Jan Udo Holey

Jan Udo Holey (born 22 March 1967), often known by his pen name Jan van Helsing, is a controversial German author who embraces conspiracy theories involving subjects such as world domination plots by freemasons, Hitler's continuing survival in Antarctica following World War II, the structure of the earth as hollow, and others. His theories draw from sources such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

His books Geheimgesellschaften (Secret Societies) and Geheimgesellschaften 2 have been banned in Germany, France and Switzerland for inciting antisemitic hatred.

The majority of his books, such as Die Kinder des neuen Jahrtausends. Mediale Kinder verändern die Welt (Children of the New Millennium, and how They Change the World) are non-political and deal exclusively with esoteric subjects.

Life Holey was born in Dinkelsbühl, Bavaria, West Germany, as the middle child of a wealthy family. His mother called herself a clairvoyant, and his father wrote three books dealing with gnostic and esoteric subject matter. Holey claims to have attended schools in Crailsheim, Bammental (near Heidelberg), Cambridge (in the United Kingdom), and Munich.

Holey chose his nom de plume "van Helsing", after he read Bram Stoker's vampire-novel Dracula at the age of fourteen.

Today, Holey runs his own publishing house, which publishes his own works as well as of others holding similar interests and viewpoints.

The Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz Baden-Württemberg (the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution of Baden-Württemberg) first referred to Holey in a 1996 report entitled "Rechtsextremistische Einflußnahme auf die Esoterikszene" (Right-Wing Extremist Influences on the Esoteric Scene).

Political opinions Holey draws from many esoteric and conspiracy theories, many of which originate in the United States of America. His writings encompass such varied themes as Nostradamus, reincarnation, conspiracy theories regarding John F. Kennedy and Uwe Barschel's murders. According to his detractors, Holey's books are largely plagiarized from other sources, many of which are conspiracy theorists of questionable repute. The author believes he is banned as part of a larger conspiracy.

In Geheimgesellschaften, Holey combines science-fiction, esotericism, Nazi-mythology, ufology and "Zionist global domination" theories. He also employs The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a source. He believes the Rothschilds head a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world and associates them with a mysterious cabal called the Illuminati, who plan a New World Order. Holey and his followers claim that they are not antisemitic, but rather that they speak out against powerful Jewish interests in high finance and politics.

Publicist Activities He explains that the Illuminati, which several of his books target, are also made up of "bloodsuckers."

In the late eighties, Holey wrote his first book Geheimgesellschaften und ihre Macht im 20. Jahrhundert (Secret Societies and their Power in the 20th Century), which was published in March 1994 by Ewert-Verlag and mainly sold in esoteric bookstores. Within a few months, it became a bestseller. In 1995, the publication of Secret Societies 2 followed. The pseudonym was uncovered in July 1996 by critical reports in the magazine esotera and Der Spiegel. By the time the Jewish Community in Mannheim filed a complaint for incitement to hatred, which stopped the store sales, both books had probably sold more than 100,000 copies. The case was dismissed by the Mannheim District Court "due to lack of local jurisdiction." A complaint followed in Switzerland, after which both books were confiscated and indexed in both the Federal Republic of Germany and Switzerland by the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons.

Holey was first mentioned in reports of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in the Report of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution Baden-Württemberg 1996, where he was reported under the heading "Right-Wing Extremist Influence on the Esoteric Scene." This was followed by mentions in the Austrian Office for the Protection of the Constitution 2000 and by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution in 2004 and 2005, where Holey was described as a "right-wing extremist esotericist." Holey also made inroads into the social sciences as a "right-wing extremist esotericist."

Since the late 1990s, he has been publishing his works in the Amadeus Verlag, founded by his mother in 1998. Since December 31, 2009, he has been the CEO there. Blick nach Rechts wrote that he is considered the "most well-known representative of brown esotericism" with his publishing house. This publishing house also operates the website dieunbestechlichen.com; the imprint lists Holey as editor-in-chief. The site promises "uncensored news – politically incorrect and free!"

From 2007 to 2010 he operated the web TV channel Secret.tv, through which he spread his esoteric and conspiracy-theoretical theses. A film created by Holey and Stefan Erdmann about the Cheops Pyramid was distributed through this channel. The Evangelische Zentralstelle für Weltanschauungsfragen (Protestant Central Office for World Views) calls the Internet channel a "film portal for brown esotericism." The "Handbook of Alternative Media" describes the channel as "right-wing extremist internet TV."

In his books, Helsing draws on the conspiracy theories of authors Gary Allen and Des Griffin and their works The Insider (1970) and Who Rules the World (1976). In particular, he relies on the American ufologist Milton William Cooper, whom he also personally knew and extensively quoted from his work "Behold a Pale Horse." Holey asserts a global conspiracy of the Illuminati, which he includes Freemasons and Jews in.

Legal Disputes both books remained banned because their content was "highly antisemitic."

As a result, the author sought to portray the banning of his books in the introduction and first part of his writing as constitutionally questionable. He wrote his legal interpretation on page 14 of the first part:

In 2001, the Mannheim Regional Court lifted the confiscation order. However, the indexing in both countries was not lifted.

Reception and evaluation of publications

According to Hubert Michael Mader from the Austrian Landesverteidigungsakademie, Holey managed to achieve the most significant coup of right-wing extremism after 1945 with his bestsellers. He incorporates various themes that have long been familiar in the esoteric scene and are unspectacularly received. According to him, the new aspect is that he sharpens them with unusually numerous right-wing extremist ideas and mixes them with interpretations based on his conspiracy theories, suggesting that the world, especially Germany, is threatened with destruction by secret societies. Jews are said to be leading this conspiracy. To a large extent, he mixes his own claims with the right-wing extremist writings of Holocaust deniers and ufologists such as Miguel Serrano, Wilhelm Landig, and the British anthroposophist Trevor Ravenscroft. Holey advocates authoritarian state and social concepts, whitewashes National Socialism, and denies Germany's war guilt. Holey assumes from the outset that his critics are afraid of (mental) change. He claims that he does not want to manipulate anyone, but his publications repeatedly create the impression that he intends to "reprogram" his readers mentally.

Rüdiger Sünner counts Holey among the disciples of the "Black Sun," who adapt Nazi myths of the superiority of former "Aryan" prime cultures such as Thule and Atlantis and incorporate them into their fantastic treatises, in which the Third Reich is glorified or its crimes denied. In particular, Serrano and Holey have contributed to the modernization of right-wing esotericism by incorporating UFO legends. Historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke notes that Holey's advocacy for humanity and the esoteric New Age ethos merely mask his antisemitic motives. The Handbook of Antisemitism dedicates an article to Holey. In it, he is attributed to the "so-called neo-Germanic-pagan scene" because he combines neo-right mythology and esotericism. Stefan von Hoyningen-Huene includes him among the "esoteric conspiracy theorists."

Tobias Jaecker also categorizes Holey within the esoteric spectrum, in which the belief in world conspiracy occupies a central position. Armin Pfahl-Traughber sees in Holey's works the connection of esoteric with right-wing extremist ideological pieces. Wolfgang Wippermann regards Holey's claims as exemplary of esoteric conspiracy ideologies, which, as can be seen from his writings, closely resemble national socialist ideology "down to the last detail." According to Ursula Caberta, he is the most well-known German conspiracy theorist. With his bestsellers, esotericism has become the most important gateway for right-wing extremist ideologies in the German-speaking world.

The trend of the esoteric scene towards right-wing extremist positions became apparent shortly after Holey's books were released, with the appearance of fifty to sixty esoteric right-wing extremist conspiracy books. The leader of the self-proclaimed "Aryan elite" Armanen Order, Adolf Schleipfer, promotes and recommends Holey's first volume of "Secret Societies" as a fundamental work on the topic of lodge entanglements that could replace entire libraries. The film was produced with the support of the Kopp Verlag. Other claims from Holey's work, such as the planned tattooing of a barcode on people by the "Enlightened," are also reflected in the film.

Works list Books Under own name The Inner World: The Secret of the Black Sun. Novel. Ama Deus Verlag, Fichtenau 1998, ISBN 3-9805733-1-1. The Jan van Helsing File: A Documentation of the Banning of Two Books in the "Freest Country in German History". Ama Deus Verlag, Fichtenau 1999, ISBN 3-9805733-9-7. The Children of the New Millennium: Psychic Children Changing the World. Ama Deus Verlag, Fichtenau 2001, ISBN 3-9807106-4-5.

Under the pseudonym "Jan van Helsing" Secret Societies and their Power in the 20th Century. ISBN 3-89478-069-X (indexed and confiscated in Germany in 1996, lifting of confiscation order in 2001). Secret Societies 2 (the Interview). ISBN 3-89478-492-X (indexed and confiscated in Germany in 1996, lifting of confiscation order in 2001). Book 3 – The Third World War. Ewert, Lathen (Ems) 1996, ISBN 3-89478-573-X. Operation Aldebaran: Contacts with beings from another solar system. The sensational experiences of the Feistle family. Ewert, Lathen (Ems) 1997 (Copyright year), ISBN 3-89478-220-X. Hands Off This Book! Ama Deus Verlag, Fichtenau 2004, ISBN 3-9807106-8-8. Who's Afraid of the Boogeyman...? Ama Deus Verlag, Fichtenau 2005, ISBN 3-9807106-5-3. National Security – The Conspiracy: Top Secret Projects in Technology and Space Travel. Ama Deus Verlag, Fichtenau 2005, ISBN 3-938656-25-5. The Millennium Lie: On the Trail of the Pyramid Mystery. Ama Deus Verlag, Fichtenau 2008, ISBN 3-938656-30-1 (with Stefan Erdmann). The 1-Million-Euro Book Ama Deus Verlag, Fichtenau 2009, ISBN 3-938656-99-9 (with Dr. Dinero). Secret Societies 3 – War of the Freemasons. Ama Deus Verlag, Fichtenau 2010, ISBN 978-3-938656-80-8. Hitler Survived in Argentina. Ama Deus Verlag, Fichtenau 2011, ISBN 978-3-938656-20-4 (with Abel Basti). Politically Incorrect: Inconvenient Facts and Dangerous Truths That One Is No Longer Allowed to Speak Out! Ama Deus Verlag, Fichtenau 2012, ISBN 978-3-938656-60-0 (with Michael Morris, Andreas Popp, Johann Georg Schnitzer, Michael Friedrich Vogt, Stefan Erdmann, Ben Morgenstern, Johannes Holey, Rudolf Passian) If Patients Knew This – True Causes, Effective Therapies Ama Deus Verlag, Fichtenau 2021, ISBN 978-3-938656-75-4 (with Vera Wagner) With Jason Mason: UFOs and the Ringmakers of Saturn: NASA discovers huge spaceships in the rings of Saturn – and keeps it secret. New military whistleblowers report on the Secret Space Program and the return of the white gods! Amadeus Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Fichtenau 2024. ISBN 978-3-9856202-1-0. ISBN 3-9856202-1-0

Audiobooks Stefan Erdmann: Interview with Jan van Helsing. Ama Deus Verlag, Fichtenau 2006, ISBN 3-938656-01-8.

Films The Cheops Lie Fabian the Goldsmith, 2008

Literature Arnon Hampe: "Holey, Jan Udo." In: Wolfgang Benz (Ed.): Handbook of Antisemitism. Vol. 2: Persons. De Gruyter / Saur, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-598-44159-2, pp. 375 f. (accessed via De Gruyter Online). Friedrich Paul Heller, Anton Maegerle: The Language of Hate: Right-Wing Extremism and Nationalist Esotericism: Jan van Helsing and Horst Mahler. Schmetterling-Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-89657-091-9. Hubert Michael Mader: Studies and Reports: Political Esotericism – A Right-Wing Extremist Challenge. Landesverteidigungsakademie, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-901328-36-X.