Gerhard Rex Lauck (born May 12, 1953) is an American neo-Nazi activist and publisher. Based in Lincoln, Nebraska, he is sometimes nicknamed the "Farm Belt Fuehrer" due to his perceived rural origins.[1][2]
Early life
Gary Lauck was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on May 12, 1953 to a German-American family.[3] At age eleven, he moved to Lincoln, Nebraska with his family, where his father became a professor of engineering at the University of Nebraska.[3] Lauck skipped his senior year of high school and then attended the University of Nebraska for two years.[3] By this point, he already held neo-Nazi beliefs.
Career as a Neo-Nazi
In 1978, he shot and wounded his brother Jerry after a political dispute.[3] Eventually, Lauck moved to Chicago, where he would spend most of his adult life.[3] Lauck has lived in Fairbury,[4] Nebraska since 2009;[5] prior to that, he lived in Lincoln, Nebraska.
As the leader of the NSDAP/AO, he kept in close contact with like-minded individuals and groups in Europe, one of them was Michael Kühnen, with whom he worked closely from the 1970s.[1] His contact with leaders and members of the German neo-Nazi scene dates back to 1971, when as an 18-year-old, Lauck had established the Auslandsorganisation (overseas organisation) of the National Socialist Combat Groups, a militant German neo-Nazi group that was quickly banned by the West German government. Lauck's NSDAP/AO was established following this ban.[6] A noted Germanophile, Lauck sported a toothbrush moustache and he also used the Nazi salute as his regular greeting.[1] His speech impediment has frequently been confused with an affected German accent.[2] Although he is based in the USA, Lauck spent much of his time as an activist in Europe, particularly during the early 1990s, when the NSDAP/AO considerably extended its network of contacts. He published large volumes of neo-Nazi literature in several languages and he also produced computer discs which contained detailed bomb building instructions, both of which were distributed by a network of European contacts.[1] In 1990, he ensured that the NSDAP/AO would link up with the Swedish neo-Nazi group Sveriges Nationella Forbund, which became instrumental in forming the "Nordic National Socialist Bloc" with like-minded activists in Norway.[7] That same year, he played a leading role in helping Kühnen, Gottfried Küssel and Christian Worch establish a network of Gesinnungsgemeinschaft der Neuen Front cells across the former East Germany following German reunification.[8] Two years later, the NSDAP/AO also concluded an agreement with the National Socialist Movement of Denmark, which up to that point had been a leading organisation within the rival World Union of National Socialists (WUNS). The change occurred after Povl Riis-Knudsen, a leading figure in WUNS, had been expelled from the Danish Nazi movement for marrying a Palestinian woman.[7]
During the early days of the Yugoslav Wars, Lauck's journal New Order ran a series of articles in support of Croatia and they particularly expressed sympathy for the Ustaše. The magazine was instrumental in recruiting neo-Nazi linked mercenaries to fight for the Croatian cause.[9]
Lauck was arrested in Denmark in 1995, leading to a far right campaign in the USA against plans to extradite him to Germany, where he was wanted for distributing neo-Nazi propaganda.[10] Nevertheless, Lauck was deported to Hamburg where he was tried and found guilty of distributing neo-Nazi pamphlets. He was sentenced to four years in prison.[11] He was released from prison on March 19, 1999, and deported back to the United States.[12] Lauck runs Third Reich Books which continues to distribute Nazi paraphernalia online.[13]
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gary Lauck.
