Hans Oehler

Hans Oehler (December 18, 1888-January 7, 1967) was a leading Swiss supporter of Nazism.

Initially a journalist, Oehler turned his attention towards producing vehemently pro-German material, founding the Schweizerische Monatshefte für Politik und Kultur (SM) in 1921. This very quickly became the mouthpiece for the Popular League for the Independence of Switzerland, a group he had helped to found around the same time which opposed the League of Nations and advocated anti-Semitism. He briefly met Adolf Hitler when he visited Switzerland in 1923 and became an admirer of both Fascist Italy and Othmar Spann. Although the Popular League proved to be short-lived, Oehler continued to publish SM as an outlet for his political ideas until, in 1932, he joined the New Front and converted it into a journal for the increasingly fascist movement. With the launch of the National Front in 1933 Oehler took charge of editing the new party's paper Front, as well as being appointed foreign affairs spokesman. Ousted from SM by the Front he founded a new paper, Nationale Hefte and by 1938 had split from the Front altogether. After the split he joined with Rolf Henne in forming the hardline Nazi Bund Treuer Eidgenossen Nationalsozialistischer Weltanschauung, another minor group which was absorbed by the Nationale Bewegung der Schweiz in 1940.

Oehler's profile fell as World War II neared its conclusion and he became very much a marginal figure in post-war Switzerland. Having attended a meeting in Munich in 1940 organised to bring together pro-Nazi Swiss leaders, Oehler was tried for treason by a federal court in 1957 and sentenced to two years in prison. Upon his release Oehler became a leading member of the Volkspartei der Schweiz and headed up the Swiss branch of Nation Europa, an international neo-Nazi journal. He also adopted the pseudonym Hans Rudolf to translate works into German, notably Nuremberg ou la Terre Promise of Maurice Bardèche. Oehler continued his political activity up until his death at Dielsdorf.

References

• Philip Rees, Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890