Björn Höcke

Björn Höcke (born 1 April 1972) is a German politician and a member of Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

Along with Andreas Kalbitz, Höcke was the leader of the AfD's far-right Der Flügel faction, which the German government's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution declared a right-wing extremist organization.

Björn Höcke was born in Lünen, Westphalia.

His grandparents were expelled Germans from East Prussia.

He took his Abitur at the Rhein-Wied-Gymnasium, Neuwied, in 1991.

Höcke studied sport and history at University of Giessen and at University of Marburg before working as a teacher.

He taught at the Rhenanus School, a comprehensive school in Bad Sooden-Allendorf.

Höcke was a short-time member of the Junge Union.

As one of the founders of AfD Thuringia, he became Member of the Landtag of Thuringia, the state assembly of the federal state of Thuringia in Germany during the 2014 Thuringian state election.

Höcke is the speaker of the parliamentary group of the AfD and he is the spokesman of the Thuringia Regional Association (Landesverband) of his party.

He is said to be part of the "national-conservative wing" of the AfD.

His faction of the party is known as the Flügel (the Wing) and 40 percent of the AfD party members identify themselves with it.

In a 2014 email to party colleagues, Höcke advocated the abolition of section 86 of the German Criminal Code (which prohibits the spread of propaganda by unconstitutional organizations) and section 130 of the German Criminal Code (which criminalizes incitement to hatred towards other groups).

This would also have legalized Holocaust denial, which is illegal in Germany.

In 2015 Höcke was accused of having contributed to Heise's journal People in Motion (Volk in Bewegung) and The Reichsbote under a pseudonym ("Landolf Ladig").

Höcke denied having ever written for NPD papers, but refused to give a statutory declaration as demanded by the AfD Federal Executive Board.

In 2017, Höcke stated "dear young African men: for you there is no future and no home in Germany and in Europe!"

Höcke has called for more Prussian virtues and promotes natalist views, specifically the "three-child family as a political and social model."

He opposes gender mainstreaming and demands an end of what he calls "social experiments" that undermine what he deems the "natural gender order."

He opposes the mainstreaming of students with disabilities, calling for such students to go to separate schools, and opposes school sexual education, which he regards as "early sexualization of the students," and wants to "stop the dissolution of the natural polarity of the two sexes".

Höcke has links with neo-Nazi circles in Germany.

Höcke has written with Thorsten Heise, a leader of NPD.

Höcke gave a speech in Dresden in January 2017, in which, referring to the Holocaust memorial in Berlin (the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe), he stated that "we Germans are the only people in the world who have planted a memorial of shame in the heart of their capital" and suggested that Germans "need to make a 180 degree change in their commemoration policy".

The speech was widely criticized as antisemitic, among others by Jewish leaders in Germany, and he was described by his party chairwoman, Frauke Petry, in response as a "burden to the party".

As a result of his speech, the majority of leaders of the AfD asked in February 2017 that Björn Höcke be expelled from the party.

In September 2019, Höcke threatened "massive consequences" to a ZDF journalist who refused to restart an interview after a series of difficult questions and after asking fellow party members whether various quotes are from his book or from Hitler's Mein Kampf.

During the 2019 Thuringian state election, the AfD under the leadership of Höcke more than doubled its vote share to 23%, overtaking the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to place second.

In 2021 Jörg Meuthen, moderate co-leader of AfD was trying to remove him from the party due to his racism, but failed.

This led to Meuthen Ultimately quitting himself in 2022.

In November 2021, Höcke's parliamentary immunity in the Landtag of Thuringia was cancelled.

He was accused to have ended a speech in May with a phrase used by the SA whose use is illegal under insignia legislation.

The phrase was "Everything for Germany".

In June 2023 Höcke was charged.

Höcke espouses far-right views.

Political scientists such as Gero Neugebauer and Hajo Funke have commented that Höcke's opinions are close to the National Democratic Party of Germany and consider his statements völkisch, racist and fascist.

In September 2019, a German court ruled that describing Höcke as fascist was not libellous.

However, a later court ruling in 2020 ruled against the FDP politician Sebastian Czaja for stating that the court ruling had classified Höcke as a fascist.

Regarding the European migrant crisis, Höcke opposes Germany's asylum policy, leading regular demonstrations in Erfurt against the federal government's asylum policy, which regularly attracted several thousand sympathizers.

He opposes the euro, favoring a return to national currencies.

He is reported to have declared that if Europe keeps on taking in immigrants, the African "reproductive behavior" will not change.