AfD politician Björn Höcke is in court for the second time in a matter of weeks for using a banned Nazi slogan. The 52-year-old and his defense attorney are trying everything to stop the trial. But they are failing miserably. Höcke appears unconfident.
He is back again.
The fine gentleman who doesn’t just find the mass murderer Adolf Hitler “evil.”
The extremist who, should he ever come to power, wants to subject the citizens to a policy of “well-tempered cruelty”.
The AfD fighter, whose troops became the strongest force in the European elections in Thuringia with 30.7 percent and who is aiming for government responsibility in the Free State in the autumn.
Shortly after nine, Björn Uwe Höcke, 52, walks purposefully to his place in the dock. He knows the way well. Only in May, the Thuringian AfD leader was sentenced to a fine of 13,000 euros in the high-security room “X 0.1” of the Halle (Saale) regional court.
The 5th Grand Criminal Chamber considered it proven that Höcke had used a banned Nazi slogan of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary arm of the NSDAP. The slogan in question is “Everything for Germany”. The verdict is not yet final.
Unlike in the first trial, Höcke does not want to be photographed this Monday when he enters the courtroom (bulletproof glass, bomb-sniffing dogs, armed guards). “Mr. Höcke does not want to be photographed,” a judicial employee explains to the journalists present in a tone that is only mildly described as harsh.
One wonders: Has Höcke, who is usually so conscious of his mission, suddenly become thin-skinned? Does he feel once again “persecuted” by the evil media? Or does he want to use this method to hurl his unconditional contempt at them, to show them what he thinks of them – namely nothing?
For a public figure who is constantly in the spotlight, the action seems childish, if not downright ridiculous. The only thing missing is for him to have held a file folder in front of his face.
Höcke looks the same as always: dark blue suit, white shirt. However, he seems a little tense. His lips are pressed into a thin line, his eyebrows are furrowed, he is nervously fiddling with his shiny silver tie – especially in the first few minutes, Höcke does not give the impression that he feels completely at home here.
In the current proceedings, the former history teacher, who is now one of the most controversial German politicians, must once again answer for the banned SA slogan.
In December 2023, Höcke is said to have shouted “Everything for . . .” at an AfD event in Gera and used an arm gesture to encourage the approximately 350 listeners to complete the sentence. They then shouted “Germany”. He did this even though he knew at the time that the judiciary was investigating him for using the slogan in 2021.
The public prosecutor’s office accuses him – as it did at the trial in May – of “using symbols of unconstitutional and terrorist organizations.” If convicted, Höcke again faces a fine or up to three years in prison.
The beginning of the trial is characterized by the usual, but mostly transparent and ultimately ineffective attempts by the defense to torpedo, drag out and collapse the process.
Instead of having three renowned defense attorneys as in the first case, Höcke is this time appearing with only two lawyers: his regular counsel Ralf Hornemann and Florian Gempe from Erfurt, who once worked as a district judge himself.
Gempe, a young, tall lawyer with rimless glasses, a red tie and a boyish face, first tries his hand at the art of the frontal attack.
Even before the charges were read out, he criticized the jurisdiction of the court (“locally and substantively”) and the criminal chamber. He also claimed that Höcke was protected from prosecution for the crime he was accused of as a member of the state parliament.
For these reasons, the lawyer demands that the proceedings be stopped. His colleague Hornemann agrees – and immediately sings the well-known song about the alleged unfair treatment of his client.
The lawyer fires one poison arrow after another. His targets: the evil “mainstream media” and, above all, the “public broadcaster”.
He rages against the “one-sided and concerted pre-judgment” of Höcke, speaks of the “barrage of fire” on an allegedly innocent man, of “campaign-like” attempts to destroy him by journalists. He does this in a derogatory, almost disgusted tone, as if he had never heard of freedom of the press and freedom of expression.
Poor Mr Höcke has already suffered incredible “reputational damage” and lost “four working days” because he is being dragged to court on “ridiculous charges,” complains Hornemann. He is the “only one” who is being prosecuted for using the slogan. Everyone else, such as influencer Cathy Hummels, who recently posted “Everything for Germany” on Instagram, is getting off scot-free.
After two long pauses, it is clear: the defense’s desperate attempts to snatch Björn Höcke from the clutches of justice have failed miserably. The always confident presiding judge Jan Stengel makes the following ruling on the defense’s complaints number one to three:
“Rejected.” “Rejected.” “Rejected.”
The course of the trial does not exactly help to fundamentally brighten Höcke’s mood. He takes a few deep breaths and strains to shake his head back and forth. Someone must have whispered to him that his game of hide-and-seek at the beginning of the day wasn’t a particularly brilliant idea. After all, they’re still allowed to take pictures and film him.
Then Höcke stands up and straightens himself. Judge Stengel has given him the floor. The defendant is allowed to comment on the accusations. And Höcke does what one would expect of Höcke: He lashes out verbally, with a fine rhetorical edge, but at the core hard and full of anger.
He was “shocked” by the first verdict against him. It was clearly “wrong”. He spoke of a “farce”. He still does not understand why the slogan “Everything for Germany” is banned. His personal conclusion: “I have now completely lost faith in the German constitutional state.”
Höcke is firmly convinced that the current trial against him “should not even be taking place”. He is – of course and as always – “completely innocent”, he asserts.
However: “I expect another guilty verdict.”
The mere fact that he has to answer to a regional court “for an offense of opinion,” in a wing where “murderers and rapists” are usually sentenced, shows how harshly the justice system is treating him.
Regarding the specific accusation, Höcke explained that he deliberately did not say the entire slogan “Everything for Germany” at the AfD meeting in Gera, but only the first two words. He did not expect that those present would then shout “Germany” and that it was “not clear”. Höcke: “I was surprised in a way.”
Höcke vehemently denies that he encouraged the guests at the event to complete the banned slogan with a sweeping, sweeping arm movement. “It was an open speech in which you spontaneously move your hands.”
In response to repeated questions from the court, which is playing an 80-minute shaky amateur video in the courtroom that captures Höcke’s appearance, he insists: “It was not an invitation!”
Then a brief but symbolic incident occurs.
Höcke is annoyed by a question from the public prosecutor Benedikt Bernzen: “Your semantically incorrect work,” the defendant puffs himself up and leans very close to the microphone, apparently to give even more emphasis to his point. “Try to formulate your words clearly!” he hisses aggressively.
This short episode shows how much value AfD member Höcke places on language, how carefully he handles words – those of others, but also his own. Sharp conceptualization, clear formulations, correctly naming facts – all of this is extremely important to Höcke. It is essential for him. He knows exactly what he is saying, even in spontaneous speeches.
The public prosecutor is apparently convinced of this too. Hence the first indictment. Hence the second indictment. Hence the first verdict of the court. Hence the second trial.
At around 4:15 p.m., almost at the end of a long day of proceedings, Judge Jan Stengel caused a certain amount of hilarity in the courtroom for the first time. Not that he doesn’t love surprises, he said to Höcke’s defense, alluding to a witness they brought forward in the first trial: “But will a history teacher come next time?”
Even Höcke has to grin.
The trial is scheduled to continue this Wednesday, and a verdict may be reached by then.