Wolfgang Droege

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Front page of the Toronto Sun, April 14, 2005.
Front page of the Toronto Sun, April 14, 2005.

Wolfgang Walter Droege (or Dröge) (September 25, 1949-April 13, 2005) was a Canadian white supremacist, neo-Nazi and founding leader of the Heritage Front.

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[edit] Early Life

Droege was born in Forchheim, Germany. His parents and grandparents had been enthusiastic supporters of the Nazi Party, and Julius Streicher was a friend of the family. Droege and his mother moved to Canada in 1962. In 1967, he moved back to Germany to join the military but was rejected due to health reasons. He moved back to Canada and became a Canadian citizen in the early 1970s.

[edit] Biography

[edit] 1970s

Droege became interested in far-right politics and joined an extremist group, the Western Guard, in 1974 at the prompting of Don Andrews and later joined Andrews's Nationalist Party of Canada. He was arrested, charged, and convicted of damage to property and mischief in 1975 after spraying "white power" slogans along the route of the African Liberation Day march in Toronto. In December 1976 he joined the Ku Klux Klan, then led by David Duke, after attending the "International Patriotic Congress" in New Orleans organized by Duke. Droege attempted to start a KKK branch in Toronto and also organized for the Klan in British Columbia where he spread Duke's "one law for all" and "equal rights for everyone" slogans.

[edit] 1980s

In 1981, Droege helped organize a failed attempt, codenamed "Operation Red Dog", to invade the Caribbean nation of Dominica and overthrow its government and restore deposed Prime Minister Patrick John to power. According to testimony presented at the trial of Droege and his nine co-conspirators, in exchange for restoring John to power, Droege would have been permitted to use the island as the centre of a drug-refinement and trafficking operation.

The attempted coup turned sour after a CFTR radio reporter who had been approached about an "exclusive story" decided to contact the police. Droege was sentenced to a three-year prison sentence for his mercenary activities. As it was launched from New Orleans, this event was derided as the "Bayou of Pigs" fiasco by critics such as Don Andrews.

In 1985 he was arrested in Alabama as an illegal alien and charged with cocaine possession, as well as possession of an illegal knife. He served four years of a 13-year sentence.

Wolfgang Droege at a Heritage Front event.
Wolfgang Droege at a Heritage Front event.

Upon his release from jail in 1989, Droege went to Libya to attend a congress of what became the International Third Position and then returned to Canada to found the Heritage Front. The growth of the neo-Nazi group prompted the creation of Anti-Racist Action (ARA) in Toronto which devotes itself to combating the Front and other groups.

[edit] 1990s

In 1992, Droege's connections with racist organizations led to his expulsion from the Reform Party of Canada. In 1993, following a brawl with ARA members, Droege was charged and convicted of aggravated assault and possession of dangerous weapons, and he served two months of a three-month sentence. Following his release from prison, Droege drifted away from organized racial activity and worked for a time as a bailiff. After losing his job, he returned to cigarette and drug trafficking as well as auto theft. In 1998 he pleaded guilty to possession of a stolen car.

[edit] 2000s

Droege's fifty-fifth birthday party was held at Jack Astor's restaurant in Etobicoke, Ontario [1] just weeks after the same restaurant was the site of a confrontation between Anti-Racist Action and supporters of Ernst Zündel.

Droege was found shot to death on April 13, 2005 in the hallway of his lowrise apartment in Scarborough, Ontario. One suspect barricaded himself in Droege's apartment but was arrested at the scene without incident after negotiations with the Emergency Task Force. Droege's remains were cremated and returned to Germany.

On 16 June, 2006, Keith Deroux pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to ten years in prison without regard for time in pre-trial custody. According to an agreed statement of facts read out in court, Deroux was an alcoholic with paranoid delusions fuelled by cocaine, some of it supplied by Droege himself.

Deroux was apparently convinced that Droege was keeping his house under audio and video surveillance. Deroux furthermore believed that people were burrowing into his house through a tunnel, and that all of this was Droege's revenge for Deroux's having laughed at Droege's political views. Max French, a friend of Droege's, told the Toronto Star that Droege's racist and extremist political stance and previous convictions made it difficult for him to find regular jobs.[2] Deroux was sentenced to only 10 years in prison.

[edit] Associates

[edit] External links

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