World
German far-right leader appears to make ‘Hitler salute’ in photo as party surges
JTA — A photo surfaced of a leader in Germany’s far-right party appearing to display a Nazi salute, drawing scrutiny as the party seems poised to grasp unprecedented power in upcoming elections.
Martin Reichardt, a federal lawmaker and member of the Alternative for Germany party, raised his left arm as another man knelt on one knee before him in a photo from 2020. Politico’s Inside AfD podcast published the photo on Wednesday.
Two people who were at the gathering said the gesture was intended as a Nazi salute, according to Politico. The attendees also said the kneeling man, Markus Motschmann, was presenting Reichardt with an application to join the AfD and called him “Mein Führer.” Motschmann has denied using those words.
Reichardt told Politico that his gesture “wasn’t a Hitler salute,” but instead part of “a humorous knighting ceremony.” Reichardt did not respond to a request for comment from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Along with serving in Germany’s parliament, Reichardt chairs the state branch of the AfD in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. The AfD is forecast to surge in this eastern state, near Berlin, in September’s regional elections. Polls say the party could win an outright majority in Saxony-Anhalt, establishing Germany’s first far-right state government since World War II.
The AfD in Saxony-Anhalt has presented an agenda that includes either deporting refugees or moving them into “group homes,” defunding public broadcasters who are deemed unpatriotic, banning gay pride flags in schools and overhauling German life toward large families and social conservatism.
???? Exklusiv @politico-Podcast »Inside AfD«: Der AfD-Bundestagsabgeordnete Martin Reichardt zeigte im Beisein von Parteifreunden einen Hitlergruß. Reichardt ist Sachsen-Anhalt-Landeschef und Beisitzer im Bundesvorstand. Recherche mit @PaulinePezold https://t.co/4itkW7Gn0I pic.twitter.com/yFukeCWAyy
— Frederik Schindler (@FreSchindler) June 24, 2026
The party’s rise to power would puncture the “firewall” that Germany’s mainstream parties have attempted to maintain against the far-right. It would also give a boost to US President Donald Trump, whose administration has staunchly defended the AfD.
Reichardt was among 20 members of the AfD who traveled to New York City in December for the New York Young Republican Club’s annual gala, which also featured antisemitic conspiracy theorists and the editor of a white supremacist website.
Sven Schulze, the Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt, who belongs to the Christian Democratic Union, a conservative party, decried the photo.
“A Hitler salute is a declaration of belief, not a slip-up,” Schulze said in a statement. “Anyone who displays such a thing has no place in a parliament. And anyone who downplays it, remains silent, or sits it out is clearly complicit.”
Schulze also called on Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s candidate to become the next Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt, to expel Reichardt from the party.
The AfD’s Saxony-Anhalt branch defended Reichardt in a statement on X, calling the scrutiny a “cheap attempt to spin a scandal out of nothing.” The party echoed Reichardt’s claim that he was making a “humorous knighting gesture” that was “anything but a Hitler salute.”
Another AfD lawmaker, Matthias Moosdorf, currently faces a criminal charge for allegedly greeting another party member with the Nazi salute inside the Reichstag parliament building, which he denies.
Public displays of Nazi symbols and gestures are illegal under German law. The practice in Nazi Germany was to salute with the right arm, but a Nazi salute with the left arm is equally punishable, according to a regional court ruling in 2024.
