Author: Claus Nordbruch

Claus Nordbruch was born in 1961 and he grew up in West Germany and Austria. His father came from Thuringia and his mother from Vienna. He does not belong to any political party nor is he tied to any religious confession.

From 1982 to 1986 he served as infantryman (Panzergrenadier) in the German Bundeswehr, leaving the force as second-lieutenant. In 1986 he immigrated to South Africa.

Between 1987 and 1991 he studied German, History, Criminology and Biology at the University of Pretoria where he graduated with BA(Hons) and MA degrees. In 1995 he obtained a PhD from the University of South Africa. He wrote his thesis on the concept of duty, focussing in particular on Siegfried Lenz who is considered to be the leading proponent in post war Germany of the essential and complicated question on the possible combination of Humanity and Duty.

Since 1993 Nordbruch has worked as a lecturer, journalist and has written many academic and non-fiction books. Nordbruch's essays and articles are published both in academic and mainstream magazines and newspapers as well as in the alternate media. His books have been extensively reviewed in the German as well as in the international press.

In 1998 at the University of Bonn the prominent German culture organisation Stiftung Ostdeutscher Kulturrat (literally: Foundation of the East German Council of Culture) awarded Nordbruch an academic prize for his thesis Über die Pflicht - About Duty. Three years later, in 2001, he was honoured by the German National-Zeitung with the European Freedom Prize for his persistent and courageous fight for freedom of speech.

In his publications dealing with the history of Southern Africa Dr. Nordbruch has specialized in the Anglo-Boer War devastating South Africa in 1899-1902 as well as in the revolt of the Herero people in German South West Africa (today Namibia) in 1904, which allegedly ended in the intentional extermination of this proud African tribe. Regarding the latter, Dr Nordbruch is of the opinion that mainly Marxist historians of the former German Democratic Republic had created this accusation of genocide, which is regularly propagated by conformist historiography and opportunist journalism. Dr Nordbruch, however, rejects that exterminationist view. After years of research he offers proof that this genocidial accusation is based on uncritical German colonial publications of the German Imperial era as well as on the British war propaganda during World War I. Hence, the accusation that Germans exterminated Hereros should be regarded as an expression of Germanophobia, which itself is politically and financially motivated.

In his books dealing with freedom of speech he provides evidence that in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) censorship is extensive. He demonstrates how the political police, called the Verfassungsschutz, is used to slander political opponents, historical dissenters and individuals who do not share official opinions on fundamental historical and political matters. Most of these persons are labelled "extremists" thereby isolating them from social, cultural, political and economical life. Usually, these individuals are legally prosecuted and then given large fines or sent to prison. These individuals have not committed any acts of violence or other crimes in the true sense of the term, but because they committed a »thought-crime«. Dr. Nordbruch regards the suppression of intellectual liberty - unilateral political legal decisions and the one-sided discrimination against freedom of speech, freedom of information, freedom of science, freedom of assembly - to be typical for a Big-Brother government (Gesinnungsstaat). It is these concerns that he addresses in his books.