Nazi sympathizer network buying up Cape Breton properties with 'colony' in mind: German report

The “extreme ideology” gatherings push the idea that Europe is on the verge of a system collapse, Der Spiegel reports. Cape Breton — and Canada — is seen as a more stable alternative. Herman and Popp allegedly implore those of a like mind to buy land there.

According to Der Spiegel, the pair form part of a network founded by Eckhardt, who also lives in Cape Breton. Eckhardt, Der Spiegel reports, is a so-called Reichsbuerger — a person who feels the modern German state that arose after the Nazi defeat doesn’t have legitimacy.

Eckhardt’s real estate website calls Canada a place where you escape the “increasingly authoritarian and runaway administrative machinery” of the European Union. Der Spiegel reports that at the end of 2019, Interpol staff based in Ottawa informed German intelligence of Eckhardt’s activities in this country, but Herman and Popp have denied current links to Eckhardt.

The Cape Breton Post, reporting on Friday evening, said Popp and Eckhardt had once been real estate partners, but later went their separate ways and competed for business. Speaking to the Cape Breton Post, Der Spiegel reporter Martin Doerry, who authored the report, said his reporting led him to believe that most who buy into the area after the seminars share similar ideologies. His reporting saw him interview nearly 30 people, and focused on three allegedly interconnected companies, the Post reported.

“This seminar is a kind of a brainwash,” Doerry said. “And if you buy a piece of land in Cape Breton or Nova Scotia after a week in the seminar with Andreas Popp, you must be a follower. I can’t believe you buy something under these circumstances without believing the ideas of Mr. Popp.”