Einsatzgruppe plot to free Varg Vikernes

The Einsatzgruppe plot to free Varg Vikernes was a reported 1997 conspiracy to use force against Norwegian public figures and break the imprisoned musician out of jail. Five young men were arrested at Hemnes after a police raid, and investigators said they had uncovered paramilitary equipment, weapons, explosives, money, and plans for violent action. The case became a turning point in the book’s account of the relationship between Black Metal and the extremist right: what had appeared to be a proximity of slogans and symbols now seemed to involve a concrete plan, although the meaning of some evidence remained contested.

From subcultural notoriety to political action

The book places the arrests against a longer development in which Black Metal’s notoriety and extremist political currents began to overlap. Before 1997, it says, the connection between figures such as Varg Vikernes and political movements had seemed to consist mainly of shared slogans and imagery. The author presents the alleged plot as a change in kind: Vikernes had become a source of motivation for people identified as genuine members of the revolutionary right, not simply a figure whose language they echoed.

That development took place in a scene whose networks were influential but not necessarily formal organizations. By mid-1991, Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal, Thorns, Enslaved, Arcturus, and later Emperor were in contact with Øystein Aarseth, who hoped to release much of their music through Deathlike Silence Productions. Aarseth later used the name Black Circle for people who gathered around the shop and associated bands. The account stresses that this was not a group with official membership, cards, or regular meetings. That loose social network provides context for the scene’s circulation of ideas, but the available evidence does not establish that the Black Circle organized the later armed conspiracy.

The book also describes Black Metal’s public image as shaped by escalating attention. The January 1993 Bergens Tidende cover story brought the scene to a wider Norwegian audience, and Kerrang! followed with an international feature later that year. Asjorn Dyrendal later argued that press attention helped Vikernes build a near-mythic public persona and intensified competition within the scene. In an interview, Bård Eithun likewise connected attention and anti-Christian commitments with some participants’ desire to go further. This wider context helps explain the overlap between notoriety, identity, and politics, but it does not by itself establish why the people in the 1997 case acted.

Arrests and alleged objectives

On April 12, 1997, Norwegian newspaper headlines reported the so-called Einsatzgruppe arrests. The raid had taken place on the night of April 8 at Hemnes, a small community roughly 60 to 70 kilometers from Oslo. Five young men were arrested. Investigators continued examining the group over the next three days, after which the case was presented publicly as more than an extremist circle or a collection of provocative statements.

According to the police, the group planned direct action against prominent politicians, bishops, and other public figures, and intended to free Varg Vikernes by force. Their reported equipment included bulletproof vests, steel helmets, cartridge belts, and ski masks. Police also found a list of twelve firearms and a map indicating a mountain hiding place. The items first seized included sawed-off shotguns and dynamite with blasting caps. These details gave the allegations a material dimension: the case involved not only political language but a reported cache of equipment and explosives.

The police also found a war chest containing 100,000 Norwegian kroner, then close to $20,000. Lene Bore, Vikernes’s mother, had supplied the money and was arrested and charged with financing an illegal group. She confessed to providing it but said she did not know the men were right-wing extremists. She said her concern was her son’s treatment in prison and alleged that fellow inmates had assaulted him; the prison director rejected that account as unfounded. The book notes, however, that Vikernes had broken his jaw in an altercation with another inmate in late 1996. Police speculated that the money might have come from royalties on his record sales, whereas Bore said it came from the sale of a house. Its source was therefore disputed, even as its presence was central to the investigation.

Disputed evidence and legal stakes

Police described the group as a dangerous terrorist organization and cited lists of private addresses belonging to bishops and government figures, including Oslo police commissioner Ingelin Killengreen. They characterized the lists as death lists and evidence of planned violence. The defense offered a different interpretation: the addresses, it said, were intended for sending propaganda. Investigators also found a Se og Hør article containing photographs of prominent figures’ homes, as well as sketches of the military camp at Heistadmoen near Kongsberg with its arms depot marked. The account records these discoveries and the competing interpretations rather than treating every police inference as settled fact.

The group was to be charged under Paragraph 104 of the Norwegian Penal Code, which covered participation in a conspiracy to disturb social order or gain influence in public affairs through sabotage, force, or other illegal means. The stated maximum sentence was two years, rising to six years for grave offenses. Because the authorities considered an armed unit a grave offense, finding the alleged weapons cache mattered to the legal characterization of the case as well as to the assessment of its practical capacity.

In a later raid, police found a 7.62 mm battle rifle of the kind used by the Norwegian military, a pistol, a rifle, and an old Russian AK-47 Kalashnikov. They also found parts of a submachine gun; the book notes rumors of further weapons but does not establish them as recovered evidence. The inventory strengthened the picture of a group with access to firearms, while leaving open the precise scale of its arsenal and the extent to which each object supported the alleged plan.

Significance and limits of the account

The conspiracy’s central allegation joined two targets: public figures who represented political and religious authority, and a prison break intended to release Vikernes. That combination distinguished the case from the earlier image of Black Metal as a scene defined chiefly by music, anti-Christian posture, and sensational public claims. The book frames 1997 as the point at which the connection to revolutionary-right actors appeared to move beyond symbolic resemblance into a reported attempt at organized force.

Yet the account also preserves uncertainty. Police described address lists as targets; the defense called them propaganda material. Bore acknowledged providing money but disputed her knowledge of the group’s politics, and the possible source of the funds was contested. The detailed list of weapons includes items found in a later raid, while additional weapons remained rumor. The plot’s importance therefore lies both in the serious allegations and in the evidentiary dispute: it exposed a claimed convergence of political extremism, personal loyalty to Vikernes, and practical preparation, without making every alleged intention or link equally certain.