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Author: Devin Burghart and Justin Massa | Date: October 2000
Almost ayear after going underground to elude the authorities, one of the leading figures in the fledgling international national socialist black metal music scene has been arrested in the US. For nearly two months, agents from the US Marshals’ Service tracked Hendrick Möbus (aka Jarl Flagg Nidhoegg), a neo-nazi murderer wanted in Germany, across the country. On 29 August, they followed Möbus as he left the compound of the National Alliance, detaining him outside a family restaurant in Lewisburg, West Virginia.
Möbus had begun his tour of the American racist underground nine months earlier, more than 4,000 km from where he was finally arrested. Although there was an international arrest warrant out for him, Möbus flew into the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport using his real name in December 1999. He then travelled from Washington State, to Ohio, Virginia, and many points in between, before ending up at the National Alliance headquarters.
Möbus’s cross-country trek sheds light onto the increasingly international nature of the national socialist black metal underground, the growth of the network in the US, and the inroads William Pierce and the National Alliance have made into that scene.
While news reports of the arrest described Möbus only as a “neo-Nazi” and highlighted Pierce as “the author of The Turner Diaries”, it was not the racist pulp novel that brought the two together but a shared interest in the white power music industry.
Now that Pierce controls a big chunk of the skinhead side of the white power music business, he has turned his attention to black metal. (For an introduction to the nazi black metal scene, see Searchlight, June 1999.) With the Resistance Records catalogue lacking black metal titles, and a staff unfamiliar with the European nazi black metal scene, Pierce needed help. That help showed up on his doorstep, dressed in black.
Pierce made his interest in the nazi black metal scene known last year when describing his plans for Resistance Records, “The resurrected company will handle a much broader spectrum of White resistance music, including genres such as Gothic and black metal” (National Alliance Bulletin, August 1999). In every issue since Pierce took over, the glossy pages of Resistance magazine have included references to black metal. The spring 2000 Resistance includes a lengthy article with the headline “Is Black Metal a White Noise?” In addition to promoting black metal, the article highlights Möbus, remarking, “He is now on the run, wanted by German authorities with an international arrest order”. Pierce describes Möbus as “a young German musician who has made a name for himself with resistance music in Europe”, whom he first met three months ago.
Pierce used the time with Möbus to secure entry into the black metal scene in the US and Europe. Pierce explains, “I invited him to stay as my guest and help me establish new outlets in Europe for my records. And that’s what he did for ten weeks. He stayed as my guest, and we talked about the role of music in our overall effort.” One of the developments to come out of the pairing has been the new role the National Alliance is playing in Cymophane Records – an American/Swedish black metal label with access to mainstream distribution channels in the US.
In return for Möbus’s assistance, Pierce is helping Möbus in his legal battle. With the assistance of Pierce, Möbus filed paperwork with the US Immigration and Naturalization Services requesting political asylum. On 9 September, Pierce put out a plea for funds to hire a lawyer for Möbus to fight extradition.
Before making his way to the National Alliance headquarters in Hillsboro, West Virginia, where he stayed for nearly two months, Möbus bounced back and forth between Ohio (a National Alliance stronghold) and Richmond, Virginia.
Richmond is the headquarters of the White Order of Thule, a small, esoteric neo-nazi group that draws inspiration from everyone from Savitri Devi to Nietzsche to George Lincoln Rockwell. Describing itself as “a Brotherhood, a loose alignment of Aryan minds, hearts and souls, together only for the philosophy, fraternity, and spirituality, respectively, which will further all work for the Cause”, it publishes a sporadic journal, Crossing the Abyss.
The group’s educational programme teaches its few members everything from “Practical Occultism”, “Jungian psychology” and “Archetypal Pathworking”, to “Folkish Hygiene” and “Hermetic Philosophy”. White Order of Thule study books include, Imperium, Mein Kampf, The Decline of the West, Might is Right, Revolt Against the Modern World, and Twilight of the Idols. It also provided a network to help get Möbus across the country, starting with Fenris Wolf.
