deemed exclusive to Baron von Ungern-Sternberg, so there must be something else but violence and murder that set him apart from any other warlord on either side of the battlefield; something out of the ordinary that prompted many of his contemporaries to deem him insane.

    Age of Empires

    When Baron von Ungern-Sternberg joined the Russian army on the eve of World War One, he was one of many from among the ranks of German-Baltic aristocracy who pledged allegiance to the Russian Czar and had no qualms fighting their German kinsmen with whom they shared language, culture, and bloodline. It was still the age of Empires, where the notion of nationality was yet to be conceived, and shifting loyalty determined by the allegiance to one crown or the other was anything but uncommon among the nobles.

    Baron von Ungern-Sternberg, however, would refuse to turn his back on the Russian Czar even after his whole family was slain by the Bolsheviks; and monarchy, for all practical purposes, was dead in Russia and Europe too. Not so for Ungern-Sternberg. He became obsessed with monarchy, to the point that this idea would set him at odds with every other leader of the White counter-revolution who’d see no point in returning to a status quo ante before royal rulers were replaced by national governments pretty much everywhere in Europe and Asia; like it already happened in February 1917 when the Czar abdicated, the Romanov dynastic rule in Russia ended and was replaced by the newly formed Russian Provisional Government.

    Contrary to the spirit of the time, the “Zeitgeist”, Baron von Ungern-Sternberg considered monarchy to be the only legitimate form of government for any people. Needless to say, but out there in the Far East he was all alone with this sentiment: In Russia, the Bolsheviks had murdered the Romanov royal family and in China, already in 1912 the rule of the Quing dynasty was ended by revolution and a nationalist government took over. Only in Mongolia, of all places, the monarchist agenda of Baron von Ungern-Sternberg could align with the political aspirations of a local ruler: The Bogd Khan, also known as “Living Buddha”. He was the third most important person in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy, below only the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama.

    Warrior and Ascetic

    Hermann Graf Keyserling mentioned that Ungern-Sternberg was very curious from his teenage years onward with “Tibetan and Hindu philosophy” and often spoke of the mystical powers possessed by “geometrical symbols”. Although we have no record showing when the Baron actually converted to Buddhism, notwithstanding that Ferdinand Ossendowski said of Ungern-Sternberg that he became a Buddhist in childhood, his long-lasting fascination for this religion cannot be denied. He lived in Mongolia prior to World War One; he spoke Mongolian, he dressed in traditional Mongolian clothes, and he stayed in touch with local dignitaries after his departure. Hence the Bogd Khan could be certain that Baron Ungern-Sternberg would be receptive to his plea for help, when he asked for his assistance to overthrow the Chinese occupation of Outer Mongolia.

    When Ungern-Sternberg left Russia to aid the Mongolians in their struggle for independence, for all practical purposes he turned his back on the White counter-revolution in Russia. After 1920 Baron von Ungern-Sternberg became a warlord of his own, accountable to no one but himself and his God. In this he reminds of the Conquerors and Conquistadores from times of yore, who sailed forth into a New World to make a name for their own; to find fabled treasures, discover ancient cultures, meet a sudden death, and become immortal legend thereafter.

    Baron von Ungern-Sternberg was a brave man; for all we know, even daring to the point of tempting and defying death. From his early time as a soldier and officer, whether in the Far East or later in Galicia and Poland, he could be found in the heat of the battle or volunteering for dangerous missions that took him behind enemy lines. When he commandeered his own troops in Transbaikalia, Ungern-Sternberg used to lead by example. He would ride and fight with his soldiers, share their meals and sleep together with them under the same roof. Unlike other White officers like Semyonov, for instance, Ungern-Sternberg practiced an ascetic lifestyle that would even have him avoid drinking alcohol any longer. He is said to have been a heavy drinker once, a habit that apparently contributed to his lack of discipline which caused him so many troubles in his early years as a student and soldier. With his stern attitude, the Baron was feared as well as revered by his soldiers who’d knew that any misbehavior on their part would carry heavy-handed penalties but loyalty and bravery would be rewarded likewise. It was his liberation of Urga, the capital of Mongolia, against all odds that echoed in Western newspapers and made many aware of his name for the first time ever. How he was able to expel the Chinese occupation force from Mongolia, even though badly outnumbered and outgunned, certainly deserves the respect from any military strategist. Needless to say, but the reports from Mongolia became all the more exaggerated and twisted the farther they travelled, hence the legend of the “Mad Baron”, who ruled with iron first in an exotic and remote kingdom, could easily seize the imagination and fantasy of a Western audience receptive to tales from far-away places and daring adventurers.

