Fourth Reich

The Fourth Reich (German: Viertes Reich) is a theoretical future German empire that is the successor to Nazi Germany (1933–1945). The term Third Reich, originally coined by Arthur Moeller van den Bruck as the title of his 1923 book Das Dritte Reich, was used by the Nazis for propaganda purposes to legitimize their regime as a successor state to the retroactively-renamed First Reich (the Holy Roman Empire, 962–1806) and the Second Reich (Imperial Germany, 1871–1918). The terms First Reich and Second Reich were never used by historians.

The term "Fourth Reich" has been used in a variety of different ways. Some neo-Nazis have used it to describe their envisioned revival of Nazi Germany, while others have used the term derogatorily, such as conspiracy theorists who have used it to refer to what they perceive as a covert continuation of Nazi ideals, and by critics who believe that Germany exercises a dominant role in the European Union.

Neo-Nazism

In terms of neo-Nazism, the Fourth Reich is envisioned as featuring Aryan supremacy, anti-Semitism, Lebensraum, aggressive militarism and totalitarianism. Upon the establishment of the Fourth Reich, German neo-Nazis propose that Germany should acquire nuclear weapons and use the threat of their use to re-expand to Germany's former boundaries as of 1937.

Fourth Reich (New Zealand gang)

The Fourth Reich was initially a skinhead gang which was originally formed in prison, membership came from Christchurch, Dunedin and the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand formed in 1994.

In 1997, two members killed a young Māori man, Hemi Hutley. They beat him unconscious, dragged him across wasteland, stripped him and then threw him into the Buller river where he drowned.

This was the beginning of the gang's reign of terror on the West Coast and they were later involved in the murders of Janis Bamborough in 1999 and Korean tourist Jae Hyeon Kim in 2003.

Attempts were made by the gang to set up inside Nelson however this created tension with the local motorcycle club, The Lost Breed MC.

This tension boiled over when the Fourth Reich blew up a Ford Fairmont outside the Lost Breed clubhouse, sparking a turf war which ultimately saw the Reich leave the town.

See also

References

Fourth Reich (disambiguation)

The Fourth Reich is the theoretical future successor of the Third Reich.

(The) Fourth Reich may also refer to: