Christian Worch
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Christian Worch (born 1956) is one of the most important figures of the German neo-Nazi scene.
In 1974, Worch started and began to build up the "Hansabande" in Hamburg together with his friend Michael Kühnen. They defaced Jewish cemeteries, assaulted leftists and foreigners[citation needed], and denied the Holocaust -- they were a part of one especially famous campaign under the motto I, donkey, believe that Jews were gassed to death in Germany (Ich Esel glaube, dass in Deutschland Juden vergast worden sind). This organization became the Aktionsfront Nationaler Sozialisten (ANS; Action Front of National Socialists) in 1977. Worch and Kühnen also had contacts to the now-banned Wiking-Jugend (Viking Youth) at this time.
Kühnen was arrested in 1979 and Worch took over leadership of the ANS. In 1980 he was convicted to a three-year incarceration, despite being defended by Jürgen Rieger during his trial. In 1983, what was now known as the ANS/NA (Aktionsfront Nationaler Sozialisten/Nationale Aktivisten; Action Front of National Socialists/National Activists) was banned, so Worch joined the Freiheitlich Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (FAP; Free German Workers' Party) and became vice-chairman. As the Nationale Liste (National List) was founded in 1989, he switched over to it and became active in its executive committee. He edited its magazine, Index, until September 1991 and was especially active in Anti-Antifa work. In this campaign, lists of names and addresses of left-wing and anti-fascist activists and organizations were published; these even led to attacks on a few of the people listed. Worch was one of the main initiators of this campaign.
Worch has worked with Hilfsorganisation für nationale politische Gefangene und deren Angehörige (HNG; Help organisation for national political prisoners and their families), a German organization which helps imprisoned neo-Nazis, and he works with Gary Lauck's NSDAP/AO. After Kühnen died in 1991, Worch, Winfried Arnulf Priem, and Gottfried Küssel took over the Gesinnungsgemeinschaft der Neuen Front (GdNF; Convicition Community of the New Front); this led to him being sentenced to 2 years' imprisonment on probation in 1994. He had to serve this jail time beginning in February 1996 because he had continued the ANS/NA despite its having been banned, but he was released early in 1997.
For a short time in the 1990s, Worch had close relations with the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) and was a connection point between the Freie Kameradschaften (Free Comradships, German neo-Nazi groups) and the NPD. In an interview, he defended his collaboration with the party, saying that "the NPD is as a party, of course, only a means to intersperse our worldview". However, he has since distanced himself from the party.
Worch is also famous as one of the main organizers of the Rudolf Heß Memory March, which takes place once a year in Wunsiedel, Bavaria, where Rudolf Hess is buried, and is one of the most important events for European neo-Nazis.
