Hall/MZ – In the trial towards the Thuringian AfD politician Björn Höcke, the Halle public prosecutor’s workplace demanded a six-month suspended sentence for the defendant on Tuesday. Public prosecutor Benedikt Bernzen noticed it as confirmed that Höcke used the banned slogan “Everything for Germany” throughout a speech in Merseburg (Saalekreis) in 2021. It was a slogan of the National Socialist Sturmabteilung (SA).
In his last speech, Bernzen defined that along with his speech in Merseburg, Höcke had “revived a forgotten slogan and made it socially acceptable once more”. In his plea, the prosecutor emphasised that Höcke served as a job mannequin as a politician – and a video of the Merseburg speech on a public AfD Facebook web page had been seen a great 21,000 instances inside three years.
Höcke’s legal professionals demand acquittal
additionally learn: Trial in Halle – Höcke asks AfD mates to delete speech video
Bernzen additionally contradicted Höcke’s assertion that he knew nothing in regards to the ban on the SA components. “The defendant’s apparently well-founded vocabulary of Nazi language signifies information of the perpetrator,” defined the general public prosecutor. Bernzen referred to Höcke’s earlier speeches and writings during which uncommon phrases reminiscent of “ruiners of the folks” and “performing elite” appeared. According to the prosecutor, Höcke had clearly studied the language of the National Socialists and “made it his personal.” The public prosecutor accused Höcke of “deliberate border crossings” so as to assault alleged bans on considering and talking.
Höcke: “Believe me, I didn’t know”
Höcke and his protection trio as an alternative referred to as for an acquittal. “Believe me, I didn’t know,” mentioned the AfD politician in his final phrase. “I’m utterly harmless.” His lawyer Ralf Hornemann complained a few “media witch hunt” towards the Thuringian politician. He described the SA slogans as “utterly innocent”. At the identical time, he accused the general public prosecutor of getting made the Nazi slogan identified once more by indicting the AfD politician: “You have introduced this slogan again into the general public consciousness,” mentioned Hornemann.
His protection colleague Philip Müller emphasised that the general public prosecutor’s workplace was unable to show through the trial that Höcke truly knew the SA slogan and its ban on the time of the speech. Höcke is a historical past trainer and has been categorised as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution for years. His defenders additionally emphasised that the slogan “Everything for Germany” had been utilized by varied political organizations because the nineteenth century – together with the social democratic “Reichsbanner” within the Weimar Republic.
AfD politician appears like “politically persecuted”
Höcke defined in courtroom that he felt like a “politically persecuted particular person”. He is already going through a second legal case in Halle as a result of, in line with the general public prosecutor’s workplace, he used the SA slogan once more on the finish of 2023 in Gera, Thuringia. He may even should reply for sedition earlier than the Mühlhausen regional courtroom.
A verdict is anticipated at 7 p.m. At the beginning of the final day of the trial, dozens of demonstrators protested in entrance of the Halle Justice Center on Tuesday morning. They carried banners with slogans like “Björn Höcke is a Nazi.”
Höcke’s lawyer needs to query the previous IfS director in courtroom
In the courtroom on Tuesday morning, earlier than the pleas, Judge Jan Stengel had a video performed during which Höcke used the slogan a second time: In Gera, on the finish of 2023, he first spoke in regards to the upcoming trial in Halle, then intoned the slogan with the phrases “Everything for our homeland, every little thing for Saxony-Anhalt, every little thing for…”. Then, with a wave of his arm, he inspired the viewers to shout “Germany.”
Höcke’s legal professionals tried to show that the slogan is under no circumstances a basic National Socialist slogan. Höcke’s protection legal professional Ulrich Vosgerau surprisingly requested that historian Karlheinz Weißmann be questioned in courtroom: He might testify that the saying “Everything for Germany” had already been used within the nineteenth century.
Weißmann was co-founder and, till 2014, one of many heads of the brand new right-wing “Institute for State Policy” in Schnellroda (Saalekreis). In 2014 he left the institute, which was categorised as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in 2021. It has now been dissolved.
“Everything for Germany” was written on each SA service dagger
Weißmann mentioned in courtroom that the SA slogan “Everything for Germany” had “no sturdy presence” beneath National Socialism. However, it was on each service dagger of the previous “Sturmabteilung”. According to SA service laws, these weapons had been a part of the uniform of each “sturmmann”. “There is little question in regards to the mass distribution of this service dagger,” says Weißmann. By the early Thirties, the SA had grown right into a mass group with hundreds of thousands of members. The slogan additionally seems in a Hitler Youth songbook, says Weißmann: as a chorus.
Nevertheless, the historian believes that it’s “a quixotic evaluation” that the slogan “Everything for Germany” continues to be utilized in historical past classes or research at the moment. Höcke had additionally argued that the defendant didn’t even know the slogan. Weißmann additionally mentioned: Other organizations within the Weimar Republic additionally used the components: for instance the Social Democratic Reichsbanner, the Stahlhelm or the Iron Front.