Klagemauer.TV: Conspiracy News from a Far-Right Cult in Switzerland
This article by Erika Balzer, was originally published on Belltower News.
Kla.tv is an information portal by Ivo Sasek, founder of the cult Organic Christ Generation (OCG) in Switzerland. Its programmes aspire to be “the other news”, spreading conspiracy narratives and doomsday scenarios that the mainstream media supposedly keeps from us.
“CAUTION! This content is absolutely not suitable for children, nor for people with weak nerves.” A video from kla.tv about Adrenochrom from June 2020 begins with this trigger warning. The video belongs to the category “Ideology & Satanism / Occultism” and has (according to a counter on the website) over one million views. Xavier Naidoo and other “experts” of similar calibre warn of child abductions and people who supposedly already sell Adrenochrome in bottles.
This is just one of many narratives on kla.tv: 5G, 9/11, the Corona lie, satanic elites and the Great Reset round off the programme. No conspiracy narrative is left unaddressed on the self-styled “Portal for Dissenting Voices”. Accordingly, kla.tv puts forward theses, theories and narratives that propose an alternative reality that rarely coincides with scientific findings. Such a format is necessary because – surprise – the “system media” lies to us.
Kla.tv, or Klagemauer.tv, has been around since 2012. The internet channel was founded by Ivo Sasek. It’s called Klagemauer because people can file “lawsuits” if they are not satisfied with mainstream reporting on certain topics. Kla.tv then takes on these issues and reports from a different perspective. Videos are reportedly available in more than 87 languages. According to information on their website, kla.tv has more than 150 studios worldwide. Each video can be downloaded for free and distributed with just a few clicks. The content of most videos is also available in detailed written form. More than 1000 people supposedly volunteer at kla.tv and take care of the broadcasts. What truth actually lies in these claims is practically impossible to verify.
The news blog is closely connected with the Christian sect Organic Christ Generation (OCG), which was also founded by Ivo Sasek in Switzerland in 1997. Its focus is on the family of the cult guru Sasek. The OCG is supposed to lead people to swarm intelligence and natural law intuition: “The generation is supposed to connect to the divine alpha matrix.” How exactly this is supposed to work can be read in Sasek’s books and seen in his feature films.
Kla.tv is not his only product: The cult leader has built up an entire media and event empire. The anti-censorship coalition (an event for “other reporting”), “vetopedia” (the alternative Wikipedia), the film production company “Panorama Film” and a family music production venture are intended to captivate as many people as possible. Ivo and his wife Anni have eleven children. Most of them are closely involved in marketing and managing family affairs. However, two of the sons have left the cult.
Obvious antisemitism
Ivo Sasek is always the centre of attention. On kla.tv, he appears as a host. Otherwise, he sometimes stages himself as a prophet spreading the word of God, or sometimes as an entertainer on stage. Sasek and his sect have often made negative headlines. Not least because he offered Holocaust denier Sylvia Stolz a stage at his “anti-censorship coalition”. She was subsequently sentenced to 18 months in prison for inciting hatred. Sasek said in a statement that he and 2,000 other audience members had not noticed any Holocaust denial during her speech, otherwise they would have intervened. Among other things, Stolz asked very directly on stage where the evidence for victims, dates of the crimes and the crime scenes for the Holocaust were and said that the Holocaust had never been proven in court.
In a documentary by Swiss broadcaster SRF about OCG, Simon Sasek (one of the two sons who left the cult) says about kla.tv: “Our goal was to become the largest media chain in Europe.” The most important thing, he says, was always their reach. The son accuses his father of being anti-democratic and of deliberately sowing distrust in the media and politics with his reproduction of conspiracy narratives. Anti-Semitic dog-whistles and ciphers like #GeorgeSoros, #GreatReset, #Bilderberger, and #WEF are popular categories on the website. The pandemic and the myths it created played into kla.tv’s hands. Countless “fact” videos on vaccinations and the alleged masterminds behind the pandemic have been released. One video is even dedicated to the question: “Corona vaccination – the biggest genocide?”.
Sasek stands out for his crude questions and trains of thought. At a kla.tv friends’ meeting in 2014, Ivo Sasek asked the audience: “But what if Adolf Hitler equals the rank of an apostle?” and posed whether the dictator was only misrepresented historically. Simon Sasek said that his father had recommended Mein Kampf to his children to read; for him it was part of general education and came directly after the Bible. In the interview, Simon Sasek has no doubt that his father internalized antisemitic ways of thinking and stereotypes.
We wish you a life-affirming evening
The sect wants to grow. Children therefore play a major role in the OCG and are considered particularly in need of protection; abortions are unthinkable and are associated with Satan. In 2014, a “complaint” on the subject of abortions was filed with kla.tv. The woman had noticed that during her pregnancies, she was often warned that her foetuses might be disabled, and wondered if that was true or if there was an entire abortion system behind it. The video spoke of a “targeted genocide”. Kla.tv has launched regular video campaigns against abortions and composed songs to give children a voice. For example, “Scream of the Mothers”, which is about “satanic ritual abuse of children” and Adrenochrome. In this context, Ivo Sasek and the sect in general are accused of advocating child abuse and chastisement. Dropouts of the sect report of such educational measures.
The hosts also discuss current events. One of them is Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Sasek calls for an end to arms deliveries and support for Ukraine and warns of a third world war if the “Scholzens clan”, i.e. the German government, continues to anger Russia. Instead, he would rather see this satanic clan before a Nuremberg war tribunal, alluding to the Nuremberg trials of war criminals after World War II. Kla.tv also distributes videos from the Austrian internet station AUF1 and gives a platform to other conspiracy ideologues like Oliver Janich or Hagen Grell.
Previous criminal charges in Switzerland against Ivo Sasek have remained unsuccessful. After it became known in 2020 that members of the cult had collected personal data on numerous politicians, the Munich public prosecutor’s office also took action, but without any criminal consequences. This shows that the growing influence of Sasek, OCG and Kla.tv also means that they have been targeted by the security authorities.
