Far-right leader Björn Höcke was convicted for the second time after uttering the motto of a Hitler paramilitary group: “Alles für Deutschland” (All for Germany).
One of the most controversial figures in Germany’s far-right AfD party, Björn Höcke, was fined again on Monday for using a Nazi slogan, his second conviction in just a few months. The head of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the eastern German state of Thuringia was fined 16,900 euros by a district court in Halle (eastern Germany).
During a rally of his party in December 2023 in Gera (east), Höcke encouraged the public to use the phrase “Everything for Germany” (Everything for Germany). Now this is a motto of the paramilitary group “Storm Division” (SA) that played a key role in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. It is illegal in today’s Germany, as are the Nazi salute and other slogans and symbols from that era. Höcke had asked the audience “all for ?”, encouraging him to respond “Germany”while he was already being prosecuted for having knowingly used this formula himself during a meeting in 2021.
Aged 52, this former history teacher has repeatedly claimed that he was unaware of the slogan’s heavy past, without ever convincing the court. At the end of his first trial for the use of this phrase, he received a fine of 13,000 euros which he appealed. Höcke risked up to three years in prison in this second trial. His radicalism has so far not eroded his popularity in his stronghold of Thuringia where he aspires to become the first head of a far-right regional government following the elections which will be held on September 1. Only a prison sentence of at least six months could have led the court to withdraw his right to vote and result in a measure of ineligibility.
