Wyatt Kaldenberg Explained

Wyatt Kaldenberg
Birth Name:Wyatt Kaldenberg
Birth Place:California, United States
Occupation:Author
Years Active:1978–present

Wyatt C. Kaldenberg (born 1957) is an American white supremacist and a supporter of Tom Metzger's Neo-Nazi White Aryan Resistance (WAR) organization. He is also an Odinist (a type of Germanic neopaganism), and an author of several books.

Early life

Kaldenberg was born in a working-class Mormon family in a small California town in the Mojave Desert. As a teenager he was associated with the Young Socialist Alliance, a Trotskyist organization.[1]

Enrolling in a Job Corps training programme in Salt Lake City in the 1970s, Kaldenberg became "aware of racial realities" after having fights with blacks and Muslims.

White Aryan Resistance

In the early 1970s Kaldenberg joined Tom Metzger's White Aryan Resistance. He was the managing editor of their paper WAR[1] until 1989[2] and Metzger's bodyguard.[3]

SPLC lawsuit

In October 1990, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League won a civil judgement against Metzger and WAR on behalf of the family of Mulugeta Seraw, who was murdered by white power skinheads associated with the group. Metzger then encouraged his supporters to send donations to Kaldenberg rather than to him or to WAR, in order to avoid paying the judgement. In January 1991, Kaldenberg was the subject of a court order freezing his funds, pending court review.[2] Just hours after the order was issued, he began withdrawing money from the frozen account, and was ordered to return it by a San Diego municipal judge. When Kaldenberg refused to obey the order, he was sentenced to 10 days in jail for contempt of court.[4]

Odinism

See also: Ásatrú in the United States and Odinism.

Kaldenberg was briefly involved with Stephen A. McNallen's Ásatrú Free Assembly but left when McNallen ejected Nazis from that organization. Kaldenberg and other "Aryanists" who left the AFA at that time went on to found the Greater Los Angeles area chapter of the Odinist Fellowship.

After leaving the AFA, Kaldenberg developed a distinct variety of Odinism. He devalues spirituality and ceremony and rejects Judeo-Christianity. According to Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Kaldenberg's version of the ideology is "chiefly a cult of aristocracy, power and the propagation of the white race."

Kaldenberg began publishing Pagan Review in the 1990s which was described as "a voice of Eurocentric polytheistic communities."[5]

Written works

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism, By Mattias Gardell, page 177
  2. News: Assets of White Supremacist Are Target of Legal Maneuver. New York Times. December 25, 1990. 8.
  3. Book: Frank Fuller. Studies in Criminal Justice, Terrorism, and International Political Conflicts. 2009. Universal-Publishers. 978-1-59942-923-6. 28.
  4. News: Metzger Aide Jailed for Contempt After Taking Funds from Account. The Oregonian. February 2, 1991. John Snell. B02.
  5. Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity, By Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. pp. 262-4