Ingo Hasselbach is a German journalist, screenwriter, and writer, well-known for being a former neo-Nazi.
Background
Ingo Hasselbach was born on July 14, 1967 in Berlin, Germany. His mother was an editor at the ADN ("Allgemeiner Deutscher Nachrichtendienst", the former GDR's news service), while his father was employed at the broadcasting service in East Berlin. He was raised mostly with his grandparents.
Education
Ingo left school at age sixteen to become a bricklayer’s apprentice.
Career
After graduating he began an apprenticeship to become a mason, but by 1985 he was adjudged because of rowdyism. His public appeal "The wall must fall!" brought him a prison sentence of nine months in 1987. In 1988 he joined the neo-Nazi community and was adjudged again for "subversive activities".
Ingo is the author of the book "Fuehrer Ex: Memoirs of a Former Neo-Nazi" (with Tom Reiss, also made into a movie directed by Winfried Bonengel), which has been translated into several languages. After 1995 he traveled quite often to the U.S. where he began to work as a journalist in the immediate aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, focusing on local extreme right-wing terrorism. Today Hasselbach lives in Berlin and works as a freelance writer and journalist.
Achievements
Ingo was a co-founder of the German EXIT project, which helps people leave the neo-Nazi community.
In 1988 Ingo joined the neo-Nazi community and was again legally censured for "subversive activities". After a first attempt to escape in August 1989 failed, he was detained again for three months until November 1989. Three days before the Berlin Wall fell a subsequent attempt to escape to West Germany succeeded.
In the years after German reunification he took a leading position in many right-wing extremist organisations, including the "National Alternative" (Nationale Alternative), and the "Comradeship of Social-revolutionary Nationalists" (Kameradschaft Sozialrevolutionäre Nationalisten). Then in 1993 he decided to break with the right-wing extremism community. By this point in time he had spent three years of his life in prison (one of the charges being for incitement to violence).
Connections
Ingo Hasselbach lives together with German Photographer Nadja Klier.