In the Bundestag and in the state parliaments, numerous AfD members and employees belong to relevant fraternities. This is what research by the ARD political magazine “Report Mainz” revealed.

Accordingly, more than 50 members of parliament have ties to student associations. Most of them are members themselves, often in fraternities and those that are part of the controversial umbrella organization “Deutsche Burschenschaft” (DB). Experts consider this to be particularly right-wing. Other MPs employ people from this milieu or have already given lectures in fraternity houses.

According to the research, there are also around 60 employees. They work for the AfD factions in the Bundestag, the European Parliament and the state parliaments or for individual members of parliament. In this role, for example, they write speeches, do press work and have access to important information in parliament. Most of them also have a connection to the “German Fraternity”.

References to such fraternities can be found even among top AfD personnel. Faction and party leader Alice Weidel employs three men who are members of corresponding fraternities. This includes, for example, her office manager and press spokesman.

The AfD’s top candidate for the European elections, Maximilian Krah, has an employee who belongs to the controversial Berlin fraternity “Gothia”. This recently came under criticism because of suspected right-wing extremist tendencies.

Political scientist Alexandra Kurth from the University of Giessen, who has been researching fraternities for many years, is concerned about the research. Some of the more than 100 politicians and employees came from more moderate backgrounds. But those with connections to relevant fraternities are clearly in the majority. “The size of the number shocks me,” said Kurth in an interview with “Report Mainz”. The research makes it clear that there is “a right-wing extremist network of fraternity members” within the AfD. “I consider this network to be highly dangerous, as it will certainly contribute to shifting the ideological orientation of the AfD even further to the right,” said Kurth.

Neither parliamentary group leader Alice Weidel nor EU leading candidate Maximilian Krah commented on the research by “Report Mainz”. The party executive also left a request unanswered.

For the analysis, the ARD political magazine “Report Mainz” systematically examined for the first time the salaries of members of parliament and employees in the Bundestag, all 16 state parliaments and the European Parliament to student associations with the help of insiders, documents and tips from journalists from Bavarian Radio. Information from anti-fascist research groups such as the Autonomous Antifa Freiburg was also checked. The analysis is part of the research for the “Report Mainz” documentary “Brown Fraternities – the right-wing extremist network of the AfD”.

You can see this in the ARD media library or on television on May 14th, 9:45 p.m. on ARD.