Kennedy files reveal that the CIA had an informant in the neo-Nazi NPD in the 1960s

Adolf von Thadden (1921-1996), NSDAP member, parliamentarian (member of the Bundestag and Bundesrat), and head of the NPD, known since 2023 as Die Heimat (Homeland) speaking in 1969 -- public domain image

By Henning von Stoltzenberg, junge Welt, March 26, 2025, translated by Helmut-Harry Loewen

The US foreign intelligence agency CIA, known for anti-communist coups and extrajudicial executions, had an informant in the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) in the 1960s. This emerges from the files on the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, which US President Donald Trump made publicly available last week without redaction. According to the daily Bild-Zeitung, the files, which are said to comprise 80,000 pages and 1,000 documents, were analyzed using modern software. According to the report on March 22, the source in the NPD was supposed to spy for the headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Absurdly, the far-right spy's mission was to find out whether the NPD was co-financed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Soviet Union.

In general, the unredacted documents now published document how extensively the US government had monitored political life in West Germany shortly after the Kennedy assassination in 1963. They also show that the German domestic intelligence service had already penetrated deep into the NPD organizations at the end of the 1960s and must therefore have had a good overview of the activities of the neo-Nazi scene. Later, these infiltrations were to provide an argument for the NPD ban proceedings to be dropped, as undercover operatives (V-Leute) had exerted influence on the leadership of the neo-Nazi party. According to the documents, the German agents had endeavored to “penetrate the NPD at all levels, monitor its members and finances and combat its influence,” according to the official version of NPD surveillance.

One of the CIA reports from 1969 deals with the flow of money within the party. “The NPD, as you know, is of interest not only as a political force,” it says. Therefore, “evidence of East German financing of the NPD would be of great interest and benefit.” The reason for this investigation is said to have been the suspicion, expressed by the then Foreign Minister Willy Brandt (Social Democrat), that the GDR had financially supported the then NPD leader Adolf von Thadden with Soviet approval. In fact, however, von Thadden was likely a member of the British foreign intelligence service MI6, as German and British media reported in 2002. [See John Hooper, “Neo-Nazi leader ‘was MI6 agent,'” The Guardian, August 13, 2002]. However, this is concealed in the Bild report. Brandt's motivation for the “Moscow thesis” at the time was more likely to have been an attempt to damage the GDR's antifascist profile in the face of fascist continuities in West Germany. Many officials in the GDR’s governing Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) had actively resisted the Nazis and risked their lives in doing so.

The CIA praised the “quality of the information” that their informant provided about the NPD, even if it took several weeks. Later, the speed at which intelligence information about the party reached the USA increased, including information about NPD influence in the German armed forces. At the time, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution [BfV, the domestic secret service], “contacted the security organs of the Bundeswehr in order to implement a program against the influence of the NPD in the Bundeswehr.” In addition, the German secret service had worked with the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) to develop “methods for infiltrating employees into NPD organizations” in order to “report and counteract their influence in companies and worksplace councils.” According to the documents, the agency had around 60 sources with access to NPD organizations at all levels, including the federal party office in Hanover. This made it possible to “obtain and photograph” the entire membership lists with around 20,000 names at the time.

Original article: "Spitzel für Langley. Kennedy-Akten enthüllen: Die CIA hatte in den 1960er Jahren einen Informanten in der NPD." Von Henning von Stoltzenberg. junge Welt, 26.03.2025