Matt Koehl

Matthias Koehl Jr. (January 22, 1935 – October 9/10, 2014) was an American neo-Nazi activist and religious leader who served as the second leader of the American Nazi Party from 1967 to 2014. He joined the party in 1960 following membership in various white supremacist groups, and succeeded to leadership following the assassination of the founder of the party, George Lincoln Rockwell, in 1967.

Koehl became unpopular in the movement, alienating the party's members and attempting to consolidate power by removing his opposition from the party; often those cut off went on to form opposition groups. Koehl was very concerned with his unpopular image and made alliances with worldwide neo-fascists such as Hans-Ulrich Rudel and Povl Riis-Knudsen. Koehl cut down on the organisation's previous publicity stunts under Rockwell.

In 1983, Koehl renamed the organization the New Order and transformed it into a religious organization, influenced by the fascist writer Savitri Devi. The New Order promoted occult veneration of Adolf Hitler as an avatar of God. Eventually in 1985 the group came under financial troubles and relocated from Washington DC to Wisconsin and Michigan. Koehl revealed little personal information to the group's members, who were low in number but sturdy. Koehl died in 2014, aged 79, and was succeeded by Martin Kerr.

Koehl was born on January 22, 1935 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Hungarian immigrants of German descent. Koehl's father, Matthias Koehl Sr., claimed that his son rarely spoke with him about personal matters, but "was more talkative to his mother". At a young age, Koehl had a reputation for being vocally antisemitic. Koehl first professed admiration for Hitler at age 13 and disrupted a school lesson by defending the German dictator. He distributed racist literature at his high school and served as a spokesman for the Nazi group the American Action Army.

He graduated from a high school in his home town in 1952, and became the leader of the young guard of the National Renaissance Party. He then moved to Chicago, where he worked as an encyclopedia salesman, before he went to the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee to study journalism. There, he played the violin alongside the civic opera. He subsequently enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and spent two years under them.

In 1956, Koehl visited the "We the People" convention at the La Salle Hotel, where he was told by a member of the Sons of the American Revolution about George Lincoln Rockwell's plans to form a Nazi party. Koehl was initially shocked by the concept, but hoped it was legitimate.

Koehl subsequently moved between various white supremacist parties. He helped with the organization of the United White Party, and visited its founding meeting. Koehl became the national organizer of the National States' Rights Party, where he first met Rockwell in 1958; they worked on John G. Crommelin's campaign. By 1959, he was a member of the Fighting American Nationalists, a front group for Rockwell's American Nazi Party (ANP), before he joined the ANP proper in 1960. According to author Frederick J. Simonelli, Koehl and Rockwell became close friends after meeting, as Rockwell's extreme personality complimented Koehl's introverted nature. Simonelli compared this to the relationship between Adolf Hitler and Martin Bormann.

In the 1950s, Koehl was roommates with Eustace Mullins, and the two visited St. Elizabeths Hospital in order to meet poet and fascist collaborator Ezra Pound. Later, during Koehl's leadership of the ANP, Pound's poetry was reprinted in the group's journal, and he was associated with the Committee to Free Ezra Pound in the 1950s.