In the early 1990s Althans emerged as a press representative for German neo-Nazism, taking advantage of his rhetoric, which allowed him to seem sophisticated, his imposing personal appearance (6 feet, 4 inches tall) and his fluency in French and English. At the time he had his own office in a high-end district of Munich with a picture of Adolf Hitler displayed in the window. Althans used computers to organise hate group events disguised as protests, with one example being the Rostock-Lichtenhagen riots, which were violent xenophobic riots and the worst mob attacks against migrants in postwar Germany. Stones and petrol bombs were thrown at an apartment block where refugees lived, a location chosen by Althans, but luckily, no one was killed.