Germar Rudolf
Encyclopedia
Germar Rudolf is a German chemist and Holocaust denier
.
, Hesse
. After finishing secondary education
in 1983 in Remscheid
, Rudolf studied chemistry in Bonn
, completing his studies in 1989. As a student, he joined A.V. Tuisconia Königsberg zu Bonn and K.D.St.V. Nordgau Prag zu Stuttgart. Both are Catholic
fraternities
belonging to the Cartellverband der katholischen deutschen Studentenverbindungen
. He was a temporary supporter of the CSU
/CDU
, but parted ways and became a temporary member of Die Republikaner
(REP) due to their more patriotic policy.
After his military service, he was temporarily employed at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research
in Stuttgart
, beginning in October 1990. During this time he wrote a paper, titled "Report on the formation and verifiability of cyanide
compounds in the Auschwitz gas chamber
s" on behalf of the Düsseldorf
attorney Hajo Herrmann
, a former Luftwaffe
pilot holding the rank of Oberst
. In 1993, when his report caused some media attention, his employer ordered Rudolf not to enter the Max Planck Institute unless asked to. When Rudolf entered the institute without permission, his employment contract was terminated without notice. In 1994 this termination was converted into a termination in mutual agreement. In 1996 the University of Stuttgart demanded that Rudolf retracts his application for his final PhD examination, or else the University would deny it, rendering his PhD thesis worthless. The legal basis for this is a German law permitting universities to deny or withdraw academic degrees in case the candidate in question has used his academic credentials or knowledge to commit a crime. Rudolf subsequently withdrew his application.
Herrmann used Rudolf's paper in the defense of Otto Ernst Remer
, a former Wehrmacht
officer charged with incitement of hatred
, a criminal offense in German law. Although Rudolf was aware from the outset that his work would become publicly associated with an extremely controversial individual, he insisted that even an individual as despised by the general public as Remer has a right to a legal defense. Rudolf stated that his findings at Auschwitz and Birkenau "completely shattered his world view," which motivated him to continue despite increasing societal and legal resistance against his work.
Among other things, the report states that, after having collected and analyzed samples from the walls of various buildings in the Auschwitz concentration camp, only insignificant and non-reproducible traces of cyanide compounds can be found in the samples taken from the gas chambers. However, like Fred Leuchter in the Leuchter report
, Rudolf did not discriminate against the formation of iron-based cyanide compounds, which are not a reliable indicator of the presence of cyanide, and his experiment was thus seriously flawed. This report has been critically analyzed by Richard Green
and Jamie McCarthy from The Holocaust History Project
.
Both in 1994 and in 1995 Rudolf was evicted from his rented apartments after media articles had reported about police searches in his homes. In 1995 a TV report revealing the identity of his current employer led to the immediate termination of his employment contract. That same year Rudolf was expelled from the Catholic fraternities on grounds of having violated his fraternity's principles by his Holocaust denial publications.
because of the "Rudolf Report", as Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany. Rudolf avoided prison by fleeing to Spain
, England
and finally to the United States
. There, he applied for political asylum, but his request was denied in 2006.
Meanwhile, criminal investigations continued in Germany. In August 2004, the district court of Mannheim
distrained a bank account in an attempt to confiscate 55% of Rudolf's business turnover from the years 2001-2004 (some €214,000; at that time the account contained only some €5,000, however). Rudolf and his associates had earned this money by selling publications which are banned in Germany, although Rudolf's business was located in the UK and the US, where this activity was and is legal.
On September 11, 2004, Rudolf married a US citizen and subsequently had a child. His first marriage was to a German national from which he had two children. Nevertheless, his requests for asylum or at least withholding from removal were turned down in November 2004 of that year on the basis that his application had no merits and was indeed "frivolous." Rudolf appealed against this ruling, and as a result of this the US Federal Court in Atlanta denied in early 2006 that his application was frivolous, yet it upheld that it had no merits. While Rudolf's asylum case was still pending, he was arrested on October 19, 2005, seconds after his marriage had been certified as genuine and valid. The Immigration Services stated that Rudolf does not have a right to file an application to remain with his family. On November 14, 2005, Rudolf was deported
to Germany where he was wanted for inciting racial hatred. There on arrival, he was arrested by police authorities and transferred first to a prison in Rottenburg
, then to one in Stuttgart
in Baden-Württemberg
. On March 15, 2007, the Mannheim District Court sentenced Rudolf to two years and six months in prison for inciting hatred, disparaging the dead, and libel. Rudolf as well as the prosecution accepted the verdict. Rudolf's "Lectures on the Holocaust" were confiscated and ordered to be destroyed, that is to say: burned in waste incinerators under police supervision. The prosecution's initial request to confiscate €214,000 was reduced to €21,000, the total turnover from sales of the former book. He was released from German prison, July 5, 2009.
