AfD's Reichardt denies Nazi salute as 2020 photo roils Saxony-Anhalt election campaign

The photograph and the allegations

A previously unpublished photograph from 7 June 2020, obtained by POLITICO's Inside AfD podcast, shows Martin Reichardt, the AfD's state chairman in Saxony-Anhalt and a member of the Bundestag, raising his left arm with an outstretched hand while smiling. The image was taken during a barbecue on the property of AfD politician Jan Wenzel Schmidt. Two anonymous witnesses told the podcast that the gesture was intended as a Nazi salute, and that the kneeling man in the photo, doctor and conspiracy theorist Markus Motschmann, addressed Reichardt as 'Mein Führer' while handing over his AfD membership application. Motschmann denies using that phrase but confirms the photo's authenticity.

“It wasn't a Hitler salute. It was a humorous knighting ceremony that we performed for colleague Motschmann.”

Reichardt insists the gesture was part of a mock knighting because Motschmann's party application had been rejected. However, the podcast's investigation notes that the photo was taken on the day of the application, while the rejections occurred months later. The Nazi salute is illegal in Germany, even when performed with the left hand.

Political fallout and calls for resignation

The publication of the photo, ten weeks before Saxony-Anhalt's state election on 6 September 2026, has drawn sharp reactions from other parties. CDU state chairman and minister-president Sven Schulze called on AfD's top candidate Ulrich Siegmund to intervene, saying Reichardt and state vice Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, who also appears in the photo, must be excluded.

“A Hitler salute is a confession, not a slip. Tillschneider and Reichardt must be expelled as intolerable. Anything else is not just condoning, it is approval and a Nazi confession.”

Green top candidate Susan Sziborra-Seidlitz also demanded Reichardt's resignation, calling the gesture 'not a slip and not a bad joke'. The AfD, however, has dismissed the controversy as a campaign against the party and confirmed that Reichardt will stand for re-election as state chairman at the party congress in Magdeburg in July.

Reichardt's role and the party's far-right ties

Martin Reichardt, 56, has led the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt since 2018, a state branch classified by domestic intelligence as 'secured right-wing extremist'. A former Bundeswehr officer and member of the now-dissolved far-right 'Flügel' faction around Björn Höcke, Reichardt is known for sharp rhetoric, once calling journalists 'left-wing wage slaves'. Earlier this year he faced scrutiny over a nepotism scandal involving family members employed in his parliamentary office. Political scientist Benjamin Höhne told Der Tagesspiegel that AfD figures 'send signals into the far-right camp and distance themselves when criticised', adding that the party's eastern state branches have driven its radicalisation.

Election context

The scandal lands as the AfD holds a large poll lead ahead of the Saxony-Anhalt election. The party plans to adopt its 100-day programme at the July congress and aims for a single-party government. Whether the photo damages that ambition remains unclear, but the party's outward calm suggests it expects the controversy to pass.