A terrible German family - the Neukölln AfD between Biedermeier craftsmen, new-right teachers and young people on the wrong track

Previous research had already highlighted how the Neukölln AfD wanted to give itself a more serious image through personnel changes and professionalized work by the BVV parliamentary group (https://de.indymedia.org/sites/default/files/2023/09/Recherche-Brosch%C3%BCre_2023_final_farben_web_cleaned.pdf). Especially before the 2021 election, there were reports about the involvement of the then district board memberTilo Paulenzin the joint series of attacks with the neo-Nazi networkSebastian ThomasandOliver Werner, participation in violent clashes at TSV Rudow games and other connections between then AfD district councilors and right-wing hooligan groups influenced the party's external image.

For several years now, it has primarily been a male trio consisting of the spokesman for the district association and a member of the House of RepresentativesRobert Eschricht, the deputy speaker and BVV parliamentary group leaderJulian Potthastand the district treasurerHendrik Paulithe public face of the district association.

Robert Eschricht joined the AfD parliamentary group in the Berlin House of Representatives in 2023 through an overhang mandate and acts there as spokesman for culture and media. With this focus, Eschricht, who is running for the 2026 election in the promising state list position 12, also sees networking in the right-wing extremist front as a particularly important task. What is particularly striking is the proximity to the one that has since been banned in 2024COMPACT Magazine. Not least during the election campaign, Eschricht and Hendrik Pauli particularly used the reach of COMPACT-TV's video formats for interviews and even a kind of home story tour with the right-wing extremist presenter Paul Klemm through the district. There are particularly close connections to Eschricht through the cameraman of the current Compact productions, who is already working as aEschrich employeeworked for the House of Representatives parliamentary group and accompanied him on several shoots - for example when he took part in the fundamentalist "March for Life" in September 2025 - and staged it on the parliamentary group's YouTube channel. 

Hendrik Pauli was one of many AfD members present at the annual anti-feminist march of abortion opponents. The teacher at the Staakener Kleeblatt school succeeded despite the public scandalization of his past in the context of the Identitarian movement, a job termination and further discussion of threats from political opponents (cf.https://antifa-berlin.info/news/1380-hendrik-paul-afdib-in-nordneuklln-geoutet) to remain anchored in the Neukölln AfD. With 21st place on the state list, Pauli can also hope to get into the AGH and continue to promote networking in the right-wing extremist front, which also extends beyond the media sector. Under the motto “Friends of Resistance Literature,” Pauli organized a bus trip to the “alternative book fair Seitenwechsel” in Halle (Saale) in November 2025 in order to stock up on new right-wing merchandise, for example from Götz Kubitschek's Antaios Verlag, as did other members of the Neukölln AfD. Within Berlin, Pauli is particularly associated with the “state repair” in Lichterfelde, which was organized byAndreas Wildand the former Neukölln district councilorAnne Funk(at that time Zielisch) was operated. In addition to a mixture of new right and conspiracy ideology events and AfD festivals (at which Robert Eschricht has also been a guest) in the location, the lectures byMartin Sellnerin recent years. In addition to Hendrik Pauli, the district councilor also took partMarlies Beckerin June 2025 on a previous day Sellner's part on the topic of “remigration”. Becker has been part of the state repair community for years and is a supporting member of the “Friends of State Repair” sponsoring association.

The second spokesman for the district association, Julian Potthast, also has a professional involvement with the media and, after working as an employee for MdB Götz Frömming, continues to work for the AfD parliamentary group as head of the media department there. In the election, Potthast is running for a direct mandate in the House of Representatives in Britz and Buckow in the southwest, but is focusing on his work in the district assembly, where he has been the most frequent speaker in his group since 2021. The focus was, among other things, on regulatory and security policy regarding “clan crime”, traffic policy on parking and bollards and, classically, on the topic of migration. In the debate about possible accommodation for refugees on Sangerhauser Weg next to Britzer Garten, Potthast and his group repeatedly tried to present themselves as contacts for the local citizens' initiative and residents, for whom the supposed protection of animals and parking spaces took precedence over the protection of refugees. The AfD showed its presence at information events held by the responsible district and senate offices before the planning of accommodation across Berlin was stopped.

Since November 2024, the parliamentary group in the BVV consisted, in addition to Potthast, of the members Marlies Becker andJörg Captain, after Christian Hohmann only wanted to work as a non-attached member of the BVV. At the same time, Potthast managed to give the faction under his leadership a much more serious appearance than in the previous legislature. 

