Friedhelm Busse

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Friedhelm Busse (born February 4, 1929 in Bochum) is a leading German neo-Nazi.

The son of an SA Sturmbannführer, Busse served in the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend in 1945. After the war he became active in Reichsjugend, the youth wing of the Socialist Reich Party and later the Deutsche Reichspartei. During the early 1960s he took an active role in South Tyrol, and was arrested in 1963 for possession of dynamite.

Busse joined the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) in 1964 and soon became one of the party's leading members in North Rhine-Westphalia. As a member of the NPD Busse became associated with student radicalism, much to the displeasure of the NPD leadership. To this end he set up a radical far right group, Aktion Widerstand, in 1970 and was expelled from the party the following year as the leadership sought to reassert itself.

In June 1971 he joined with other radicals in setting up the Partei der Arbeit/Deutsche Sozialisten, which re-emerged in 1975 as Volkssozialistische Bewegung Deutschlands (VSBD). During this time he was also involved in organising neo-Nazi cadres and played a leading role in the establishment of the NSDAP/AO. Alongside this he continued to play a leading role in the VSBD until it was outlawed in 1982 following a shooting incident. Busse then became associated with the Free German Workers' Party (FAP), becoming leader of the party in 1989 when Michael Kühnen was forced from that position due to his homosexuality. The FAP declined as successor groups loyal to Kühnen emerged but Busse remained influential as an individual and was present at Rostock in 1992 when neo-Nazis launched an arson attack on an immigrants hostel. With the FAP on the wane he became involved with organising Freien Kameradschaften but was caught by police in Stuttgart in 1994 and placed on 20 months probation for attempting to reorganise the banned Action Front of National Socialists/National Activists. He continued his involvement with the Kameradschaften however, running an information service for them from 1997. He has also been active in organising lectures and rallies for the neo-Nazi cause. Largely retired from activism due to his age, he designated Norman Bordin as his successor in 2004.