    Clairvoyant and Mystic

    Keyserling called Ungern-Sternberg “one of the most metaphysically and occultly gifted men I have ever met” and believed that the Baron was a clairvoyant who could read the minds of the people around him. We know from the travel report of Ferdinand Ossendowski that the gaze of Baron von Ungern-Sternberg was very unsettling, to say the least. When they met for the first time, Ossendowski recalls, his “eyes were fixed upon me like those of an animal from a cave”. Ossendowski witnessed how a bunch of prisoners were brought to Ungern-Sternberg who would stare at them for a long time until he finally proclaimed who, from among them, must be commissars of the Communist party, and as it turned out, documents proving their espionage activities were found on the two prisoners he had singled out. They were beaten to death on his command.

    That Baron von Ungern-Sternberg is believed to have been the incarnation of a pre-Buddhist god of war, recognized by the local spiritual leader as a descendant of the fabled Genghis Khan and thus being one of the last Khans of Mongolia himself, quite certainly must be considered the most intriguing aspect to his legend. This was the moment when Baron von Ungern-Sternberg became immortal in his lifetime already. He was prophesied by Mongolian seers that he would only have 133 days more to live, as he told Ossendowski when they met in Urga. He expected to die, not as the victor but as the one vanquished, yet he feared not: He knew that his death was meant to be the ultimate sacrifice from which the myth, transcending the ages, would blossom and rise forth.

    Only the myth can conquer death and hence his death, as gloomy as it was, could only add to the legend of his life: Betrayed by the last of his men, captured by his mortal enemy but remaining defiant until the very end. Not surrendering, ever, and never once asking for mercy or begging for his life. He died the same way that he lived – as a true enemy to the world that he hated and wished to tear asunder, so his vision of a New World could ultimately manifest in reality. When the bullets of the Red Army firing squad hit him, he truly lived up to the words of Ernest Hemingway: “But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated”.

    From Nihilism to Numinous

    The life journey of Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg took him all the way from the Baltic Sea to Outer Mongolia; from Lutheran Protestantism via Russian Orthodoxy to Mongolian Buddhism; from being a soldier to becoming a wargod.

    It is surely noteworthy that the Baron moved from a religion that only knows a rather abstract concept of a God who doesn’t reveal himself to Man, via a religion that knows many Saints touched and blessed by God, towards a religion where Man can become one with the Godhead. The closer he came to Mongolia, the closer he came to embrace the Numinous. In light of Heideggers’ contemplation of religion and metaphysics, of which we read in his Contributions to Philosophy (“Beiträge zur Philosophie (Vom Ereignis)”) for instance, it does not come as a surprise that Baron von Ungern-Sternberg could never have accomplished his Magnum Opus if he’d stayed put in the West. Nietzsche proclaimed the death of God, in Europe at least, and Heidegger agreed.

    Where God is dead, he is absent. The notion of the absent God means that there is no god visible for Man; there is nothing that gathers man and things together. The world has become groundless. No trace is left of the holy, explains Heidegger in his essay “What are poets for?” (“Wozu Dichter?”). Confined to the West, a man like Baron von Ungern-Sternberg would have remained forlorn in a world without God. Also Julius Evola explains why the Baron turned to the East, because the “East was faithful to the own spiritual traditions and willing to stand together with those who were able to revolt against the modern world.”

    Ungern-Sternberg turned his back on the nihilism he experienced in the West and he started to seek epiphany in the East. We can barely imagine the agony he must have felt when the Bolshevik Revolution started to tear his beloved Russia apart, manifesting all the horror of spiritual degradation that he loathed so much. Just like Ungern-Sternberg himself, so was Ferdinand Ossendowski an eye-witness to the Bolshevik revolution and her aftermath in Russia. In his book “The Shadow of the Gloomy East”, he describes how madness and murder, in the name of Revolution, have flung the gates of hell wide open.

    This hell of own making did not come as a surprise to Ossendowski, though. He knew that in Russia, no one but the ruling upper class was educated and civilized in the image of Western culture, whereas the vast majority of spiritually illiterate masses was “inclined to dark and gloomy mysticism (…) which took crude, primitive, unchristian and anti-civilized forms.” Where else but here could the Antichrist have manifested in our world, he wondered? “Already he has dispatched his servants to ruin and break up the richest of all countries and nations – Russia and the Russians. (…) The people are bending beneath its horrors. (…) For although men may still feel capable of fighting men, they cannot reasonably fight against the Power of Evil…”. There was but one man willing to take up arms and fight against the Evil of his time: Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg!

    Apocalypse Now

    Ossendowski also reveals to us some amazing insights that help to shed light on the religious doctrine uphold by Ungern-Sternberg in his final days, even though it is hard to determine how much of it we can take for granted. According to his own account, Buddhism was introduced into his family by his grandfather who is said to have been a privateer in the Indian Ocean. Ungern-Sternberg spoke to Ossendowski about the “war between the good and evil spirits”, by which he meant his relentless war efforts fighting against the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. “Revolution is an infectious disease” that does “blot out culture, kill morality and destroy all the people”. Religion, on the other hand, guides humanity “upward toward higher ideals” and thus Baron von Ungern-Sternberg apparently believed in a dichotomy of Religion and Revolution, of Spirituality and Materialism; the latter removing man farther “from the divine and the spiritual”. From his point of view, the revolution in Russia was that one grave cataclysm spoken about in the holy scriptures of Christianity and Buddhism alike. “It appeared, turned back the wheel of progress and blocked our road to Divinity”, Ungern- Sternberg is being quoted. He considered the whole of Russia and Europe in imminent danger, because a day of divine reckoning would now be inevitable: “(F)amine, destruction, the death of culture, of glory, of honor and of spirit, the death of states and the death of peoples.” He already could see this “dark, mad destruction of humanity”.

    If we consider this to be true, then Baron von Ungern-Sternberg was an apocalypticist more than anything else. He was motivated by the notion that he is living through the end times, already witnessing the end of the world and it is up to him to save mankind from the ultimate undoing. Apocalypticism, or Eschatology, is integral to any major religion in the world. In Christianity, we are familiar with the Revelation of Saint John the Divine that tells of the rise of Satan, laying waste to the world until he is ultimately defeated in the second coming of Christ. Fundamental to Eschatology is the belief in the cyclic nature of history. History is divided into “ages” and each age lasts for a certain period of time. The transition from one age to the next is believed to re-shape the reality of the world as we know it; altering our way of living, thinking, being. Usually it is a major crisis, like a global conflict or war, which marks the end of one age and ushers man into a new reality.

    Buddhism too does have a tradition of eschatology, because Buddha himself predicted that his teachings would disappear five thousand years after his passing, when mankind would degenerate in a period of greed, lust, violence, impiety, sexual depravity and physical weakness all culminating in the collapse of society that would erase the memory of Buddha. However, there will be a new era in which the next Buddha Maitreya will appear. He is said to be “fully awakened, abounding in wisdom and goodness, happy, with knowledge of the worlds, unsurpassed as a guide to mortals willing to be led, a teacher for gods and men, an Exalted One”. Every apocalypse knows a savior, a messiah who will lead the faithful from the darkness into the light of a New Dawn. Theosophy, the esoteric doctrine said to have inspired the German Thule Society, among others, teaches that Maitreya previously incarnated as Krishna, of whom we read in the ancient Vedic text of Bhagavad Gita; a mythological figure imprinting itself on the Buddhism of one Baron von Ungern-Sternberg too. It is sometimes suggested that Baron von Ungern-Sternberg was interested in theosophy, and although we cannot confirm as much with certainty, it is still obvious by his own words that he was no stranger to the concept of a messianic figure appearing in the end times, either. In his farewell speech to Ossendowski, he explicitely mentions the “King of the World” who shall rise from his “subterranean capital”, Shambala, at the end of time.

    Dharmic Destruction

    Much has been said and made of Baron von Ungern-Sternberg’s cruelty, because he inflicted severe punishment upon his own soldiers for the slightest transgressions, he would indiscriminately kill Jews and Communists, and he took no prisoners when he defeated the enemy on the battlefield. Allegedly he was insane, a “bloody mad Baron”, but it is far more likely that he just appeared to be out of his mind to any but the most insightful observer.

