Gerhard Rex Lauck (born 1953) is an American neo-Nazi activist and publisher. Based in Lincoln, Nebraska, he is sometimes nicknamed the "Farm Belt Fuehrer" due to his rural origins.^[1][2]

Early life

Gary Lauck was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on May 12, 1953 to a German-American family.^[3] At age eleven, he moved to Lincoln, Nebraska with his family, his father becoming a professor of engineering at the University of Nebraska.^[3] Lauck skipped his senior year of high school and then attended the University of Nebraska for two years.^[3] By this point, he already held neo-Nazi beliefs.

Career as a Neo-Nazi

In 1978, he shot and wounded his brother Jerry after a political dispute.^[3] Eventually, Lauck moved to Chicago, where he would spend most of his adult life.^[3] Lauck has lived in Fairbury,^[4] Nebraska since 2009;^[5] prior to that he lived in Lincoln, Nebraska.

As leader of the NSDAP/AO he was in close contact with like-minded individuals and groups in Europe, notably Michael Kühnen with whom he worked closely from the 1970s.^[1] His contacts with the German neo-Nazi scene had begun in 1971 when as an 18-year-old Lauck had established the Auslandsorganisation (overseas organisation) of the National Socialist Combat Groups, a militant German neo-Nazi group that was quickly banned by the German government. Lauck's NSDAP/AO was established following this ban.^[6] A noted Germanophile, Lauck sported a toothbrush moustache and used the Nazi salute as his regular greeting.^[1] His speech impediment has been often confused with an affected German accent.^[2] Although based in the USA, Lauck spent much of his time as an activist in Europe, particularly during the early 1990s when the NSDAP/AO extended its network of contacts considerably. He produced large volumes of neo-Nazi literature in several languages and also dealt in computer discs detailing the building of bombs, both of which were distributed across a network of European contacts.^[1] In 1990 he ensured that the NSDAP/AO would link up with the Swedish neo-Nazi group Sveriges Nationella Forbund, which became instrumental in forming the "Nordic National Socialist Bloc" with like-minded activists in Norway.^[7] That same year he played a leading role in helping Kühnen, Gottfried Küssel and Christian Worch establish a network of Gesinnungsgemeinschaft der Neuen Front cells across the former East Germany following German reunification.^[8] Two years later, the NSDAP/AO also concluded an agreement with the National Socialist Movement of Denmark, which up to that point had been a leading organisation within the rival World Union of National Socialists (WUNS). The change occurred after Povl Riis-Knudsen, a leading figure in WUNS, had been expelled from the Danish Nazi movement for marrying a Palestinian woman.^[7] During the early days of the Yugoslav Wars Lauck's journal New Order ran a series of articles in support of Croatia and they particularly expressed support for the Ustaše and the magazine was instrumental in recruiting neo-Nazi linked mercenaries to fight for the Croatian cause.^[9]

Lauck was arrested in Denmark in 1995, leading to a far right campaign in the USA against plans to extradite him to Germany, where he was wanted for distributing neo-Nazi propaganda.^[10] Nevertheless, Lauck was deported to Hamburg where he was tried and found guilty of distributing neo-Nazi pamphlets. He was sentenced to four years imprisonment.^[11] He was released from prison on March 19, 1999, and deported back to the United States.^[12] Lauck runs Third Reich Books which continues to distribute Nazi paraphernalia online.^[13]