About Wagner Group:
- What is it? The Wagner Group also known as PMC Wagner is a Russian paramilitary organization.
- Origin: The group is believed to have been founded in 2014 by a Russian veteran of the Chechen war who so admired Hitler he named the group after Richard Wagner, the führer's favorite composer.
- The skull is the symbol of the Wagner Group.
- The organization first came to the world's attention in 2014, fighting alongside Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
- The organization has also been active across Africa in recent years — Libya, Sudan, Mozambique, Mali and the Central African Republic.
- Today there are thought to be some 10,000 Wagner Group members.
- The S. government has called Wagner a "proxy force" of Russia's defense ministry.
What does the term ‘führer’ mean?
- Führer, also spelled Fuehrer means leader.
- It is a title used by Adolf Hitler to define his role of absolute authority.
- As early as July 1921 he had declared the Führerprinzip (“leader principle”) to be the law of the Nazi Party.
