Magazine: Schwarzenegger Disrupted 1964 Neo-Nazi March in Graz, Austria

AFP via Yahoo! Germany ^ | October 3, 2003 | AFP

[pogo101]

According to a Jewish magazine, a young Arnold Schwarzenegger helped to disrupt a march of Neo-Nazis in his Austrian homeland.

As the magazine "NU" reported in its September issue, the 17-year-old Schwarzenegger helped anti-fascists heckle a demonstration of Neonazis.

The budding bodybuilder, along with other athletes, protested against the right-wingers in the city of Graz, 80-year-old Alfred Gerstl told the magazine. Gerstl, previously an active supporter of conservatives in Austria, feels he knows Schwarzenegger based on characteristic statements from that time, when Schwarzenegger was a friend of Gerstl’s son Karl.

[pogo101]

He simply translated the article, which said "die Rechten," "the rightwingers." Nazis have always been described by West German, and since the Wall fell, German media, as "rightwing." And while they were national socialists, they were not leftwing.

I could say, du hast recht, but that'd be a bad pun. So how about just, stimmt.

[ElkGroveDan]

But if you post smarm and sarcasm, it doesn't; it reveals only bitterness instead.

I prefer to think of it as wit with a dash of humor. I can't help it. I'm Irish. I can no more leave my sense of humor at home than I can leave behind my good looks.

[cwb]

Exactly. And if you recall, it was Mussolini who said that Facism is nothing more than "Patriotic Marxism" making it a national movement rather than international. The left vs right conflict in Europe was over this distinction. In fact, Facism just as Communism believed in intervention in business and despised free-market capitalism. The difference here was that communists believed in the complete government control/ownership over productivity, while Facists...like our modern-day liberals, pretend that control still resides in the hands of the citizens but is completely regulated and run by the government. Todays facists are todays liberals...from everything from over-regulation of business, to government control over schools, to propaganda and censorship through the media under the guise of PC and tolerance. Liberals are the bookburners of new century, using diversity and tolerance to push thier agenda.

[dennisw]

Arnold knew all this crud (real and imagined) would come out. This makes him even better to me. That he is willing, courageous enough to run the gauntlet. He could have stayed with movies and real estate, increased his fortune and not subject himself to these slings and arrows. Subjected himself and family to the public embarrassment.

But Arnold wants to provide proper leadership to California that has been so good to him. That has allowed him to go much further, become much richer than he ever could have in Austria

[My2Cents]

Arnold, more than his detractors on this forum, I daresay, knows the unlimited opportunities that the freedoms of America provide. In this, his message and attitude are the most optimistic I've seen since Reagan.

[dennisw]

And you have your own optimism that does well in carrying Arnold's message. You have to live with the next governor. You have a lot more at stake since you live in California while I'm in Florida.

But without Jeb Bush could I see a 'cRAT becoming governor next time? You bet. But one edge we do have is a lot of rural counties that send Republicans to the legislature so often that the Republican majority is 60-40.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

This whole Nazi thing sure is getting a lot of attention. Should I quote Arnold? "Where there's smoke, there's fire?"

[chudogg]

Not the German version of right wing.

Sorry, the terms do not bend just because they cross a border. If there is no one in Germany advocating looser government controls over business, then there is no right wing in germany, period.

Communists take over ownership of industries, Fascists just control business...

Okaay.. Just because the fascists are to the right of the communist, does that make them right wing?? Is Hillary Clinton Right wing? She isnt a communist(?). Seizing ownership of Inustries is communist, controlling industries is Socialist, regulating industries is liberal. All of these policies are left of center, wherever in the world you go to. Even though there is no rightwing movement at all in Germany, they are still all leftwing.

Kind of like the private/public partnerships that are the rave here lately

All the rave here? The only people i hear talk about them are the Greens.

I say again, Fascism is merely Middle Way Socialism. Mussolini, who invented Fascism, invented Middle Way Socialism-the dominant policital idea in Europe. The supposed right wing groups are still Socialist, only they want to curb immmigration.

[Saundra Duffy]

protested against the right-wingers

That's what Arnold called us supporters of Prop 54 - "right wing crazies". Interesting. Go, McClintock!!!

[Tempest]

Yep this is the Nazi lover in action . . .</sarcasm>

[rustbucket]

Now that I look at the 1920 document more closely, I see that it was a letter from Lenin to German and French workers, not a speech. My apologies. Somehow it read like a speech to me.

In any event, the media in America continues the intellectual dishonesty of referring to Nazis as right wing when writing to the American public when by American definitions of the terms left and right the Nazis were clearly left wing.

There is a reason why the term 'sinister' refers to the left, not the right. Goes all the way back to its Latin roots.

[pogo101]

(re "crazies") I dunno. If he said it, I don't like it regardless, but it's possible that if he said it, he didn't mean that ONLY a "right-wing crazy" could support Prop 54. I STILL wish he'd put out a clear statement about what he remembers saying in this regard. It's hazy.

[chudogg]

They thereby confused a lot of people, and drew adherents from both ends of the political spectrum.

They coalitioned with the conservative Nationalist Party against the Communist parties who basically wanted to join the Soviety Union.

Also, many industries leaders then supported the Nazis and the Nationalist party as their only option against the communists.

Just because some conservatives and business leaders supported them as the lesser of two evils, does not mean that they drew adherents from both ends.

Ever hear the phrase "Politics makes strange bedfellows".

[george wythe]

Arnold für Präsidenten

Now the Arnold's accuser is backtracking:

But early Friday, Butler had contacted The New York Times, which ran a story about the book proposal, saying he had found another transcript of the interview, with different wording.

That one has Schwarzenegger saying: “I admire him (Hitler) for being such a good public speaker and for his way of getting to the people and so on. But I didn’t admire him for what he did with it. It’s very hard to say who I admire, who are my heroes.”

First they make nasty accusations a few days before the election.

The next day they backtrack but the damage is already done.

The retraction will never receive the same media coverage.

Dirty Tricks 101

[Dead Dog]

I'm on a political/idiological mission to prove Facism and Nazism are just as left as Communism. Right Wing should only mean a constructionist interp. of the constitution.

[onedoug]

"Sorry. Now you're giving excuses, for Arnie's excuses."

Sorry. I haven't heard him make any.

And I'm not giving any either.

[Tamzee]

Arnold with bronze bust of Reagan 3/21/02 he had commissioned by artist Robert Berks and then donated to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California.

[Tamzee]

Thanks for the FYI :-)

[Tamzee]

According to a Jewish magazine, a young Arnold Schwarzenegger helped to disrupt a march of Neo-Nazis in his Austrian homeland.

Yet more to support that the Nazi smear is totally groundless.

[68 grunt]

It does make him consistent in his ridicule of 'right-wing crazies'.