After a short stay in the Seattle area in December 1999, Möbus travelled across the mountains to stay in Elk, Washington, just north of Spokane, where he lived with Nathan Pett (aka Nate Zorn).
Pett publishes a photocopied fanzine called Fenris Wolf, described as “the Revolutionary Voice of the Pagan Liberation League”. The publication is a crude attempt at melding esoteric nazi ideas with the white power skinhead scene. In the three years of Fenris Wolf’s existence, Pett has bounced across the United States, publishing from Louisiana, Missouri and Washington State.
Earlier this year, Pett affiliated Fenris Wolf to the Pagan Front, an international coalition of organisations, record labels, bands, fanzines and individuals dedicated to promoting the national socialist black metal underground. Until he became a fugitive, the Pagan Front was led by Möbus. The Pagan Front views black metal as “the archetypal expression of white men [sic] souls”, and promotes its racism in extreme music subcultures. It currently has member organisations in the USA, Australia, Canada, Romania, Poland and France. Fenris Wolf is also the Northwest faction of the White Order of Thule.
Möbus had fled Germany to avoid serving a possible five-year prison term. Having received a request for help from the German government in March, the US authorities discovered Möbus’s presence in eastern Washington and filed an arrest warrant on 7 July.
The German government’s eagerness to capture Möbus was hardly surprising in the light of the young man’s activities over the past decade. Möbus’s nazi career started while he was still at school in Erfurt, east Germany, when at the age of 16 he and two classmates formed a death metal band called Absurd. The band soon became famous for their actions rather than their music.
On 29 April 1993, Möbus and two cohorts brutally murdered Sandro Beyer, a classmate, whom they have since called a “Volksschadling”, which roughly translates as race defiler. In January 1994 the three were found guilty of murder and several other charges and Möbus received an eight-year sentence. While the band members were serving their time, a member of the Polish national socialist black metal band Graveland released Absurd’s demo tape “Thuringian Pagan Madness” during the summer of 1995, which helped propel the group to fame within the national socialist black metal scene. A flattering interview in the book Lords of Chaos also contributed to their notoriety and Absurd has become a cornerstone of the international nazi black metal scene.
Released on parole in August 1998, Möbus issued a public statement announcing that Beyer’s murder had not been a crime because Beyer did not fit the “picture” of the German race. He ran foul of German law again in October that year when he was charged with displaying Nazi symbols.
Linking up with the international nazi black metal scene, Möbus became head of the German branch of the Heathen Front. Founded by Varg Vikernes, the imprisoned Norwegian neo-nazi black metal artist, the Heathen Front describes itself as “a neo-heathen and racially aware movement, which struggles to secure the Aryan peoples existence”. The Heathen Front now has chapters in seven countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Russia, The Netherlands and the United States. In addition to promoting its own brand of esoteric racism, it publishes books by Vikernes and promotes releases from his one-man band, Burzum.
Möbus also founded Darker than Black (DTB) Records, which quickly became one of the leading national socialist black metal labels. He befriended the Saxonian Hammerskins, which allowed DTB to reach a distribution deal with Germany’s Hate Records, one of the biggest distributors of white power music in Europe. The fusion of black metal and white power was completed in July 1999, when Hate Records purchased DTB. At the same time, Möbus was sentenced to eight months in prison for displaying Nazi symbols. Although he publicly announced his departure from DTB Records, he continued to control the label from behind the scenes.
On 6 October 1999, the German authorities raided DTB Records, No Colours Records and Burznazg Productions. In the aftermath, Möbus was sentenced to an additional 18 months in prison for the distribution of Nazi propaganda. Faced with a possible five years in prison, Möbus resolved to run.
As the German headquarters of DTB Records was being shut down, Möbus made plans to continue his operations in the United States. He negotiated a distribution deal with a small black metal distributor, Bestial Offerings, in Midland, Texas, which agreed to become DTB Vinland, a mail-order outlet for DTB products. He also negotiated a deal with another Texas black metal label, Ancestral Research Records. His newfound connection to Resistance and now Möbus’s arrest mean that these arrangements are likely to come to nought.
© Searchlight Magazine 2000