Germany: Convicted for Nazi slogan, far-right leader claims ignorance

The trial of one of the most radical figures of the German far right, Björn Höcke, who is on trial for using a Nazi slogan, began on Thursday in the east of the country, where the movement hopes to soon make a statement during key regional elections.

The chaotic first hearings in the case of the leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party were interrupted several times due to various requests from his lawyers.

In particular, they wanted everything recorded because of the “historical dimension” of the trial, which they want to be “fair.” The petition was rejected by the court.

Furious that he was repeatedly blocked from reading the indictment, one of the two prosecutors, Benedict Bernsen, criticized the lawyers for their disruptive behavior. “This is outrageous,” he said.

With a slight smile, Bjorn Höcke, dressed in a dark suit and sky blue tie, entered the courtroom, looking at the prosecutors for a long time.

“Bjorn Hoecke is a Nazi”

Four and a half months before elections in Thuringia, the region of the former communist East Germany where Björn Höcke dreams of taking power, special attention is being paid to the process in Halle, in the neighboring state of Saxony-Anhalt. Elections are also planned in Saxony and Brandenburg in the fall.

Several hundred demonstrators, waving banners reading “Stop AfD” or “Bjorn Höcke is a Nazi” and shouting slogans against the far right, gathered outside the court, surrounded by police.

Founded in 2013, the AfD has seen a surge in opinion polls since the summer, but has fallen back a bit recently due to very radical positions within its ranks, especially regarding the expulsion of foreigners from Germany.

“For voters in this region, Höcke’s conviction by the court will not change anything, because they are convinced that democratic institutions are angry with him,” Johannes Kiss, a political scientist at the University of Leipzig, in Saxony, tells AFP. “On the other hand, for AfD supporters in the west of the country, this process is damaging to the party’s image,” the political scientist adds.

Before the European elections, the AfD leader is working to demonize his image. In a televised duel a week ago, he said his party’s “remigration” concept was aimed at bringing back Germans living abroad rather than expelling foreigners from Germany.

One of its main candidates in June’s European elections was also accused of receiving money from a Moscow-funded propaganda network.

A Nazi motto that the AfD leader claims he doesn’t know

Björn Höcke is on trial for declaring “Everything for our homeland, everything for Saxony-Anhalt, everything for Germany” during an election rally in late May 2021 in Merseburg, near Halle.

However, the motto “Everything for Germany” was used by the SA, a paramilitary formation of the Nazi Party that played an important role in Hitler’s conquest of power. A 52-year-old German who taught high school history for fifteen years claims he did not know it.

In Germany, where the law strictly prohibits the use of Nazi slogans or public display of Third Reich symbols, this offense is punishable by up to three years in prison.

“Monument of Shame”

The verdict could theoretically complicate the nomination of a candidate for election for a judge accustomed to verbal provocations. In January 2017, he called the Berlin Holocaust Memorial a “monument of shame” and was considered expelled from the party.

Standing sideways, this slender man with steely blue eyes calls for a break with the culture of repentance for Nazi crimes that has become the basis of the post-war period in the country. Björn Höcke grew up in western Germany in a far-right family.

The spring of 2013 marked the starting point of the political rise of this father of four: he was one of the founders of the regional AfD branch in Thuringia, where he had moved five years earlier.

In August of the same year he became its president. Due to the extremely extreme positions of the AfD in Thuringia, as well as in Saxony-Anhalt, it found itself under the surveillance of the intelligence services.