Günter Deckert

Günter Deckert (born 9 January 1940 in Heidelberg) is a German far-right politician, and a prominent Holocaust denier.

Vocational background

After completing his "Abitur" (secondary education) in Weinheim in March 1960, Deckert studied English and Romance languages at the universities of Heidelberg, Kiel and Montpellier. He then became a trainee teacher at Heidelberg's Bunsen-Gymnasium (high school). By 1972 his achievements had seen him promoted to senior lecturer, and he was one of the youngest holders of this post in the state of Baden-Württemberg. From 1968 to 1982 he was a senior lecturer in English and French at the Tulla-Gymnasium in Mannheim. He subsequently taught at the Hasenleiser-Gymnasium in Heidelberg and the Carl-Benz-Gymnasium in Ladenburg, until in 1998, while facing a disciplinary hearing for the third time, he was banned from teaching in Baden-Württemberg and stripped of his pension.

Political career

In 1962 Deckert joined the "Deutsche Jungdemokraten" (Young German Democrats), the youth wing of the liberal FDP party. However he left the party in 1964 due to its recognising the Oder-Neisse line (Germany's eastern border with Poland), and in 1966 he joined the far-right NPD party. From 1968 he was the party's district chairman for Mannheim. As a founding member of the "Junge Nationaldemokraten" (JN) (Young National Democrats, the NPD's youth wing) he became its state chairman for Baden-Württemberg in 1972. In the same year he was the NPD's parliamentary candidate for the Sinsheim constituency.

In 1975 he was elected to NPD deputy national chairman following nomination by the JN; his remit was the party's public relations/propaganda. From 1976 he was an NPD councillor in Weinheim and also stood in that year as a candidate for state-level government. From 1978 to 1982 he was NPD chairman for the Rhein-Neckar district.

In 1979 he became a member of the "Committee for the Reintroduction of the Death Penalty". From 1981 to 1991 he was an organiser for the "Palatinate Rally". In 1981 he produced the brochure "Ausländer-Stop - Handbuch gegen Überfremdung" ("No More Foreigners - Handbook for Preventing Foreign Infiltration").

In 1982 Deckert officially left the NPD, in order to avoid the threat of being fired from teaching duty. He promptly founded the "Deutsche Liste" ("German List"), which he represented on the local council in Weinheim in 1984.

In 1987 he produced the brochure "Asyl - gestern, heute, morgen" ("Asylum - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow"). In 1988, after three internal disciplinary hearings relating to his far-right activities, he was finally sacked from the educational service.

In 1989 he was the leading NPD candidate at local elections in the Rhein-Neckar district and was elected to represent the Weinheim constituency, which he did until 1999. On 18 January 1991 he re-joined the NPD and was elected to district chairman for Rhein-Neckar. In June 1991 he was elected to NPD party chairman with around 73% of the vote.

On 10 November 1991 he co-organised, with Fred Leuchter, a "revisionist" meeting on the subject "Auschwitz" (Leuchter Report), in which he acted as translator and director.

On 13 November 1992 he was given a one-year probationary sentence and fined DM-10,000 by the state court of Mannheim, under Germany's laws relating to incitement to hatred ("Volksverhetzung"), incitement to racial hatred, libel, and insulting the victims of the Holocaust. Both Deckert and the prosecution service lodged an appeal against the sentencing.

In 1994 Deckert was the leading NPD candidate at the European Parliamentary elections. In the same year he ran for mayor of Schopfheim.

On 15 March 1994 Germany's federal court lifted the sentence that had been passed in Mannheim in 1992, deciding that the Mannheim court had not given due consideration to the facts. In particular it ruled that the charge of "Volksverhetzung" (incitement to hatred) had not been sufficiently proven. Nonetheless the court emphasised its previous legal declaration that the mass murder of Jews, carried out in the concentration camps of the Third Reich, is an open historical fact and requires no further empirical proof.

Since then Deckert has again been prosecuted for "Volksverhetzung" and other offences. On his return from holiday on 8 November 1995 he was arrested at Frankfurt airport and was detained in Mannheim, Stuttgart and Bruchsal until 2000.

On 8 August 2001 the newly founded "Bürgerinitiative Ausländerstopp" ("Citizens' Initiative - No More Foreigners") declared that Deckert would stand as their candidate for senior mayor of Nuremberg. According to local newspaper reports this voters' group was essentially a front for the local NPD.

In 2005 Deckert was NPD state chairman for Baden-Württemberg. At first he was the leading party list candidate for that state during the parliamentary elections of 2005. However his candidature (which was one of six) was withdrawn on a technicality in order to fulfil official requirements. First place went to the DVU member Sven Eggers.

Deckert was relieved from office after a meeting of the NPD's national board of directors in October 2005. The reason for this was given as a "non-democratic leadership style".

Since then Deckert has been expelled outright from the NPD, since he is perceived to "disturb the peace of the party" and endanger "the necessary minimum amount of inner-party closeness". The NPD's federal court of arbitration confirmed his expulsion in early March 2007.

Deckert is a founding member of the "Deutsch-Europäische Studiengesellschaft" (DESG) (the German-European Study Society).

One of Deckert's most publicly notable court appearances was the so-called "Deckert Judgement", his prosecution for "Volksverhetzung" and incitement to racial hatred by the state court of Mannheim in 1994. In his sentencing for this crime (for which his punishment was too mild according to a declaration by Germany's federal court) it was written "... his political persuasion, a matter very close to his heart, is something he champions with great devotion and a tremendous expenditure of time and energy".

According to a declaration from Germany's federal intelligence agency Deckert is "among the most aggressive of the German revisionists".

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:"Much of this article is translated from the German wikipedia article of March 13th 2007"