More people from the extreme right-wing spectrum work for members of the Bundestag from the ranks of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) than was previously known, research by Bavarian Radio and Television shows. According to that public service, the AfD parliamentary group employs more than a hundred female and male associates active in organizations that are qualified as extreme right-wing by the German constitutional protection services. Among them are activists close to the "Identity Movement", ideological leaders from the ranks of the "New Right" and several neo-Nazis.
The exact number of collaborators is not known
It is not known exactly how many associates the AfD's 78 MPs employ, only a handful of them list their team members on their website. The Bundestag administration does not provide data on this, and the AfD parliamentary group itself states that it has 182 employed associates, which is the situation as of February 16 of this year.
Journalists from the BR public service managed to get hold of several internal lists of names from the Bundestag. In addition, the team of journalists had insight into the current registers of employees from the Alternative for Germany parliamentary group. In this way, they identified more than 500 persons who, according to available information, work for AfD deputies in the Bundestag and investigated their biographies.
Among them are persons whose names are mentioned in the reports of the services for the protection of the constitution, even those who occupy leading positions in organizations that were the focus of the security services. For example, participants of neo-Nazi marches in Kemnitz, Dortmund, Dresden, Magdeburg and Zwickau were also identified.
Connections with "Reich Citizens" and "Querdenkers"
The lists also include persons who were associated with the group "Citizens of the Reich" or the extreme right-wing group "The Final Battle". There are also some of the founders of the local branches of "Pegida" who organized the so-called demonstrations. "Kverdenker", a supporter of conspiracy theories, as stated by BR.
More than half of AfD MPs employ people active in organizations that the constitutional protection services qualified as extreme right-wing. According to BR's research, among them are the leaders of the faction's parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Alice Weidel and Tino Krupala.
Journalists asked the parliamentary group, MPs and their associates to state their position on the matter, but most of the questions remained unanswered. Some MPs, on the other hand, questioned the independence of the service for the protection of the constitution.
More than 30 million euros per year
The parliamentary group stated that for "reasons of data protection and respect for the right to privacy" they will not make a statement. Also, as the group states, the qualification of the Service for the Protection of the Constitution "is basically only a measure of that particular agency", and it, as it is added, does not imply "automatic legal consequences".
The AfD group and its MPs have more than 30 million euros per year available to pay associates. The vice-president of the German Bundestag, Katrin Göring-Eckardt from the ruling Greens, assessed for BR that the deputies' associates with connections in extreme right-wing circles represent a danger and that their intention is to "undermine democracy from within".
The results of the research are, he says, "disturbing". It should be considered, as Gering-Eckart pointed out, whether the enemies of the constitution working in the Bundestag should continue to be paid with taxpayers' money. "We should change that. We can't just let it continue."
Members of the "New Right"
Actors from the so-called "New Right". It is a current in right-wing extremism that advocates ideological renewal after National Socialism. The activities of the "New Right" include publishing various magazines, they have publishing houses, think tanks, associations and activist groups. Representatives of the "New Right" consider themselves the "forerunner of the AfD".
The "New Right" belongs, for example, to the "One Percent" association, which presents itself as "the largest patriotic civic network in Germany." Its members collect donations and use them to support activists from the right spectrum. Last year, the Federal Service for the Protection of the Constitution classified the "One Percent" group as having a "proven right-wing tendency".
The federal service describes the association as a "project support and networking agency," whose campaigns "flatly denigrate migrants." According to data from the association register, one of the members of the board of directors of "One Percent" is John Hoever.
Martial arts with neo-Nazis
According to information from Bavarian Radio and Television, Hoever works for Bundestag member Sebastian Minzenmeier from the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Hoever established contacts with like-minded people, from the Italian fascists, through the "Identity Movement" to the AfD.
In the photos in BR's possession, he can be seen training martial arts in Berlin in 2021 with neo-Nazis from the NPD party, which was renamed "Homeland" last year.
There are also videos showing Hoever in physical confrontations with left-wing protesters in the amphitheater of the University of Magdeburg in January 2017. Hoever and Minzenmeier did not respond to inquiries from journalists, and neither did the "One Percent" group.
BR journalists identified five associates of the AfD in the Bundestag who have close ties to "One Percent". Also, the authors of the neo-right magazine "Secession", the publishing house "Antaios" and the magazine "Kompakt" work in the Bundestag.
All these structures are supervised by the Federal Service for the Protection of the Constitution. In total, around 20 people with strong ties to "New Right" organizations work in the Bundestag, including those who acted as referents in the extreme right-wing "Institute for State Policy" from Schnelrode.
About 25 people from "Young Alternative"
Members of the Alternative for Germany in the Bundestag also employ people who were too extreme even in the party itself. Thus, on the door of an office in the Bundestag, there is an inscription with the name of Frank Pazeman. In the previous convocation, he himself was an AfD deputy, and in 2020 he was expelled from the party.
In the expulsion procedure, he was accused of behavior that "harms the party" as well as anti-Semitism. According to the sign on the door, he now works for MP Jurgen Pol. Paseman and Pol also did not respond to the journalist's inquiry.
And Marvin Neumann works for an AfD MP. That former president of the "Young Alternative", the young AfD, left the party in 2021 under pressure. He was accused, among other things, of making a statement about "white supremacy". Today he works for Hannes Gnauk from Brandenburg. Neither Neuman nor Gnauk responded to journalists' inquiries.
"Verified right-wing tendencies"
The Service for the Protection of the Constitution classifies "Mlada Alternativa" (JA) as a "verified extreme right-wing aspiration", and this organization is currently defending itself against it in court. According to journalists' research, about 25 members of "Young Alternative" work for the AfD parliamentary group, i.e. its deputies in the Bundestag. Several people who were members of JA and are now over 35 years old also work there. Namely, according to the statute, membership expires when a person turns 35 years old.
AfD provincial committees in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia have also been classified by the competent authorities for the protection of the constitution in those states as extreme right-wing. Dozens of members from those provincial committees now work for AfD MPs. Many of them are active in various anti-constitutional structures, according to BR journalists.
At a time when the services for the protection of the constitution are increasingly focusing on the AfD, and the politicians of the ruling coalition, as well as the opposition, are currently discussing the banning of the Alternative for Germany, BR publishes research that shows for the first time to what extent the AfD has provided enemies of the constitution with access to the German parliament.
Professor of political science Armin Fal-Traugber, who until 2004 was the officer for right-wing extremism in the Federal Service for the Protection of the Constitution, in an interview with the public service ARD indicates that the problem is "that right-wing extremists are really sitting in the organizational heart of democracy in the Federal Republic of Germany ". They can "exercise influence and spread propaganda" there, he says.
Activists of the "Identitarian Movement"
One of the officials is even banned from entering the Bundestag buildings: Mario Müller works for Jan Wenzel Schmidt, an MP from the state of Saxony-Anhalt. In January, the research team "Korektiv" reported that Miller was one of the speakers at the so-called "secret meeting" in Potsdam. The publication of information about that meeting prompted numerous mass protests in Germany.
Miller himself has been present on the extreme right-wing scene since twenty years ago, and he has been convicted several times for crimes related to physical injuries. The newspaper "Welt" was the first to report on his engagement in the Bundestag.
BR journalists have access to photos where Miller can be seen in the environment of the "Young National Democrats", as the youth group of the NPD was previously called. Later, Miller made his mark as a prominent member of the "Identitarian Movement", a network of "New Right" activists.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies members of the "Identitarian Movement" as extreme right-wingers. Photos that BR journalists had access to show Miller in 2023 on a mountain hike with neo-Nazis. Miller did not comment on the journalist's inquiry either.
However, his employer, MP Schmidt, told BR on Friday, during an AfD party event in Saxony-Anhalt: "I am keeping my personnel in the same composition."
As he said, it is important to him that his officers have "high qualifications". And then, turning to the audience, he said: "And I can guarantee that the established parties are rightly afraid of us. They have the right to ask to put us under the supervision of the Service for the Protection of the Constitution. When we come to power, we will change key things."
More than ten people from the environment of the "Identity Movement"
BR has identified more than ten people from the "Identity Movement" environment who work for the AfD parliamentary group, i.e. its deputies. These are activists who participated in demonstrations or protest actions, carried banners or organization flags, wrote for publications from the right-wing scene or were engaged in an identitarian women's group.
This is, for example, Marie-Terese Kaiser, who works for the parliamentary secretary of the AfD, Bernd Baumann. She herself states that she is engaged "in the women's initiative Lucreta". The service for the protection of the constitution of North Rhine-Westphalia states that "Lucreta" is a group of persons with "substantive and personal ties to the Identitarian movement of Germany."
In doing so, Kaiser acts as a content creator. She runs a video format for the association "Jedan dosto". Similar to her boss, she also stated in response to an inquiry that "the classification of the AfD and its opposition space by the Service for the Protection of the Constitution is absolutely politically colored and is therefore not a measure of my political activity."
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