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Horst Mahler
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Horst Mahler
Horst Mahler (German: [ˈhɔʁst ˈmaːlɐ]; 23 January 1936 – 27 July 2025) was a German lawyer and political activist. He was a far-left militant and a founding member of the Red Army Faction in 1970 before switching to neo-Nazism in the late 1990s. Between 2000 and 2003, he was a member of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany. From 2003, he was repeatedly convicted of Volksverhetzung ("incitement of popular hatred") and Holocaust denial, and he served much of a twelve-year prison sentence.
In April 2017, Mahler was ordered back to prison for a further three and a half years. On 18 April 2017, he fled Germany, hoping to avoid prison. His attempt to receive political asylum in Hungary was rejected, and he was deported back to Germany, where he was arrested and put back in jail to finish serving his sentence.
Mahler was born at Haynau in Gau Silesia on 23 January 1936, the son of a dentist. In February 1945, as the end of World War II in Europe began, the family fled from the approaching Red Army to Naumburg an der Saale. Less than a year later they moved first to Dessau, and then in 1949 to West Berlin after Mahler's father – a fanatical Nazi and antisemite – had committed suicide.
Mahler took his school-leaving exams in Wilmersdorf, Berlin in 1955 and then studied law at the Free University of Berlin with the support of the German National Merit Foundation. He joined the Thuringia Association, a right-wing Studentenverbindung, but soon afterwards became a member of the socialist student body SDS. He founded a law firm in Berlin in 1964 and specialised in advising small and medium enterprises. In 1966, he successfully argued a case before the European Court of Human Rights.
Prior to 1960, Mahler was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the leftist students' association Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (SDS). He was expelled from the SPD in 1960, along with other members of the SDS, who were no longer an SPD youth wing but had become a radical left-wing group. He joined the new organisation's call for "extra-parliamentary opposition", or forceful resistance. Mahler joined the Außerparlamentarische Opposition in 1964.
After the attempted assassination of Rudi Dutschke in 1968, Mahler took part in the violent protests against the Springer Publishing House, for which he was arrested.
Mahler became active as a lawyer who defended left-wing students facing criminal prosecution. By 1970, he had defended Rudi Dutschke, Beate Klarsfeld, Fritz Teufel and Rainer Langhans (both participants of the Kommune 1), Peter Brandt (the eldest son of Willy Brandt), as well as subsequent Red Army Faction members Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin.
In 1970, he became a founding member of the leftist group, the Red Army Faction (RAF). Having earlier befriended Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader, Mahler helped plot to spring Baader from prison in May shortly after his arrest. The four, including Ulrike Meinhof, fled to Jordan and trained in guerrilla tactics with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. On their return, the four committed a series of bank robberies in September 1970.
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Horst Mahler
Horst Mahler (German: [ˈhɔʁst ˈmaːlɐ]; 23 January 1936 – 27 July 2025) was a German lawyer and political activist. He was a far-left militant and a founding member of the Red Army Faction in 1970 before switching to neo-Nazism in the late 1990s. Between 2000 and 2003, he was a member of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany. From 2003, he was repeatedly convicted of Volksverhetzung ("incitement of popular hatred") and Holocaust denial, and he served much of a twelve-year prison sentence.
In April 2017, Mahler was ordered back to prison for a further three and a half years. On 18 April 2017, he fled Germany, hoping to avoid prison. His attempt to receive political asylum in Hungary was rejected, and he was deported back to Germany, where he was arrested and put back in jail to finish serving his sentence.
Mahler was born at Haynau in Gau Silesia on 23 January 1936, the son of a dentist. In February 1945, as the end of World War II in Europe began, the family fled from the approaching Red Army to Naumburg an der Saale. Less than a year later they moved first to Dessau, and then in 1949 to West Berlin after Mahler's father – a fanatical Nazi and antisemite – had committed suicide.
Mahler took his school-leaving exams in Wilmersdorf, Berlin in 1955 and then studied law at the Free University of Berlin with the support of the German National Merit Foundation. He joined the Thuringia Association, a right-wing Studentenverbindung, but soon afterwards became a member of the socialist student body SDS. He founded a law firm in Berlin in 1964 and specialised in advising small and medium enterprises. In 1966, he successfully argued a case before the European Court of Human Rights.
Prior to 1960, Mahler was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the leftist students' association Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (SDS). He was expelled from the SPD in 1960, along with other members of the SDS, who were no longer an SPD youth wing but had become a radical left-wing group. He joined the new organisation's call for "extra-parliamentary opposition", or forceful resistance. Mahler joined the Außerparlamentarische Opposition in 1964.
After the attempted assassination of Rudi Dutschke in 1968, Mahler took part in the violent protests against the Springer Publishing House, for which he was arrested.
Mahler became active as a lawyer who defended left-wing students facing criminal prosecution. By 1970, he had defended Rudi Dutschke, Beate Klarsfeld, Fritz Teufel and Rainer Langhans (both participants of the Kommune 1), Peter Brandt (the eldest son of Willy Brandt), as well as subsequent Red Army Faction members Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin.
In 1970, he became a founding member of the leftist group, the Red Army Faction (RAF). Having earlier befriended Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader, Mahler helped plot to spring Baader from prison in May shortly after his arrest. The four, including Ulrike Meinhof, fled to Jordan and trained in guerrilla tactics with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. On their return, the four committed a series of bank robberies in September 1970.
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