Franz Schoenhuber, a former Nazi SS soldier who became a prominent figure on Germany’s rightist fringe, has died, the son of another far-right leader said on Monday. He was 82.
Schoenhuber was best known as a co-founder of the small, anti-immigration Republikaner party, which he led for 11 years until he was ousted in 1994. He later ran for Parliament for two other far-right groups, the German People’s Union and National Democratic Party.
Gerhard Frey, the son of the German People’s Union leader, said Schoenhuber’s wife had informed his father of Schoenhuber’s death.
He did not give details.
Born on January 10 1923 in the Bavarian village of Trostberg, Schoenhuber volunteered for Adolf Hitler’s air force in 1942, but was ruled unfit to fly.
He then became a Nazi SS soldier and received training in an elite unit that initially served as Hitler’s personal guard.
Schoenhuber fought in France and on the Eastern front before spending time in British captivity.
After the war, he worked as an actor and a sports reporter. He later worked for the Munich newspapers Abendzeitung and TZ and worked for Bavarian state radio.
In 1981, he published I Was There, a book that described his service with the Waffen SS. The book sold well, but Schoenhuber was forced to leave his radio job.
Schoenhuber led the newly founded Republikaner from 1983 until 1994, a period in which it won seats in the West Berlin state legislature and European Parliament.
With the party’s influence waning, Schoenhuber was ousted for seeking an informal alliance with the head of the rival German People’s Union.
Schoenhuber unsuccessfully sought election to Parliament on that group’s list in 1998. He also failed to make a comeback in this year’s national election, when he ran for the National Democratic Party in the eastern city of Dresden. — Sapa-AP