However, a look into the ranks of district party politics in Neukölln quickly shows how easy it is for the AfD in the district to present itself as a supposedly serious party. In the BVV, the main lines of conflict do not run between the right-wing extremist AfD and the democratic parties, but primarily in small wars between the CDU and the Left. Here, on the one hand, there is a district association of the left that likes to present itself as the voice of the migrant population in the district, but in its constant monothematic positioning against Israel is primarily aimed at new clients for its top candidate and BDS lawyer, as well as the votes of left-leaning students whose political horizon only extends to the keffiyeh around their heads and “From the River to the Sea” slogans on their tongues. On the other hand, there is a CDU whose criticism of anti-Semitism is just as instrumentally motivated, for whom Neukölln should actually only encompass the tranquil, rural south towards Rudow and whose understanding of a diverse population can best be symbolically represented with an earlier black-faced disguise of the mayoral candidate. Somewhere in between, the Neukölln SPD is divided over its own repressive law-and-order course and priority controls.

In the coming legislative period, it remains to be seen with what self-confidence a grown AfD faction in the BVV will act. Historically, the Neukölln parliamentary group seems to be predestined for divisions and departures and even a city councilor proposed by the AfD has already changed parties - even after this election, the right to propose for such an office could fall to the AfD. The list of candidates for the BVV includes many people who have not yet appeared particularly publicly and have no experience in district politics. In addition, the previous district councilors Jörg Captain andMarlies Beckerelected to places 11 and 13 on the list, which do not guarantee safe entry. With the civil engineerMatthias Marquardt(9th place), the Junge Freiheit editor and press officer for the Bundestag factionFabian Schmidt-Ahmad(12th place) andStefan Wildgruber(14th place) there are at least some actors who already ran in the last Berlin election. In addition to Potthast (1st place), Eschricht (2nd place) and Pauli (3rd place) are also runningThomas Arhelger(5th place),Tobias Ulrich Bruns(8th place) and Matthias Marquardt also as direct candidates in the seven Neukölln constituencies for the House of Representatives. In the past, Arhelger, who works as an electrical engineer, was one of the most present at information stands and poster campaigns in Berlin and on trips to election campaigns in other federal states and was elected as an assessor to the district board in 2024. In addition to the direct candidacy in the less promising constituency 3 between Rixdorf and Britz-Nord, Arhelger is in 31st place on the Berlin state list. Marquardt and Bruns have also been involved in party activities for several years, but are running for election in constituencies 2 and 1 in northern Neukölln without much prospect. In addition to appearances at information stands and auxiliary tasks at state party conferences, the BVV applicant seesDoreen Sturies(10th place) above all the Internet and the comment columns there as their stage. On Facebook and on an X account with a “remigration” profile picture (profile name “Kadasia76”), which she probably also runs, her angry bourgeois behavior is particularly evident and occasionally comments on district issues can be found. As with much of the Neukölln AfD's social media output, the focus is repeatedly on crime and security policy.

In previous years, members of the district association had already shown a penchant for recruiting within the security authorities and related professional groups. The association's board already included a former BKA official with right-wing extremist contacts (https://antifainfoblatt.de/aib131/berlin-bka- civil servants-neukoelln-complex-verwickelt) and with the security officer Detlef Moritz, the prominent case of the chief detective, who shared internal police information about the Islamist attack on Breitscheidplatz with other Neukölln AfDlers in a chat group and was active in another police chat group in which racist, sexist and incitement content was shared. Only recently, during a tour of Neukölln, the domestic policy spokesman for the AfD parliamentary group in the House of Representatives said that the “AfD [must] be the sheriff who kicks in the door to smoke out the manure stable.” In addition to Doreen Sturies, who works as a security employee, and the judicial officer Marlies BeckerAlexander Büttner-Zastraua federal police officer in 6th place on the BVV list.

The teacher is also one of the less public candidatesJürgen Päpke(4th place) who, despite his work as an assessor on the board and in other activities, was usually only pictured with the German flag over his face. The other candidates, such as the one who works at BGP property management, have been equally shy of publicityDieter Gruczinski(7th place), who sits on the supervisory board of the Ideal building cooperativeIngo Kruse(15th place), the clerkFrank Grünewald(16th place) andStefan Knipf(17th place).

