Wikipedia's first sentence called it “german lawyer and advocate of radical ideologies”. Today it says “german lawyer and political activist”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “German former lawyer and political activist (born 1936)”. It now reads “German political activist (born 1936)”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the October 6, 2023 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in October 6, 2023
Horst Mahler (born 23 January 1936) is a German former lawyer and political activist. He once was a far-left militant and a founding member of the Red Army Faction who later became a Maoist , before switching to neo-Nazism .1 Between 2000 and 2003, he was a member of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany . Since 2003, he has repeatedly been convicted of Volksverhetzung ("incitement of popular hatred") and Holocaust denial , and he served much of a twelve-year prison sentence. In April 2017, Mahler was ordered back to prison for a further three and a half years. On 18 April 2017, he fled the Federal Republic of Germany, hoping to avoid execution of the sentence. His attempt to receive political asylum in Hungary was rejected, and he was deported back to Germany, where he was arrested and put back in jail to finish serving his sentence. (in German) Mahler kein Anwalt mehr , n-tv.de, 19 August 2009.
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1172197530.
The opening as it stood in 2010
revolution biography Horst Mahler (born 23 January 1936 in Haynau , Lower Silesia , Germany , now Chojnów, Poland ) is a German lawyer and advocate of radical ideologies. He once was an extreme-left militant, a founding member of the Red Army Faction . Subsequently he became a Maoist and later shifted to the extreme-right. He was for a time a member of the National Democratic Party of Germany .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 360330656.
The opening as it stood in 2015 3 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Horst Mahler (born 23 January 1936) is a German former lawyer and political activist.He once was an extreme-left militant and a founding member of the Red Army Faction , but later became a Maoist before switching to the extreme right .Between 2000 and 2003, he was a member of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany .Since 2003, he has repeatedly been convicted of Volksverhetzung ("incitement of popular hatred") and Holocaust denial and is currently serving a twelve-year prison sentence. icon Mahler kein Anwalt mehr , n-tv.de, 19 August 2009.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 664715538.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Horst Mahler (born 23 January 1936) is a German former lawyer and political activist. He once was an extreme-left militant and a founding member of the Red Army Faction (RAF, also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group) but later became a Maoist before switching to neo-Nazism . Between 2000 and 2003, he was a member of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany . Since 2003, he has repeatedly been convicted of Volksverhetzung ("incitement of popular hatred") and Holocaust denial and served much of a twelve-year prison sentence.In April 2017, he was ordered back to prison for a further three and a half years, and on 18 April 2017 Mahler fled the Federal Republic of Germany, hoping to avoid the execution of the sentence.His attempt to receive political asylum in Hungary was rejected, and he was deported back to Germany, where he was arrested and put back in jail to finish serving his sentence.(in German) Mahler kein Anwalt mehr , n-tv.de, August 19, 2009.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 960447761.
The opening as it stood in 2025
German political activist (born 1936) Horst Mahler (born 23 January 1936) is a German former lawyer and political activist. He once was a far-left militant and a founding member of the Red Army Faction before later switching to neo-Nazism . Between 2000 and 2003, he was a member of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany . Since 2003, he has repeatedly been convicted of Volksverhetzung ("incitement of popular hatred") and Holocaust denial , and he served much of a twelve-year prison sentence. In April 2017, Mahler was ordered back to prison for a further three and a half years. On 18 April 2017, he fled the Federal Republic of Germany, hoping to avoid execution of the sentence. His attempt to receive political asylum in Hungary was rejected, and he was deported back to Germany, where he was arrested and put back in jail to finish serving his sentence. (in German) Mahler kein Anwalt mehr , n-tv.de, 19 August 2009.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1291007641. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “german lawyer and advocate of radical ideologies”. Today it says “german lawyer and political activist”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “German former lawyer and political activist (born 1936)”. It now reads “German political activist (born 1936)”. Read the current article and compare.
2010
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2020
Oct '23
2025
militant
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Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2010, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
german lawyer and advocate of radical ideologies
Now
german lawyer and political activist
Sections that no longer exist
Present on October 6, 2023, absent today, with no near-matching heading in the current article and the article shorter overall, so this is not a renamed heading or a topic absorbed into a fuller treatment. 1 section of 400 characters or more gone since October 6 2023, with the article 512 characters shorter.
Since late 2003
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