, England
with Theses & Dissertations Press as its American outlet. In 2000 Rudolf launched his English language "Holocaust Handbooks Series", a series of Holocaust denial titles which, as of 2011, encompassed 22 titles. Furthermore, Rudolf is closely associated with the Belgian
Holocaust denial organization Vrij Historisch Onderzoek (VHO). He publishes the "Vierteljahreshefte für freie Geschichtsforschung" (Quarterly journal for independent historical research), described by the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution as "a right-wing extremist organ."
publication with the title Grundlagen zur Zeitgeschichte resulted in further indictments being filed against Rudolf. Among the contributors to the work are other Holocaust deniers such as Robert Faurisson
, Jürgen Graf
, Carlo Mattogno
, Udo Walendy
and Friedrich Paul Berg
. Included as an appendix is a defense of the work used at the trial by historian, Joachim Hoffmann
.
.
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...
.
Background
Rudolf was born in Limburg an der LahnLimburg an der Lahn
Limburg an der Lahn is the district seat of Limburg-Weilburg in Hesse, Germany.-Location:Limburg lies in western Hesse between the Taunus and the Westerwald on the river Lahn....
, Hesse
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
. After finishing secondary education
Abitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...
in 1983 in Remscheid
Remscheid
Remscheid is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is, after Wuppertal and Solingen, the third largest municipality in Bergisches Land, being located on the northern edge of the region, on south side of the Ruhr area....
, Rudolf studied chemistry in Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
, completing his studies in 1989. As a student, he joined A.V. Tuisconia Königsberg zu Bonn and K.D.St.V. Nordgau Prag zu Stuttgart. Both are Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
fraternities
Studentenverbindung
A Studentenverbindung is a student corporation in a German-speaking country somewhat comparable to fraternities in the US or Canada, but mostly older and going back to other kinds of...
belonging to the Cartellverband der katholischen deutschen Studentenverbindungen
Cartellverband der katholischen deutschen Studentenverbindungen
The Cartellverband der katholischen deutschen Studentenverbindungen or Cartellverband is a German umbrella organization of Catholic male student fraternities .-Foundation:...
. He was a temporary supporter of the CSU
Christian Social Union of Bavaria
The Christian Social Union in Bavaria is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It operates only in the state of Bavaria, while its sister party, the Christian Democratic Union , operates in the other 15 states of Germany...
/CDU
Christian Democratic Union (Germany)
The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...
, but parted ways and became a temporary member of Die Republikaner
Republicans (Germany)
The Republicans is a national conservative political party in Germany. The primary plank of the program is opposition to immigration. The party tends to attract protest voters who think that the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union of Bavaria are not sufficiently conservative...
(REP) due to their more patriotic policy.
After his military service, he was temporarily employed at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research
Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research
The Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research is part of the Max Planck Society which operates 80 research facilities in Germany. It is a research institute located in Büsnau which is part of Stuttgart, Germany....
in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, beginning in October 1990. During this time he wrote a paper, titled "Report on the formation and verifiability of cyanide
Cyanide
A cyanide is a chemical compound that contains the cyano group, -C≡N, which consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. Cyanides most commonly refer to salts of the anion CN−. Most cyanides are highly toxic....
compounds in the Auschwitz gas chamber
Gas chamber
A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent is hydrogen cyanide; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have also been used...
s" on behalf of the Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
attorney Hajo Herrmann
Hajo Herrmann
Hans-Joachim 'Hajo' Herrmann was a Luftwaffe bomber pilot and later after the end of World War II, focusing his activities as a lawyer on civil and criminal law. In World War II, he was a high ranking and influential member of the Luftwaffe. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the...
