Gerhard Michael Frey (18 February 1933 – 19 February 2013) was a German publisher, businessman and politician. He was the chairman and main financial backer of the right-wing party Deutsche Volksunion, which he founded in 1971. He resigned as chairman in January 2009.

Biography

Gerhard Frey was born on 18 February 1933 in

Cham Cham or CHAM may refer to: Ethnicities and languages *Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia **Cham language, the language of the Cham people ***Cham script *** Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script *Cham Albania ...

. He studied law. In 1960 Frey received his PhD (Dr. rer. pol.) from the

University of Graz The University of Graz (german: link=no, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, ), located in Graz, Austria, is the largest and oldest university in Styria, as well as the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria. History The univers ...

, Austria. His dissertation was a study of the trade pattern between Austria and Germany. He was married to Regine Frey, with whom he had four children. His daughter Michaela (born 1965) is an attorney, his son Gerhard Jr. (born 1969) is a lawyer. Frey died on 19 February 2013, the day after his 80th birthday, in

Gräfelfing Gräfelfing is a municipality in the district of Munich, in Bavaria, Germany. It is located 1 km west of Munich. The name "Gräfelfing" first appears as "Grevolvinga", which as per one hypothesis could possibly name a tribe leader named "gr ...

near Munich. The scholar

Cas Mudde Cas Mudde (born 3 June 1967) is a Dutch political scientist who focuses on political extremism and populism in Europe and the United States. His research includes the areas of political parties, extremism, democracy, civil society and Europ ...

described Frey as "One of the most influential people in the German post-war extreme right scene" and a "multi-millionaire media czar who owns and publishes several newspapers". Frey took control of the far right ''Deutschen Soldaten-Zeitung'' in 1959, later renamed ''

National Zeitung The ''National-Zeitung'' (NZ, ''National Newspaper'') was a weekly, extreme right newspaper, published by Gerhard Frey, who also founded the far right Deutsche Volksunion (German People's Union) as an association in 1971, turning it into a politi ...

'', and raised the paper’s circulation from 27,500 in 1958 to 131,000 in 1967. The paper frequently published

historical revisionist In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of a historical account. It usually involves challenging the orthodox (established, accepted or traditional) views held by professional scholars about a historical event or times ...

and anti-Israel articles. In 1967 it used the term desk murderer (''Schreibtischtäter'') referring to people who support Israel as, in its view, they thereby take the risk to become accomplices in crimes committed there. Frey has been described as rarely generous, except at his party functions where he hosted

David Irving David John Cawdell Irving (born 24 March 1938) is an English author and Holocaust denier who has written on the military and political history of World War II, with a focus on Nazi Germany. His works include '' The Destruction of Dresden'' (1 ...

, whom he paid generously and provided a hired luxury car for. A large amount of advertising in ''National Zeitung'' were for Frey's other businesses, thus more money than usual went back to Frey. Such businesses included ''Deutsche Reisen'', a travel service, and the ''Deutsche Buchdienst'', selling books, medals and flags. Frey's party, the DVU, was described as the "Frey-Party" because of its financial dependency on him. ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'', after the party's success in the 1998

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it th ...

state elections, described the DVU as "less a political party than the dangerous plaything of a millionaire", without any real party structure. At the time, Frey's personal fortune was estimated to be in excess of DM 500 million. Frey enjoyed good relations with some conservative politicians like Alfred Seidl, interior minister of Bavaria 1977-78, with European far-right and right wing leaders like

Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (, born 20 June 1928) is a French far-right politician who served as President of the National Front from 1972 to 2011. He also served as Honorary President of the National Front from 2011 to 2015. Le Pen graduated fro ...

and

Vladimir Zhirinovsky Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky, ''né'' Eidelshtein (russian: link=false, Эйдельштейн) (25 April 1946 – 6 April 2022) was a Russian right-wing populist politician and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) fr ...

but his relationship with other German far-right leaders was less friendly as they feared his financial power could overwhelm them.

References

Bibliography

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External links

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Official Site of the National Zeitung
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frey, Gerhard 1933 births 2013 deaths People from Cham, Germany German People's Union politicians National Democratic Party of Germany politicians Leaders of political parties in Germany German nationalists 20th-century German newspaper publishers (people)