Matt Koehl
Matthias "Matt" Koehl Jr. (b. 22 January 1935 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; d. 1 October 2014 in Wisconsin)[2] was the leader of New Order, a quasi-religious National Socialist organization. He succeeded George Lincoln Rockwell as Commander of the National Socialist White People's Party after Rockwell’s assassination in August 1967. Koehl renamed the NSWPP the New Order in 1983. Matt Koehl was also previously head of the World Union of National Socialists.
Life
Early life
Matt Koehl was born in Milwaukee to Hungarian immigrants of German descent. His father--who became a landscaper--was brought to America at age eight. The family which included a brother and a sister attended the Full Gospel Church where his mother was Sunday school teacher.
Koehl graduated from Washington High School June 1952. In high school he liked music and played violin.[3] Thereafter he studied journalism for two years at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He enlisted in the US Marine Corps and served two years active duty.[4] Previously Koehl had been an opponent of the Selective Service System and issued an anti-draft news release in 1956 titled "I don't want to be a Hessian."[5]
Activism
In the 1950s, he joined James Madole's National Renaissance Party and was one of the leaders of their Elite Guard. He also joined the United White Party, and the National States Rights Party (1958, the NSRP's national organizer) before joining the American Nazi Party (ANP) in 1960. He became head of the Chicago branch of the ANP in 1961 and relocated to the national office in Virginia in 1963 as the National Secretary of the party with the rank of Major.
Koehl first met Rockwell thru the National States Rights Party. They both worked together on the political campaign of Admiral John Crommelin when he ran for governor of Alabama in 1958.
Like Miguel Serrano, he was heavily influenced by the writings of Savitri Devi and is an advocate of esoteric Hitlerism, believing Hitler to have been a god-like being sent to rescue humanity - and specifically the European peoples - from the jews.
He worked as an editor of WUNS Bulletin.[6]
Private life
Matt Koehl was a bachelor, never married,[7] although he has lived with a life-long companion, German American Barbara von Goetz, for many years.[8]
Works (excerpt)
- The Revolutionary Nature of National Socialism, NS Publications, 1980 (Archive)
- originally published in the first issue of National Socialist (Summer 1980), a journal of the World Union of National Socialists. It was published as a stand alone booklet the following year in 1981.
- Commander George Lincoln Rockwell (Eulogy), Arlington 30 August 1967 (Archive)
See also
Further reading
- Martin Kerr: History of American National Socialism, in César Tort's (editor) "American Racialism", July 2023, pp. 71–154
External links
- Matt Koehl Has Died (Stormfront thread) [1]
- NEW ORDER, Commander Matt Koehl: a living link
- Interview with NEW ORDER Chief of Staff Martin Kerr, 2018 (Archive)
- Folktrove digital collection for Matt Koehl
References
- ↑ New Order
- ↑ http://www.theneworder.org/special-message/ website accessed October 13, 2014
- ↑ "Ex-Milwaukeean New Fuehrer’?" The Milwaukee Sentinel, August 26, 1967
- ↑ Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity, By Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, page 15
- ↑ FBI file on Realpolitical Institute
- ↑ WUNS Bulletin, Iss. No., 4th Quarter, 1967, https://folktrove.com/wuns-bulletin-iss-no-10-4th-quarter-1967-yf-78/
- ↑ FBI file on Realpolitical Institute
- ↑ Encyclopedia of White Power, by Jeffrey Kaplan, p. 156