André Poggenburg (born 1975 in

Weißenfels Weißenfels (; often written in English as Weissenfels) is the largest town of the Burgenlandkreis district, in southern Saxony-Anhalt, central Germany. It is situated on the river Saale, approximately south of Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Halle. His ...

Bezirk Halle The Bezirk Halle was a district (''Bezirk'') of East Germany. The administrative seat and the main town was Halle. History The district was established, with the other 13, on 25 July 1952, substituting the old German states. After 3 October 19 ...

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

) is a German politician and former member of the

Alternative for Germany Alternative for Germany (, AfD, ) is a Far-right politics in Germany (1945–present), far-right,Far-right: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Right-wing populism, right-wing populist and National conservatism, national-conservative p ...

(AfD) party. He was state chairman of the party in the federal state of

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a States of Germany, state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the List of German states ...

and was leading candidate for the

2016 Saxony-Anhalt state election The 2016 Saxony-Anhalt state election was held on 13 March 2016 to elect the members of the 7th Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt. The incumbent Grand coalition (Germany), grand coalition of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, Christian Democratic U ...

s. The AfD gained 24.2 percent of the votes and is now the second largest political force in Saxony-Anhalt. After a 2017 leak of his WhatsApp chat, Poggenburg was found to be using the neo-Nazi slogan, "Germany for the Germans". In 2018 he was forced to resign after referring to Germans of Turkish origin as "fatherless vermin" and "camel drivers", who should go back to their "mud huts" and "multiple wives". In spite of this, he remained a member of the AfD federal board until January 2019.

Biography

Poggenburg described himself as a "national conservative".AfD-Wahlsieg als Weg aus dem privaten Finanzdesaster

Die Welt (, ) is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group and it is considered a newspaper of record in Germany. Its leading competitors are the ...

, in German He worked as a merchant and equipment manufacturer. He led a company together with his stepfather and founded his own business organization for manufacturing machines in

Stößen Stößen () is a town in the Burgenlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated southeast of Naumburg. It is part of the ''Verbandsgemeinde A (; plural ) is a low-level administrative division, administrative unit in the Germa ...

in 1996. He managed a repair company for car radiators, which moved to Gut Nöbeditz in 2008 and ceased operations on New Year's Eve 2015.Ein Rechtsausleger

Frankfurter Allgemeine The (; ''FAZ''; "Frankfurt General Newspaper") is a German newspaper founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt and is considered a newspaper of record for Germany. Its Sunday edition is the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung'' ( ...

, in German Poggenburg is unmarried. There were reports about financial problems of Poggenburg before the elections. According to Poggenburg, these reports were "strongly exaggerated". He was highly criticised in the social and broadcast media for prematurely blaming Merkel's open refugee policy for the 2016 Munich shooting. The shooter's motive was ultimately ascertained as enacting revenge on his classmates for bullying. Poggenburg resigned as regional party leader for AfD in 2018 after labeling Turks as "camel drivers" and immigrants with dual nationality a "homeless mob we no longer want to have." He left the party in January 2019 to form his own far-right party, '' Aufbruch der deutschen Patrioten'' ("Awakening of German Patriots", AdP), but the party immediately came under criticism when it announced that it would use a logo which included a blue cornflower, a symbol associated with the anti-Semitic Schoenerer Movement which was also used by banned Austrian Nazis in the 1930s before the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

in 1938 united Austria with

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. Poggenburg has been criticized in the past for his use of vocabulary redolent of Nazi-era Germany. In August 2019 Poggenburg left his party creation AdP after he lost an infight about the question of supporting the AfD in the upcoming state elections of fall 2019 in Saxony and Brandenburg. Poggenburg later endorsed the

Freie Sachsen Freie Sachsen () is a far-right monarchist, autonomist, and secessionist movement within the German State of Saxony. It seeks to restore the former Kingdom of Saxony through an autonomist government or a "Saexit if Necessary". History Foundi ...

(Free Saxons) for the

2024 Saxony state election 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is a square number, the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. Evolution of the H ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poggenburg, Andre 1975 births Living people People from Weißenfels People from Bezirk Halle Members of the Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt