Four years in prison

Academic became a neo-Nazi “to please”

Regional Court for Criminal Matters in Vienna

(Bild: APA/Georg Hochmuth)

A 40-year-old Viennese man led a double life for almost ten years: During the week, the academic worked at a university, at the weekend he partied with neo-Nazis. "I wanted to please my type of man," he told the court about the conflict with his sexuality. He was particularly attracted to skinheads. He is now paying for this with a prison sentence.

Political science and history - ironically, the 40-year-old completed his master's degree in these two subjects. He then worked in administration at a university. What nobody knew and probably didn't expect: In his free time, the Viennese man posed in front of swastika flags while giving the Hitler salute, met up with right-wing extremists to party and exchanged ideas with them on social media. 

Right-wing extremist excess in a subway station
The 40-year-old graduate is now sitting meekly in the main courtroom of Vienna's Landl, being brought out of custody. Because the charges under the Prohibition Act go beyond the usual text messages and pictures: on May 15, 2022 in the early hours of the morning, he and a second man caused a commotion in the Hütteldorfer Straße subway station. "They were shouting that they were going to kill gays and foreigners," said the public prosecutor. They mobbed a young man because he was wearing a pink FFP-2 mask and asked him if he was homosexual. They shouted "Heil Hitler" several times and repeatedly raised their right arm in the air.

I'm currently sharing a cell with a Syrian and he told me that his mother died in the war. I realized that they are all just people - just like me.

Angeklagter (40) sei nach U-Haft vollkommen geläutert.

And that's what the bald-headed defendant did in the middle of the dance floor of a well-known Viennese club at the beginning of the year. And in the middle of his ongoing investigation into the incident in the subway station - the handcuffs clicked. Fortunately, he now tells the jury. "I've been in prison with Jews and Muslims. I'm currently sharing a cell with a Syrian and he told me that his mother died in the war. I realized that they are all just people - just like me."

Defense lawyer Manfred Arbacher-Stöger.

(Bild: Zwefo)

What he was also finally able to come to terms with: his sexuality. "My client realized very early on that his sexual inclinations were not directed at women. He never admitted that to himself. He thought his family would reject him. He then compensated for his hidden sexuality by becoming a basement Nazi. You have to imagine the inner turmoil," defense lawyer Manfred Arbacher-Stöger tries to explain the 40-year-old's behavior. 

"I feel attracted to this guy"
And the accused himself is also making an attempt, openly dealing with what he had suppressed for years: "As my defense lawyer has already said, I am homosexual. I took refuge in this world where people liked and admired me. Where I belonged." - "But why the neo-Nazis?" the presiding judge asks - "I'm attracted to this type. To skinheads - tall, strong and bald. I wanted to please my type of man." That's why he adopted and lived the ideology. "I wanted to be respected as a man."

He is now paying a high price for this: in the almost ten years he spent in the skinhead scene, 70 different facts came together. The jury found him guilty on every single one and he was ultimately sentenced to four years in prison.