, a former Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
pilot holding the rank of Oberst
Oberst
Oberst is a military rank in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to Colonel. It is currently used by both the ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Norway. The Swedish rank överste is a direct translation, as are the Finnish rank eversti...
. In 1993, when his report caused some media attention, his employer ordered Rudolf not to enter the Max Planck Institute unless asked to. When Rudolf entered the institute without permission, his employment contract was terminated without notice. In 1994 this termination was converted into a termination in mutual agreement. In 1996 the University of Stuttgart demanded that Rudolf retracts his application for his final PhD examination, or else the University would deny it, rendering his PhD thesis worthless. The legal basis for this is a German law permitting universities to deny or withdraw academic degrees in case the candidate in question has used his academic credentials or knowledge to commit a crime. Rudolf subsequently withdrew his application.
Herrmann used Rudolf's paper in the defense of Otto Ernst Remer
Otto Ernst Remer
Otto-Ernst Remer was a German Wehrmacht officer who played a decisive role in stopping the 1944 20 July Plot against Adolf Hitler. During the war he was wounded nine times in combat...
, a former Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
officer charged with incitement of hatred
Volksverhetzung
Volksverhetzung is a concept in German criminal law that bans the incitement of hatred against a segment of the population. It often applies in, though it is not limited to, trials relating to Holocaust denial in Germany...
, a criminal offense in German law. Although Rudolf was aware from the outset that his work would become publicly associated with an extremely controversial individual, he insisted that even an individual as despised by the general public as Remer has a right to a legal defense. Rudolf stated that his findings at Auschwitz and Birkenau "completely shattered his world view," which motivated him to continue despite increasing societal and legal resistance against his work.
Among other things, the report states that, after having collected and analyzed samples from the walls of various buildings in the Auschwitz concentration camp, only insignificant and non-reproducible traces of cyanide compounds can be found in the samples taken from the gas chambers. However, like Fred Leuchter in the Leuchter report
Leuchter report
The Leuchter report is a pseudoscientific document authored by American execution technician Fred A. Leuchter. For the defense in the trial of Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel, Leuchter compiled the report in 1988 with the intention of investigating the feasibility of mass homicidal gassings at Nazi...
, Rudolf did not discriminate against the formation of iron-based cyanide compounds, which are not a reliable indicator of the presence of cyanide, and his experiment was thus seriously flawed. This report has been critically analyzed by Richard Green
Richard J. Green (chemist)
Richard J. Green is an American chemist known for his work against Holocaust denial. He is a member of The Holocaust History Project....
and Jamie McCarthy from The Holocaust History Project
The Holocaust History Project
The Holocaust History Project is a non-profit corporation based in San Antonio, Texas. Its website offers a comprehensive archive of documents, recordings, photographs, and essays regarding the Holocaust, Holocaust denial and antisemitism...
.
Both in 1994 and in 1995 Rudolf was evicted from his rented apartments after media articles had reported about police searches in his homes. In 1995 a TV report revealing the identity of his current employer led to the immediate termination of his employment contract. That same year Rudolf was expelled from the Catholic fraternities on grounds of having violated his fraternity's principles by his Holocaust denial publications.
Legal consequences: Escape, Deportation and Imprisonment
In 1995, Rudolf was sentenced to 14 months in prison by the district court of StuttgartStuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
because of the "Rudolf Report", as Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany. Rudolf avoided prison by fleeing to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and finally to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. There, he applied for political asylum, but his request was denied in 2006.
Meanwhile, criminal investigations continued in Germany. In August 2004, the district court of Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
distrained a bank account in an attempt to confiscate 55% of Rudolf's business turnover from the years 2001-2004 (some €214,000; at that time the account contained only some €5,000, however). Rudolf and his associates had earned this money by selling publications which are banned in Germany, although Rudolf's business was located in the UK and the US, where this activity was and is legal.
