Factsheet: Björn Höcke

IMPACT: Björn Uwe Höcke is a German politician. He is a member of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and leads its chapter in the state of Thuringia. In 2024, this chapter won the state election, the first time a far-right party won in an election since the Nazi era. Höcke has echoed Nazi language, described the Holocaust Museum as a “monument of shame,” has a record of making anti-Islam statements, and argued that Muslims are not welcome in Germany.

Björn Höcke is a former PE and history teacher from North Rhine-Westphalia. He was once briefly a member of the Young Union (Junge Union), a youth organization of the Christian Democratic Union (Christlich Demokratische Union, CDU). Later, he co-founded the Thuringia chapter of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, and he was elected to the state parliament in 2014.

In a 2017 speech given in Dresden, Germany, Höcke criticized the Berlin Holocaust Memorial, describing it as a“monument of shame”. Kai Arzheimer, a political scientist at Mainz University, accused Höcke of  “whitewashing” Nazi crimes stating, “Björn Höcke … is really a quite old-fashioned, right-wing extremist… He’s not just a radical. He’s not just opposed to immigration. He is really one who favors rewriting German history.” Following his controversial statements in 2017, the AfD’s Federal Executive Committee started expulsion proceedings against Höcke, which was rejected by the AfD Thuringia’s Court of Arbitration. For some time, Höcke was seen as “a burden” for the party. The AfD’s Chancellor candidate and co-chair Alice Weidel, who initially wanted him out, later reconciled and praised him following his electoral success in the state of Thuringia, where the AfD became strongest in September 2024 under his leadership, receiving 32.8 percent of the total votes.

In 2016, Andreas Kemper, a German sociologist claimed to have identified more than a dozen instances where Höcke echoed Nazi language, including calling for Germany to stop atoning for Nazi crimes and make a “180-degree turn” in how it remembers its past. In May 2021, a Green politician brought a criminal complaint against Höcke for using the slogan “Everything for Germany” used by the Nazi SA paramilitary unit. Höcke has used the phrase on several occasions, even defending his usage stating, “In a campaign speech, expressing love for my country and urging compatriots to give everything for Germany in its current volatile position is not a Nazi slogan”. In May of 2024, Höcke was fined the equivalent of $13,000 for using a Nazi slogan.

In a January 2016 piece for The Irish Times, journalist Darek Scally described Höcke as having a “unique political sound and style of provocation.” Scally noted that Höcke’s “public speeches are so full of volk und vaterland language that German television ran a quiz – generating further free publicity – asking viewers which quotes were his and which originated with Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.” Scally quoted Hocke’s anti-immigrant views, including Höcke stating that, “‘Germany is not up for negotiation’, and the argument that Germany can only survive by welcoming immigrants who share its values, not a religion like Islam with an ‘archaic attitude to women’”.

In May of 2016, Höcke described a mosque project in Erfurt as a “long-term land grabbing project” and proclaimed to introduce a “set of measures” to thwart the endeavor. The official opposition to the mosque project kicked off with a concert in May 2016, under the motto “Our Land, Our Culture, Our Decision,” and the event featured a welcome speech by representatives of the anti-Islam PEGIDA movement. During the rally, Höcke chanted to the crowd: “AfD! No to the mosque!” to which the crowd responded:  “Opposition! Opposition!” Later, the media reported that “the mosque was pelted with pork and had metre-high crosses erected on it.” Local Muslim representatives received death threats on social media and threatening phone calls.

During a speech he gave in May 2016, Höcke said: “Either Islam de-escalates in Europe, or it is banished from Europe”, and  “No to tolerance that leads to self-abandonment.”

In an October 2016 interview with CBN News, Höcke was asked, “I assume that you think a big problem with the migrants coming into Germany is that they are Muslim?”, to which he responded, “Yes it’s a big problem. We are still a nation with a Christian imprint. Even though we have many atheists in Germany and in Europe, our values are from a Christian foundation. Islam is a religion that never reformed. It stayed in the Middle Ages. And I, living in Europe, don’t want to adjust myself to Islamic values from the Middle Ages. I’m of the solid conviction that we can’t take in millions of Muslims and integrate them into Germany and Europe.”

A May 2016 piece in Wirtschafts Woche stated that “Höcke has provided no discernible indication that he fully supports religious freedom. On the contrary, he has openly questioned this fundamental right on several occasions.” In a March 2016 interview, Höcke was asked whether Islam can be protected under religious freedom, to which he replied, “No. Religious freedom is not a super-fundamental right.”

In May 2016, Höcke described Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders, who has a documented history of making anti-Muslim comments, as an “admirable fighter for free speech.”

In March 2017, Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, said, “Björn Höcke should never have been interviewed. What he said in his speech in Dresden and his interview with the ‘Wall Street Journal‘ was absolutely shocking and repulsive. He sounded like an apologist for Hitler. It is clear to me that AfD party panders to the extreme-right. They are playing with fire.”

In 2017, an Intercept piece noted that the Gatestone Institute, an online platform that publishes a steady stream of content aimed at stoking fears of a Muslim takeover of Europe and America, with many articles warning that increasing Muslim migration to Europe will lead to the “Islamization” of the continent, has published several articles elevating Höcke. The piece also stated that Gatestone articles are “regularly reprinted by far-right German blogs and web forums that are popular among AfD’s grassroots base.”

In November 2017, Björn Höcke spoke at an event organized by the far-right think tank Institute for State Politics (Institut für Staatspolitik) on the topic “Storm on Europe,” arguing that there were “different reproductive strategies of Africans and Europeans” that clash with each other.

During a party rally in January 2018, Björn Höcke said: “Once we come into power, we will enforce what is necessary for us to live our lives freely. We will issue the directive that after crossing the Bosporus, the three great M’s: Mohammed, Muezzin and minaret are over, dear friends!” He further said that Islam was naturally home in “the Orient” and “Sub-Saharan Africa” (Schwarzafrika, literally ‘Black Africa’).

In a 2018 publication, Höcke wrote that in the future, Germany must expect that “we will unfortunately lose a few sections of the population” that “are too weak or unwilling to resist the advancing Africanisation, Orientalisation and Islamisation”, and stated that the party fully and openly embraces the idea of ​​“remigration”.

In 2019, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency placed the AFD’s Thuringia wing – also referred to as Der Flügel (the camp) – under surveillance based on a 436-page report, which referred to Höcke more than 600 times and to Islam more than 486 times.

Höcke is widely considered in the media as “the party’s most significant figure in its eastern heartland.” In February 2020, he “helped trigger a national crisis in February 2020 by helping a liberal candidate become state premier in Thuringia. Not since World War Two had the far right played kingmaker in German politics.”

In February 2020, Höcke participated in PEGIDA’s 200th demonstration in the city of Dresden.

In 2024, the French Le Monde described him as “one of the most radical voices in the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party.”