Der Flügel (German pronunciation:[deːɐˈflyːɡl̩], lit.'The Wing') is a far-right faction within Germany's Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD), a right-wing populistopposition party.[1] The group was led by Björn Höcke and Andreas Kalbitz (banned from AfD in 2020).[2] Approximately 20 percent of AfD members are organized also in the "Flügel".[3] Following the request by the AfD executive board to dissolve Der Flügel by the end of April 2020, the group's online presence went offline. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) has no reliable knowledge of an actual dissolution. Within the party, Der Flügel now calls itself the "social-patriotic faction".[4]
At the time of the de jure dissolution, according to BfV, one out of five AfD members belonged to Der Flügel.[5]
History
In March 2015, Björn Höcke and André Poggenburg, then chairman of the AfD Saxony-Anhalt, initiated the “Erfurt Declaration” (Erfurter Resolution). The ethnic-nationalist movement “The Wing” then formed.[6]Der Flügel's founding document, the Erfurt Declaration of 2015, describes AfD as a "resistance movement against the further erosion of the identity of Germany."[7] Henry Bernhard of DLF wrote in 2019 that the group's radicalization was apparent at the group's annual meetings (Kyffhäusertreffen), with the group increasingly accepting "racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, historical revisionism," and the downplaying of Nazi crimes.[7] Höcke and Kalbitz are controversial for their links to neo-Nazi groups.[1][8]
Der Flügel turned against the course of the AfD party founder Bernd Lucke and forced the power struggle within the party. At the Essen party convent in July 2015 there was a test of strength at which Bernd Lucke appeared. The national conservative Frauke Petry was elected as party chairwoman and Bernd Lucke withdrew from the AfD.[6]
The group attained a dominant position in the AfD associations of several states in eastern Germany, particularly Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia.[7] In 2020, the group was estimated to have some 7,000 members, constituting one-fifth of the AfD's total membership.[1] The group has been the subject of internal party battles within the AfD, where relative moderates within the party have opposed the influence of extremist elements.[1] Leading AfD politicians, like AfD chairman Jörg Meuthen, criticized Höcke's "personality cult" but not necessarily his far-right political positions.[9]
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) classified Der Flügel in January 2019 as a suspected case of right-wing extremism, since its "propagated policy concept was aimed at exclusion, contempt and deprivation of rights of foreigners, migrants, especially Muslims, and politically dissenting people."[7] In March 2020, the BfV classified Der Flügel as "a right-wing extremist endeavor against the free democratic basic order" that was incompatible with Germany's Basic Law, and placed the group under intelligence surveillance, with the BfV chief describing right-wing extremism as the biggest threat to German democracy.[10][11][8][12] Following the BfV's announcement, the AfD's national leaders demanded the dissolution of Der Flügel, and Höcke and Kalbitz asked members to "cease their activities."[1] However, Der Flügel members were not asked to leave the AfD, and in their announcement of the group's disbandment, Höcke and Kalbitz wrote that, "In principle, it is not possible to dissolve what does not formally exist."[1] The pair also retained their leadership positions in two of the AfD's state associations.[1]
In January 2022, Meuthen declared that he would resign from the party chairmanship with immediate effect and resign from the AfD.[13] He justified this with the fact that he had lost the power struggle with the formally dissolved right-wing extremist Der Flügel over the political direction of AfD. Meuthen criticized that the party had developed far to the right and was in large parts no longer concurrent with the Liberal democratic basic order in Germany.[4][14]
Notable persons
Björn Höcke, leader of Der Flügel, at a rally for a 2019 state election
^Balser, Markus (15 November 2020). "Der Rauswurf des Dritten Manns". Süddeutsche.de (in German). Archived from the original on 19 January 2022. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
^Zeitung, Süddeutsche (23 March 2020). "AfD-Flügel in Hessen hört auf". Süddeutsche.de (in German). Archived from the original on 29 August 2023. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
