Matthias Koehl

Matthias Koehl Jr. (January 22, 1935 – October 9, 2014) was an American marine, neo-Nazi politician and writer.

Born on January 22, 1935, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Hungarian immigrants of German descent, Koehl studied journalism at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and played violin with the civic opera.

A teenage antisemitic activist, Koehl worked with hate groups on the East Coast and the South before joining George Lincoln Rockwell's infamous American Nazi Party and the Marine Corps.

In 1953, he claimed to have met with the poet and fascist activist Ezra Pound during Pound's imprisonment at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, DC.

Pound gave Koehl several signed volumes of his poetry during this period, signing them "Matthias Koehl / HEIL / Ezra Pound / 1953".

In 1957, he became secretary-treasurer of the committee to Free Ezra Pound.

Koehl joined James Madole's National Renaissance Party, the United White Party and the National States' Rights Party, before joining the American Nazi Party in 1960.

He succeeded George Lincoln Rockwell as the longest serving leader of the American Nazi Party, from 1967 to 2014.

Like the Chilean diplomat Miguel Serrano, Koehl was influenced by the occultism of the Greek–French writer Savitri Devi.

He was also a close friend of the Dutch World War II Nazi collaborator Florentine Rost van Tonningen.

In August 1967, formerly a deputy commander, Koehl succeeded the assassinated Rockwell as commander of the National Socialist White People's Party, known until December 1966 as the American Nazi Party.

In 1983, Koehl renamed the organization "New Order".

At the end of his life, Koehl was the leader of the World Union of National Socialists, despite his affiliation with Esoteric Nazism having alienated some members.

Although he maintained a low public profile, Koehl granted an interview to the mainstream writer William H. Schmaltz in Arlington, Virginia, in April 1996 during the preparation of Schmaltz' biography of Rockwell.

Koehl died in the night between October 9 and 10, 2014, at the age of 79 of complications related to cancer.