The background to the police action is still unclear, and bomb disposal teams are also on site. House searches are also underway in Styria. Karner calls it a blow against the “old right-wing scene.”
Austrian authorities conducted a large-scale operation against the right-wing extremist scene on Tuesday. Numerous house searches were carried out in the early morning hours, including at the home of Austria’s most well-known neo-Nazi, Gottfried Küssel. He and his comrades own apartments in a building complex in the second district, where two right-wing extremist organizations are registered. Bomb disposal teams were also on site.
17 suspects
Interior Minister Gerard Karner commented on the operation this afternoon: House searches were carried out in a total of five federal states – in addition to Vienna, Lower Austria, Salzburg, Styria, and Upper Austria – and thus at a total of 25 locations. Sixteen men and one woman are suspected of Nazi re-activation. No one has been arrested so far, but that could still change; the public prosecutor’s office will decide, Karner said.
According to Karner, weapons, ammunition, data storage devices, and Nazi propaganda material were seized. Karner emphasized that a blow had been struck against the “old right-wing scene.” “We will proceed with all decisiveness,” Karner said. Right-wing extremists cannot be safe; they are being persecuted just like Islamists: “We will find them.”
A police presence was observed around Küssel’s address on Tuesday, as the
platform “Stop the Right” also reported on Bluesky.The background to the alleged house search remains unclear. The Vienna public prosecutor’s office, like Küssel’s lawyer, Michael Dohr, has yet to comment on the events.
No passport for Küssel
Küssel was recently certified by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution that he “verifiably maintained contact with other individuals from the Austrian right-wing extremist scene over the past few years (especially since spring 2020, ed.) .” The 67-year-old has been active in the neo-Nazi milieu for decades and has served several prison sentences for this reason. In 2011, Küssel was arrested during the investigation into the neo-Nazi website Alpen-Donau.info following a raid on the same building complex and subsequently sentenced to seven years and nine months in prison. The website also demonstrably had connections to FPÖ politicians.
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, Küssel has often been found in the circles of opponents of COVID-19 measures. He marched at the forefront of many so-called coronavirus demonstrations, and fellow protesters even registered some of the numerous demonstrations. Due to his network, the Administrative Court recently confirmed that the City of Vienna’s refusal to issue Küssel a passport was legal.
Schimanek connections
Küssel also recently surfaced in connection with the investigations into the neo-Nazi group “Saxon Separatists,” in which two sons of Hans Jörg Schimanek were active. After Küssel, Schimanek was one of the most important figures in the so-called Vapo, the People’s Loyal Extra-Parliamentary Opposition, in the 1990s. The later Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache also visited the Vapo as a young man.
Küssel and Schimanek were both convicted for their activities there, and Schimanek subsequently emigrated to East Germany. His brother René Schimanek, like his father Hans Jörg, pursued a career in the FPÖ. Until the spring, he was, for example, the office manager of National Council President Walter Rosenkranz.
German investigators noted in their files that the youngest generation of the Schimaneks had at least one meeting with Küssel in recent years. Through his lawyer, Küssel stated at the time that he knew nothing about the Saxon Separatist group.
In the 2000s, Küssel built the website Alpen-Donau.info (Adi), at which time he also found himself in close contact with Martin Sellner, the future leader of the Identitarian Party. Küssel was subsequently imprisoned again for Alpen-Donau. His first conviction for Nazi re-activation occurred forty years ago. Küssel was already active in the scene at the age of 19, initially in the circles of hooligans and the “NSDAP-Aufbauorganisation” (NSDAP development organization)