On September 11, 2004, Rudolf married a US citizen and subsequently had a child. His first marriage was to a German national from which he had two children. Nevertheless, his requests for asylum or at least withholding from removal were turned down in November 2004 of that year on the basis that his application had no merits and was indeed "frivolous." Rudolf appealed against this ruling, and as a result of this the US Federal Court in Atlanta denied in early 2006 that his application was frivolous, yet it upheld that it had no merits. While Rudolf's asylum case was still pending, he was arrested on October 19, 2005, seconds after his marriage had been certified as genuine and valid. The Immigration Services stated that Rudolf does not have a right to file an application to remain with his family. On November 14, 2005, Rudolf was deported
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
to Germany where he was wanted for inciting racial hatred. There on arrival, he was arrested by police authorities and transferred first to a prison in Rottenburg
Rottenburg
The name Rottenburg can refer to:* The family of Rottenburg* The German town Rottenburg am Neckar, in the state of Baden-Württemberg* The German town Rottenburg an der Laaber, in the state of Bavaria- See also :* Rottenberg* Rotenberg, Rothenberg...
, then to one in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
in Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
. On March 15, 2007, the Mannheim District Court sentenced Rudolf to two years and six months in prison for inciting hatred, disparaging the dead, and libel. Rudolf as well as the prosecution accepted the verdict. Rudolf's "Lectures on the Holocaust" were confiscated and ordered to be destroyed, that is to say: burned in waste incinerators under police supervision. The prosecution's initial request to confiscate €214,000 was reduced to €21,000, the total turnover from sales of the former book. He was released from German prison, July 5, 2009.
Publications
After Rudolf was dismissed from the Max Planck Institute, he started to publish several books on the Holocaust. He founded Castle Hill Publishers in HastingsHastings
Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
with Theses & Dissertations Press as its American outlet. In 2000 Rudolf launched his English language "Holocaust Handbooks Series", a series of Holocaust denial titles which, as of 2011, encompassed 22 titles. Furthermore, Rudolf is closely associated with the Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
Holocaust denial organization Vrij Historisch Onderzoek (VHO). He publishes the "Vierteljahreshefte für freie Geschichtsforschung" (Quarterly journal for independent historical research), described by the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution as "a right-wing extremist organ."
Dissecting the Holocaust
Dissecting the Holocaust was edited and coauthored by Rudolf under the nom de plume Ernst Gauss. The German languageGerman language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
publication with the title Grundlagen zur Zeitgeschichte resulted in further indictments being filed against Rudolf. Among the contributors to the work are other Holocaust deniers such as Robert Faurisson
Robert Faurisson
Robert Faurisson is a French academic who is a Holocaust denier. Faurisson generated much controversy with a number of articles, published in the Journal of Historical Review and elsewhere, as well as various letters he has sent to French newspapers , which deny various aspects of the Holocaust,...
, Jürgen Graf
Jürgen Graf
Jürgen Graf is a Swiss Holocaust denier and researcher. He studied philology at the University of Basel studying French, English, and Scandinavian languages and spent several years working as a school teacher at a prestigious private school. He is fluent in 15 languages...
, Carlo Mattogno
Carlo Mattogno
Carlo Mattogno is an Italian Holocaust denier.He is the author of numerous books and monographs, several of which have been published in the Journal of Historical Review....
, Udo Walendy
Udo Walendy
Udo Walendy is a German Holocaust denier who also disputes Germany's guilt for the Second World War.- Life :...
and Friedrich Paul Berg
Friedrich Paul Berg
Friedrich Paul Berg is an American Mechanical Engineer and Holocaust denier.-Background:Berg was born in New York. He studied Mining Engineering at Columbia University but worked primarily as a Mechanical Engineer....
. Included as an appendix is a defense of the work used at the trial by historian, Joachim Hoffmann
Joachim Hoffmann
Joachim Hoffmann was a German historian and scientific director of the German Armed Forces Military History Research Office.-Life:...
.
Investigation into new reports about 9/11
In July 2003, according to his own published articles, Rudolf conducted limited experiments in the use of cell phones from an airliner while in flight. He reports mixed results and has left the question open. His stated reason for conducting these experiments is to verify or deny a widely circulated claim that it is impossible to make cell phone calls from an airliner at cruising height. This he co-authored with Alexander DewdneyAlexander Dewdney
Alexander Keewatin Dewdney is a Canadian mathematician, computer scientist and philosopher who has written a number of books on the future and implications of modern computing. He has also written one work of fiction, The Planiverse...
.
External links
- Germar Rudolf's Homepage
- Detailed response to Rudolf's report by Richard Green from The Holocaust History Project
- The 2004 annual report by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (PDF, German)