Even with a manageable number of people appearing in public, the Neukölln AfD is trying to maintain its presence, especially on the Internet. A professionalization in the media field has already been observed in recent years in the preparation of meeting content and speeches in the BVV and especially in the area of ​​social media, where the district association and individual members are represented on Instagram, Facebook and Telegram channels. An example of the association's content orientation is a series of AI-generated contributions for the Advent season, which depicted a reindeer as “Remigration Pilot Rudolph”, a Santa Claus as “Special Directorate of the Ministry for Remigration” and a toddler under the Christmas tree who wanted to remigrate. One article in the series was dedicated to the winter solstice on December 21st, with little Christian connotation but rather slipping into a folkish tone. A flaming wooden cross in the shape of an Algiz rune (used during the Nazi era as a symbol of the Lebensborn organization), as recently seen at neo-Nazi JN solstice celebrations, was depicted.

Impulses in the media area will also have been received by the members of the district association, some of whom are much younger. Since Potthast and Eschricht's socialization with the then Junge Alternative was a few years ago, parallel to the re-foundation of the "Generation Germany" as party youth, some young people also found their way into the Neukölln AfD. However, the term recruiting new talent was sometimes taken very literally and several people from one's own family were integrated into the party's work. So supportedCeline Arhelgerher father regularly at election campaign stands and at the same time maintains contacts with friends of the German generation in Brandenburg. WithLeah Beckeris a descendant of Marlies Becker, a member of the Neukölln district association, but is politically active as a “youth representative”, especially in Lichtenberg. Like Becker is tooPatrizia FiedlerMember of the board of Generation Deutschland Berlin, founded in February 2026, and also often with her motherPia Fiedlerpresent at district association events.

In addition to its own rejuvenation, the Neukölln AfD's main task in recent years has been to develop new locations that can be used for party conferences, regular meetings and other events. After previous meeting places such as the “Steakhaus Torero” and the “Novi Sad” restaurant in Rudow had to close and the “Casino am Zwickauer Damm” became less attractive as an Indian restaurant due to a change of tenant, the AfD initially switched to other restaurants located more south. In November 2024, for example, a district get-together on the “Asylum Model Denmark” took place in the restaurant “Via Fellini" (Rudower Str. 35), in the immediate vicinity of the memorial site for the murdered Burak Bektaş on Rudower Straße. From 2025, election meetings and events were held regularly in the event location, which is still not publicly advertised "XELOR boiler house" (Mittelbuschweg 10), near the Neukölln S/U station. The location, located in the commercial area directly below the S-Bahn ring, had already come into the public eye in September 2024 when an AfD election party planned there for the state elections in Saxony and Thuringia had to be canceled after the announcement of protests. The AfD member had a particularly short route to the eventsTorger Schadow, whose sanitary facility is located on the same commercial property. The Berlin regional association also used the event hall for a kick-off event with Alice Weidel for the 2026 election campaign in June.Grand Palace(Nobelstr. 36-44) in the Neukölln-Südring commercial area, which is normally used as a wedding location.

After there were numerous rejections from landlords in Neukölln, as in other parts of Berlin, when looking for properties for their own use, MP Robert Eschricht announced in August 2026 that he would be able to open his own MP's office in Gropiusstadt. Under the title “Democracy source“The “alternative citizens’ office” opened on August 29th in a small row of shops in the apartment block at Hugo-Heimann-Straße 37. In the future, the company will be in the areaGropiusLivingThe rented location offers regular opening times and space for events.

Against the background of a growing faction in the district parliament, another Neukölln member in the House of Representatives and a new, permanent focal point in the district, it cannot be assumed that the Neukölln AfD will disappear so quietly into the background after the election campaign. Experience from other districts has shown that the establishment of their own locations has led to increased self-confidence of the respective party branches. Own premises or at least fixed meeting points such as the party office in Blankenburg, the office in Johannisthal, the restaurants “Maestral” in Reinickendorf and “Mitpunkt der Erde” in Hoppegarten as well as the “Green Lamp” in Wilmersdorf represent meeting points for regular events such as district get-togethers and “citizen dialogues”, festivals but also necessary party conferences and internal meetings. Especially in districts that have not yet found access to district buildings and facilities for such events.

In order to prevent another gathering point for Biedermeier, would-be intellectual New Rightists and neo-Nazis from being established in Gropiusstadt with full knowledge of GropiusWohnen or in other places in Neukölln, there needs to be a determined anti-fascist resistance to right-wing space grabs. The fact that the Neukölln AfD has so far only been able to act in a largely conspiratorial manner is also a success of anti-fascist research, actions and the claim that Neukölln is not a place for Nazis.

Antifascist research collective Neukölln in September 2026

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