Biography

Ingo Klier, former Ingo Hasselbach (born 14 July 1967 in Berlin-Weißensee) is a German well known for being a former neo-Nazi. He is the author of the book Führer Ex: Memoirs of a Former Neo-Nazi (with Tom Reiss), also made into a movie directed by Winfried Bonengel, which has been translated into several languages. Furthermore he was co-founder of the German EXIT project, which helps people leave the neo-Nazi community. The project is modeled on a Swedish project with the same name.

Hasselbach's parents were two Communist-party loyal journalists. His mother was an editor at the ADN ("Allgemeiner Deutscher Nachrichtendienst", the former GDR's news service), while his father was employed at the broadcasting service in East Berlin. He was raised mostly with his grandparents. After graduating he began an apprenticeship to become a stonemason, but by 1985 he was subjected to legal censure because of rowdyism. His public appeal "The wall must fall!" brought him a prison sentence of nine months in 1987. In 1988 he joined the neo-Nazi community and was again legally censured for "subversive activities". After a first attempt to escape in August 1989 failed, he was detained again for three months until November 1989. Three days before the Berlin Wall fell a subsequent attempt to escape to West Germany succeeded.

In the years after German reunification he took a leading position in many right-wing extremist organisations, including the "National Alternative" (Nationale Alternative), and the "Comradeship of Social-revolutionary Nationalists" (Kameradschaft Sozialrevolutionäre Nationalisten). Then in 1993 he decided to break with the right-wing extremism community. By this point in time he had spent three years of his life in prison (one of the charges being for incitement to violence).