Germany’s largest weekly magazine Der Spiegel is reporting that a right-wing network of prominent Germans, including Eva Herman, a well-known former news presenter on German television, is setting up a colony of far-right radicals and ideologues in Canada, and they’ve been buying land in their chosen location — none other than Cape Breton Island.
The magazine reports that hundreds of Germans have already signed onto the idea.
According to Der Spiegel, they are being lured into the scheme by German “doomsday prophets,” Andreas Popp and Herman herself. Both are notorious peddlers of right-wing populism, and part of a larger network founded by extreme right-winger Frank Eckhardt, who is known as a “Reichsbuerger,” or someone who does not believe in Germany’s post-war democracy or even the legitimacy of the German state as it developed after World War II and the defeat of the Hitler’s Nazis. Der Spiegel reports that Eckhardt sends emails in which he denies the Holocaust.
Documents obtained by the magazine indicate that Germans have attended seminars organized by Popp and Herman in Cape Breton to promote their extreme ideology, and participants are urged to buy up land on the island. During these seminars, Popp and Herman preached that the European social and economic system will collapse. They urged their followers to invest in land in Cape Breton because it is in Canada, which they view as stable and safe from crisis and collapse.
Although it is not clear from the article, it looks as if the right-wing network has purchased large amounts of land in Cape Breton, which they are now offering to their followers at inflated prices. Der Spiegel says it has documents that show Frank Eckhardt has potential buyers in Germany, who are deeply indoctrinated by his right-wing propaganda.
Already by the end of last year, the head office of German intelligence in the city of Wiesbaden was informed of Eckhardt’s political activities and emails by Interpol in Ottawa.
Readers may be able to identify some of the Cape Breton locations in the YouTube video above.
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Thank you!
Please tell me that our government or ECBC or whatever it is these days has not invested in this scheme? Does the Atlantic Jewish Council know?
The ferry looks like the Little Narrows ferry.
“They urged their followers to invest in land in Cape Breton because it is in Canada, which they view as stable and safe from crisis and collapse.”
Have they not noticed that Canada is next to the USA which is about to collapse?
That is a really hard video to watch in light of the article. Cape Breton being “sold” like that… yuck! And the egos of that couple! 29 minutes! At 3:19 there is a sign on the door for Cape Breton Real Solutions. “Solutions” is a creepy word to see connected to known right-wing Germans. Anyway, they are members of the Strait Area Chamber of Commerce. http://straitareans.chambermaster.com/list/member/cape-breton-real-solutions-inc-cleveland-485. Also worthy of note around 11:45 is the blockhouse-style structure – a snug-like cosy space. I wonder what is under all that gravel.
So, all those nice clean white folks listening to the singer….are they followers? Or just people vacationing in C.B. who happened to be there? And are they allowed to deny the holocaust in Germany? Are they just hawking land to make a buck, or are they truly establishing a colony? We need to keep watch on this!
Oh, sorry, I forgot to clarify. The preceding comment is from me, Jane Schlosberg, not David.
Thank you for calling attention to this. I sent a copy of this article to Branch 12 Royal Canadian Legion in Sydney. My father was a Second WW veteran and life member of this branch. I notice that the 30 minute promotional video is no longer available to the public. Invested parties maybe retreating for a change of strategy?
Cindy Beaton
Halifax
The video was unavailable “private”. ???????
They have taken it down in response to some combination of the video being reported on here, in the National Post, and a complaint by Breton Brewery, whose merchandise or something is featured prominently in one of the shots.
Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany (and in many other European countries). Anyone who denies or somehow trivializes the Shoa can be sentenced to five years in jail in Germany.