Matt Koehl

Matthias Koehl, Jr. (January 22, 1935 – October 9/10, 2014) was the leader of the American Nazi Party, which in 1983, influenced by esoteric Nazism, he renamed as the New Order.

Background

Born on January 22, 1935, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Hungarian immigrants of German descent, Koehl studied journalism at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee^[1] and served in the U.S. Marine Corps. He joined James Madole's National Renaissance Party, the United White Party, and the National States' Rights Party before joining the American Nazi Party in 1960.

American Nazi Party/New Order

As deputy commander,^[2] in August 1967, Koehl succeeded the assassinated George Lincoln Rockwell as 'Commander' of the National Socialist White People's Party (which had been known until December 1966 as the American Nazi Party).^[3] Koehl renamed the organization "New Order" in 1983. Like Miguel Serrano, he was heavily influenced by the writings of Savitri Devi and is an advocate of esoteric Hitlerism, believing Hitler to have been a god-like being sent to rescue humanity – specifically the European peoples – from extinction. He was a very close friend of Florentine Rost van Tonningen.

Although maintaining a low public profile, Koehl granted an interview to mainstream writer William H. Schmaltz in Arlington, Virginia, in April 1996 during preparation of that author's biography of George Lincoln Rockwell.

At the end of his life, Koehl was the leader of the World Union of National Socialists despite his advocacy of Hitlerism as a religious movement having alienated some members. Koehl died in his sleep sometime between October 9 and 10, 2014 at the age of 79.^[4]

Works

• The Future Calls (1972)
• Some Guidelines To The Development Of The National Socialist Movement
• The Program of the National Socialist White People's Party (Cicero, IL: NS Publications, 1980)
• Faith of the Future (1995)

Sources

• American Fuehrer : George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party by Frederick J. Simonelli ISBN 0-252-02285-8 and ISBN 0-252-06768-1
• Hate : George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party by William H. Schmaltz ISBN 1-57488-171-X (review 1)
• Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, 2001, ISBN 0-8147-3155-4 (2)
• Hitler’s Priestess: Savitri Devi, the Hindu-Aryan Myth, and Neo-Nazism by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, 1998, ISBN 0-8147-3111-2

References

External links

• Koehl's New Order webpage
• WHO IS HITLER? transcript of remarks by Matt Koehl
• Populism And Socialism In American Nazism, chapter five of American Nazism In The Context Of The American Extreme Right: 1960–1978 by Jim Saleam
• Pierce, Koehl and the National Socialist White People's Party Internal Split of 1970 by H. Michael Barrett
• THE KU KLUX KLAN AND THE AMERICAN NAZI PARTY: CASE STUDIES IN TOTALITARIANISM AND FASCISM by Betty A. Dobratz and Stephanie Shanks-Meile
• Neo-Nazis: Longtime Hitlerian Activists on the Anti-Defamation League's website.
• Matt Koehl's FBI files, obtained under the FOIA and hosted at the Internet Archive:
  • Chicago FBI office file part 1
  • Chicago FBI office file part 2
  • Chicago FBI office file part 3
  • Chicago FBI office file part 4
  • Chicago FBI office file part 5