[1] Joel was attracted to right wing politics and in 1920 joined Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund, the largest, most active, and most influential anti-Semitic federation in Germany.

On 29 March 1936 he was elected a deputy to the German Reichstag from electoral constituency 14 (Weser-Ems) serving until the end of the Nazi regime.

A member of the Sturmabteilung (SA), he attained the rank of SA-Brigadeführer on 9 November 1937 and was assigned to the leadership corps of SA-Gruppe Nordsee.

[2] In the closing days of the Second World War Gauleiter Paul Wegener was made Supreme Reich Defense Commissioner-North and left for Flensburg.

Following procedures by the Denazification Court in Bielefeld, he was classified as Category III (a lesser offender) and sentenced on 16 June 1949 to two years in prison, with partial credit for time served.

[5] In 1955 Joel reentered politics and joined the Deutsche Reichspartei (German Reich Party, DRP), a far-right, nationalist and Neo-Nazi group.

Joel was a member of its party executive committee and editor of their weekly newspaper Deutsche Nachrichten (German News).

[5] Until the end of his life, Joel remained an unrepentant Nazi sympathizer and denied the criminal character of the National Socialist regime.