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.

[Reagan Man]

Whatever. I understand.

[syriacus]

My only caveat is that this is all according to one guy who appears to like Arnold and probably has reason to feel defensive on Arnold's behalf as a fellow Austrian getting pounded with Nazi allegations

Same story appeared AUGUST 21, 2003 (supposedly).

Friends Say Arnold Has The Muscle

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Austrian Friends Strongly Support His Bid for Governor, By Lisa Silverman

...people are asking whether Schwarzenegger’s background should be cause for concern in his current bid for California’s governorship.

Not at all, is the answer from Alfred Gerstl, a close friend of Schwarzenegger who is still in frequent contact with the superstar. Gerstl insists that Schwarzenegger has always been and remains committed to the fight against anti-Semitism. "Arnold would be the best choice for this office," notes Gerstl, former president of the upper house of the Austrian Parliament known as the Bundesrat, and, since 1992, head of the Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich (Club for the Politically Persecuted and Austrian Patriots), a group he helped found after World War II.

Gerstl knew Schwarzenegger when he was a teenager growing up outside Graz and often took the young Arnold to lectures by outspoken Austrian anti-fascists and members of the Kameradschaft. In the early 1960s, when a group of neo-Nazi students held a demonstration against these lectures, Gerstl organized a counter-demonstration and brought Arnold with him. According to Gerstl, this shows that Arnold was influenced by a strong anti-Nazi political sensibility from a very young age.

Alfred Gerstl was born on July 3, 1923, in Graz, to parents who had converted from Judaism to Catholicism in 1920, in an attempt to overcome the difficulties the father was having advancing his career at the national railroad. However, it was because of Alfred Gerstl’s own anti-fascist political stance that the Nazis forced him to leave school in 1938...

[isthisnickcool]

[TERMINATTOR]

1964: Young fascist Arnold Schwarzenegger protests Neo-Nazi's, calling them "right wing crazies".

2003: Fourty years later, "moderate" fascist Arnold Schwarzenegger runs against the incumbent "progressive" fascist Gray Davis.

[Tamzee]

Thank you for that post, terrific article!

[stck]

and to anyone who speaks some German:

here's the full NANU article about Gerstl
http://www.nunu.at/html/seite01.html

[SoCal Pubbie]

"My point was a valid one."

No, not really. You have difficulty with understanding what people write and sorting things out, I'm afraid. Yes, one should not automatically assume that the behavior one displays at an early age is necessarily indicative of a person's outlook today. Some people mature. However, behavior at the age of seventeen, one would assume, would be more closely related to one's outlook at the age of twenty five, which is IIRC how old Arnold was at the time the film Pumping Iron was made and the alleged comments were made about Hitler. These anti Nazi actions do not square with the idea of Arnold as a Hitler lover.

Furthermore, everyone involved with the making of Pumping Iron denies the story about Hitler comments. I hope these facts don't ruin your Arnie hating day.

[ElkGroveDan]

What about all the other "follies of his youth" that we are told to forget about, the group sex in the gym, the contractor fraud perpetrated on Sylmar earthquake victims, the racist insults hurled at his fellow body builders. Those have all been dismissed as actions of a young man who has changed. So my question was and still is, is he that man of long ago or isn't he? Or are we to pick and choose his characteristics as they best suit a political campaign?

[mrustow]

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".

I wasn't talking about the points you raised, which are also true. I said the Nazis attracted adherents from both ends of the political spectrum, because they did.

The best analysis I've seen of Nazi ideology's contradictions was by historian Karl-Dietrich Bracher, who showed how it combined a romantic, reactionary attachment to the past and to nature, and a radical embrace of the future and a technological utopia.

[VOA]

(pinging a few Hugh Hewitt faithful in case I've missed some details...)

Gerstl insists that Schwarzenegger has always been and remains committed to
the fight against anti-Semitism.

Other factoid garnered today (10-3-03) from a caller to AM radio shock-jock Hugh Hewitt:
The caller said that he'd attended a meeting (for a Safe Israel?) and that as part of it
someone asked Rabbi Abraham Cooper about Schwarzenegger and anti-Semitism charges.
Cooper said that he'd know Ahnold a long time and here was one reason he discounted the charges.
When Haider, the fairly extreme politician from Austria came to Los Angeles, he
managed to get Ahnold's phone number. Haider asked his fellow Austrian to help him
out by appearing together at a photo-op.
Reportedly, Ahnold told Haider something along the lines of "absolutely not...and
don't ever call me again."

Just another factoid/story to provide grist for the mill...

[VOA]

bump for publicity...

[VOA]

bump for publicity...

[SoCal Pubbie]

Hmmm, this is the first I've heard about any contractor fraud, but since you probably troll 24/7 for Arnie smears it's no surprise that you come up with it. As for group sex, I would say that if the woman likes it that way so what? The racist insults were claimed by a rival, who's wife now comes out with the butt grabbing story. In other words, where's the beef?

Why do you fixate on all the negatives while completly discounting the positive things, like his work for the Weisenthal (sp?) Center, youth group activites, the positive comments of his female costars, etc?

[ElkGroveDan]

Why do you fixate on all the negatives while completly discounting the positive things, like his work for the Weisenthal (sp?) Center, youth group activites, the positive comments of his female costars, etc?

That's all fine and dandy. Many liberal Democrats are also involved in charities and are very nice people. I just don't want such people to be our political leaders.

My problem with him is that he is pro-abortion, in favor of gun control, special rights for gays, won't take a no-tax pledge, has very liberal environmentalist goals, and has retained some of the most liberal people in the country as his policy advisors. He's entitled to those views. I do however have a real problem with him claiming to be a Republican, when he disagrees with the most fundamental pillars of our party platform.

Go ahead and cheer like its the World Series or the Superbowl. Bur remember unlike sporting events the political season isn't over after the big win, it's just beginning. And let me tell you my friend its not going to be pretty when Republicans realize what we've gotten ourselves into.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

'JOIN ARNOLD = STOP HILLARY'

http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/991159/posts

[pogo101]

since you probably troll 24/7 for Arnie smears it's no surprise

Everyone needs a hobby. Dan has his: expounding that Arnold Is The Devil and that You Will All Be Very, Very Sorry.

[risk]

Isn't Nazism extreme left-wing?

I'm so sick of reading this lie here on FR.

1. Nazis were on the extreme right in German politics. That included socialist planks, as they were not mutually-exclusive in the German political milieu in the 1930s.
2. Right wingers can be wrong. It's not a cure-all for tyranny to be on the right.

People are seriously being misled by a lie that is endlessly repeated. It's beyond idiotic, it's some sort of fantasy that being "right" is always "correct." That's plainly wrong.

[PhilDragoo]

Arnold disrupts Neo-Nazi march in Austria.

Arnold donates to Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance.

Who's the fascist supporter?

Why, it's the LA Times' personal pet icons, not Arnold after all.

We'll see the retraction when. . .

[Tamzee]

You said it!

[steve50]

say again, Fascism is merely Middle Way Socialism. Mussolini, who invented Fascism, invented Middle Way Socialism-the dominant policital idea in Europe

Mussolini said fascism was a misnomer, corporatism was what he called his method. A partnership between public government and private business. Looks real familiar to me.