    In the West, it is widely presumed that Buddhism is a pacifist and non-violent creed. Everyone is familiar with images of the praying Tibetan monks who appear to be so detached from mundaneness that they couldn’t care less for the primal inclinations turning man into the wolf of his fellow man. How could Baron von Ungern-Sternberg have been Buddhist if he was so prone to violence? But if he was a Buddhist who inflicted pain and suffering on others, does this coincidence not show his confusion? Western perception of Buddhism more often than not is flawed and ignorant of the different theological lineages that have Buddhism – like any other of the major religions – split up into various local branches. The Mongolian culture was (and remains to be) a nomadic one, and like any other nomadic tribe, men were warriors first and foremost. Under the rule of Genghis Khan and his successors, the Tibetan Buddhism of the Sakya-school became the de-facto state religion of the Mongolian Empire. The Sakya-school is heavily influenced by tantric doctrines from India. Tantra denotes the esoteric traditions to be found in Buddhism and Hinduism alike, and it is from this angle that Baron von Ungern-Sternberg’s personal approach to Buddhism becomes so much more plausible.

    One of the most important Vedic texts of Hinduism is the Bhagavad Gita. It tells of a battle, where the warrior Arjuna feels defeated and unmotivated to fight because his enemies are his family, so either way he feels he will lose; either he will die or he must kill his family. In this moment appears Krishna, as personification of the Godhead, and he tells Arjuna that all these warriors are already dead, for they are all subject to the laws of time, whereas the Self is eternal and free from this delusion. Krishna tells Arjuna to fight, either win and conquer the earth, or lose and attain heaven, but either way one must not hesitate to fight. Indecision is caused by selfish desires, which Krishna stresses are hidden within. By performing service for the world, one can act with the benefit of all creatures, thereby imitating the divine act. The American occultist Joseph Kerrick calls this the “quaternary thought” – in his essay “The Second Coming of Q”, he writes about it as “the full ‘humanist’ awareness of the spiritual unity of friend and foe, and even, in Buddhist terms, of all sentient beings. But it is able to attain a negation of this on a higher level, a greater enlightenment which does not deny oneness but subsumes it, in order … to carry on the necessary work of the Universe. This is called, in Sanskrit: Dharma. It carries the implication of ‘duty’ in the highest spiritual sense, and of ‘destiny’.”

    It is now safe to say that Ungern-Sternberg did embody the essence of quaternary thought as it was originally formulated in the ancient Aryovedic culture, and can still be found in the Bhagavad Gita. He was not motivated by primal urges, he was not bloodthirsty and cruel for the sake of inflicting suffering upon others, but he felt compelled to do what he deemed absolutely necessary to do in face of the spiritual darkness that he witnessed engulfing Russia and Europe alike. He aligned himself with the Divine, he has become one with Godhead, “from whom all things come and who is in all”, as it is said in the Bhagavad Gita. “In every specific situation there is a specific work to be done, the dharma indeed, the work of the will of God”, Joseph Kerrick tells us in his essay.

    Like the ancient noble warlord Arjuna, of whom we read in the Bhagavad Gita, Baron von Ungern-Sternberg understood that he too has to carry out the will of God even if it means to kill relentlessly and without mercy, because it is just like Krishna told Arjuna on the eve of his battle against his own kin: “I am all-powerful Time which destroys all things, and I have come here to slay these men. Even if thou dost not fight, all the warriors facing thee shall die.”

    Dynamic Equilibrium

    In this regard it is also interesting how Hermann Graf Keyserling was reflecting on the transmutation of Baron von Ungern-Sternberg after he liberated Mongolia and was welcomed by the Mongolians as one of their own. Whereas Ungern-Sternberg seemed to oscillate between “Holiness and Bloodlust” hitherto, as Keyserling observed, making him appear like a completely different person depending on his prevailing mood, it was only there and then that he reconciled his conflicting soul and was made whole, to be more than the sum of all his apparently antagonistic personality traits. Keyserling attributes this to the particular atmosphere in Mongolia that translated Ungern-Sternberg’s “Holiness and Bloodlust” into a “dynamic equilibrium”, thus enabling him to commit the vilest atrocity in a mental state of decency and purity. “He probably wanted to purge the inferior mankind and felt good with that,” Keyserling tells us. “However, he didn’t want to torment any individual man for his own sake. If he let someone be beaten to death or be burned alive, he likely felt just like Jehovah who scorched the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire and brimstone.”

    Saints and Soldiers

    Last but not least, it is noteworthy that Baron von Ungern-Sternberg wished, in his own words to Ossendowski, to found an “order of military Buddhists in Russia. …For the protection of the process of
    evolution for humanity and for the struggle against revolution”    , because he was “certain that evolution leads to Divinity and revolution to Bestiality”. He said he introduced the “condition of celibacy, the entire negation of woman, of the comforts of life, of superfluities” according to the teachings of Buddhism. On the other hand, he said he also allowed the “limitless use of alcohol, hasheesh and opium” in his Buddhist order, substances known for inducing dionysian rapture and shamanic trance. We are reminded of the Teutonic Knights’ Order that ruled the Baltic when Ungern-Sternberg’s ancestors settled there, a Germanic offspring of the ill-fated Templars’ Knight Order in which monastic life went hand in hand with battle prowess and initiation into the Arcane by means of a secret rite of passage no outsider should ever know about; and it is remarkable that Baron von Ungern-Sternberg wished to emulate this ideal of European saintly knighthood under the auspices of militant Buddhism.

    However, it makes perfect sense in light of the utmost fanaticism that Ungern-Sternberg knew would be required for banishing the spiritual darkness suffocating the enlightenment of the West. His cruelty appeared arbitrary and shocking even to contemporaries who were used to human suffering, but was it not a cathartic rite of passage that would strip him and his disciples off all-too-human weakness and fallacy? Is it not required to relinquish humanity when you approach the Numinous? All priesthood, all saints and seers, who commune with (the) God(s), have sacrificed some or other worldly attachment. But unless you sacrifice your compassion for fellow men for the sake of your love of man, you cannot truly embrace the Numinous and transcend beyond good and evil. But it is there, at this distant point so far removed from our humanity, where the Hyperborean, the “Übermensch”, appears. He is the last to make a final stand in our Dark Age, and the first to behold the New Dawn of a Golden Age reborn.

    Conclusion

    Baron von Ungern-Sternberg travelled a long way from the center of Europe into the heartland of Asia; he was crossing as well as burning all the bridges between the West and the East for the sake of forging their union; and he turned into the White God of War who swept across central Asia like “a bloody storm of avenging Karma”, as Ossendowski had observed in awe. In the Far East the Baron von Ungern-Sternberg met his fate and fulfilled his destiny, but his eyes were firmly set on the Western horizon from where he once emerged and wished to return one day: As a Soldier as well as a Saint; to be a Scourge just as much as a Savior.

    The decline of the West is a reality, now more than ever, but after two devastating world wars it is not there on the old continent where we can find once more the strength to turn the tide and carry on with the Reconquista started by that “mad, bloody Baron”. In the West we find all the ancient wisdom and ancestral knowledge that would no doubt help to guide us on our path upwards to Divinity, but it is in the East where we find this untamed power and untainted virtue required to cleanse our path of all the degeneration, debris and decay that block the way of our sacred evolution as the Hyperboreans-to-be.

    Like Baron von Ungern-Sternberg turned to the East to find strength in his crusade against Communism in the West, we too must turn eastward to find new strength in our own crusade against Cultural Marxism in Europe and North America too. Let the Reconquista begin here and now, my dear friends and fellow comrades; today the East, and tomorrow the West!

    References:
    Ossendowski, Ferdinand: The Shadow Of The Gloomy East
    Ossendowski, Ferdinand: Beasts, Men and Gods
    Keyserling, Hermann Graf: Abenteuer der Seele (Reise durch die Zeit ; 2. Band)
    Baron Ungern von Sternberg – der letzte Kriegsgott. Junges Forum Nr. 7
    Krauthoff, Berndt: Ich befehle. Kampf und Tragödie des Barons Ungern-Sternberg
    Kerrick, Joseph: The Second Coming of Q
    Vedder, Ben: Heidegger’s Philosophy of Religion: From God to the Gods

    The White God of War (PDF)Download
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