Matthias Helferich
View on WikipediaMatthias Helferich (born 14 October 1988) is a German politician of the far-right Alternative for Germany party.[1] He was a factionless member of the Bundestag between 2021 and 2025.[2] In 2025, he was re-admitted to the AfD parliamentary group like the fellow controversial politician Maximilian Krah.[3][4]
Key Information
Career
[edit]Helferich was born in 1988 in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He served in the Bundeswehr in a guard unit (Wachbataillon) in Siegburg and begann to study 2009 law at University Bonn.
Helferich was elected to the Bundestag in 2021.[2] Although a party member of AfD, he never entered the party faction and is currently a factionless member of the Bundestag.
Within the AfD, Helferich is part of the ethnic-national wing under Björn Höcke.[5]
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In 2025, he was re-admitted back into the AfD faction.[3][4]
Political views
[edit]Helferich called himself a "democratic Freisler", referring to a Nazi-era judge.[6] He later said that his statements were meant as parody: "If you are confronted with Nazi accusations as frequently as AfD politicians, you compensate for that in private spheres. You ridicule it."[7][8][9]
References
[edit]- ^ "Bundeswahlleiter (Federal Election Commissioner of Germany) - Elected Politicians in the Federal Election 2021". bundeswahlleiter. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
- ^ a b "Deutscher Bundestag - Matthias Helferich". Deutscher Bundestag.
- ^ a b Connolly, Kate (25 February 2025). "AfD readmits two politicians excluded over Nazi-related remarks". The Guardian.
- ^ a b [1]
- ^ deutschlandfunk.de (2025-02-25). "AfD-Fraktion - Umstrittene AfD-Politiker im Bundestag". Die Nachrichten (in German). Retrieved 2025-02-27.
- ^ Joswig, Gareth (2025-02-25). "AfD mit Helferich und Krah: Das "freundliche Gesicht des NS"". Die Tageszeitung: taz (in German). ISSN 0931-9085. Retrieved 2025-02-27.
- ^ "Matthias Helferich: AfD-Politiker verzichtet nach NS-Äußerung auf Fraktionszugehörigkeit". Der Spiegel (in German). 2021-09-30. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2023-11-22.
- ^ Weiland, Severin (2021-08-09). "AfD und Matthias Helferich: Jörg Meuthen scheitert im Streit über AfD-Landesvize". Der Spiegel (in German). ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2023-11-22.
- ^ "Going to the extreme: Inside Germany's far right". BBC. 2024-05-08. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
