Christian Worch is one of the most important figures of the German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 neo-Nazi

Neo-Nazism

Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or some variant thereof.The term neo-Nazism can also refer to the ideology of these movements....

 scene.

In 1974 Worch started a militant group called the Hansabande in Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

, along with Michael Kühnen

Michael Kühnen

Michael Kühnen was a leader in the German neo-Nazi movement. He was one of the first post-World War II Germans to openly embrace Nazism and call for the formation of a Fourth Reich. He enacted a policy of setting up several differently-named groups in an effort to confuse German authorities, who...

. The group defaced Jewish cemeteries

Cemetery

A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...

, assaulted leftists and foreigners, and denied the Holocaust

Holocaust denial

Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...

. Worch took part in one especially well-known campaign under the motto "I am an ass to believe that Jews were gassed in Germany" (Ich Esel glaube, daß in Deutschland Juden vergast worden sind). While the aim of the campaign was a denial of the Holocaust, the motto itself technically wasn't false, since Nazi death camps were located exclusively outside of the pre-war Reich

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

, i.e. in other occupied regions of Europe, especially in General Government

General Government

The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...

. The group gradually became the Aktionsfront Nationaler Sozialisten (ANS, Action Front of National Socialists) in 1977. Worch and Kühnen were also close to the now-banned Wiking-Jugend

Wiking-Jugend

The "Wiking-Jugend" was a German Neo-Nazi organization modelled after the Hitlerjugend.The Sozialistische Reichspartei was outlawed in 1952, together with its youth organization "Reichsjugend"...

(Viking Youth).

Kühnen was arrested in 1979 and Worch took over leadership of the ANS. In 1980 he was convicted to a three-year prison sentence, despite being defended by Jürgen Rieger

Jürgen Rieger

Jürgen Rieger was a Hamburg lawyer, and deputy chairman of the National Democratic Party of Germany , known for his Holocaust denial....

 during his trial. In 1983, the organization now known as the ANS/NA (Aktionsfront Nationaler Sozialisten/Nationale Aktivisten, Action Front of National Socialists/National Activists) was banned, so Worch joined the Freiheitliche Deutsche Arbeiterpartei

Free German Workers' Party

The Free German Workers' Party was a neo-nazi political association in Germany. It was outlawed by the Constitutional Court in 1995.The FAP was founded in 1979 but was largely insignificant until the banning of the Action Front of National Socialists/National Activists in 1983 when Michael Kühnen...

(FAP, Free German Workers' Party) and became vice-chairman. As the Nationale Liste (National List) was founded in 1989, he became active in its executive committee. He edited its magazine, Index, until September 1991 and was especially active in Anti-Antifa work. In this campaign, lists of names and addresses of left-wing and anti-fascist activists and organizations were published; this led to attacks on some of the people listed. Worch was one of the main initiators of the campaign.

After Kühnen died in 1991, Worch, along with Winfried Arnulf Priem and Gottfried Küssel, took over the Gesinnungsgemeinschaft der Neuen Front

Gesinnungsgemeinschaft der Neuen Front

Gesinnungsgemeinschaft der Neuen Front is a German organisation that was the main group for neo-Nazi activity during the 1990s. It translates into English as the Community of Like-Minded People of the New Front or the Covenant of the New Front....

 (GdNF); this led to him being sentenced to 2 years' imprisonment on probation

Probation

Probation literally means testing of behaviour or abilities. In a legal sense, an offender on probation is ordered to follow certain conditions set forth by the court, often under the supervision of a probation officer...

 in 1994. He had to serve this jail time beginning in February 1996 because he had continued the ANS/NA despite its having been banned, but he was released early in 1997.

For a short time in the 1990s, Worch had close relations with the National Democratic Party of Germany

National Democratic Party of Germany

The National Democratic Party of Germany – The People's Union , is a far right German nationalist party. It was founded in 1964 a successor to the German Reich Party . Party statements self-identify as Germany's "only significant patriotic force"...

 (NPD) and was a link between neo-Nazi groups and the NPD. In an interview, he defended his collaboration with the party, saying that "the NPD is as a party, of course, only a means to intersperse our worldview". However, he has since distanced himself from the party.

Worch also collaborates with Gary Lauck's NSDAP/AO

NSDAP/AO

The NSDAP/AO was the Foreign Organization branch of the National Socialist German Workers Party . AO is the abbreviation of the German compound word Auslands-Organisation...

, and is known as one of the main organizers of the Rudolf Heß Memorial March, which takes place once a year in Wunsiedel

Wunsiedel

Wunsiedel is the county town of the Upper Franconian district of Wunsiedel in northeast Bavaria, Germany. The town became well known for its annual Luisenburg Festival and the Rudolf Hess Memorial March held by the Neo-Nazis here until 2005.- Geography :...

, Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

, where Rudolf Hess

Rudolf Hess

Rudolf Walter Richard Hess was a prominent Nazi politician who was Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party during the 1930s and early 1940s...

is buried, and is one of the most important events for European neo-Nazis.