Berlin's former CDU finance senator Peter Kurth has closer connections to the right-wing radical milieu than previously known.
According to SPIEGEL research, Kurth has been one of the leading figures in the ultra-right Berlin fraternity Gothia for years, a powerful student association with extensive contacts in the extreme right-wing scene.
Since 2014, the long-time Christian Democrat has been a member of the board of the “Vereinigung Alter Gothen eV”, which, among other things, manages the fraternity’s assets.
In 2023, Kurth took over the chairmanship of the association.
According to SPIEGEL research, officials from the AfD, its youth organization Junge Alternative and the right-wing extremist “Identitarian Movement” met several times on the Gothia site in Berlin-Zehlendorf.
Gothia had invited people to a “fraternity evening” with the former neo-Nazi Benedikt Kaiser on Wednesday, but canceled the event at short notice.
Internal documents and emails available to SPIEGEL show that several Gothia members are active in the AfD or its youth association - including Martin Kohler, head of the right-wing extremist Junge Alternative in Berlin and leader of the AfD parliamentary group in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district council.
Both the Berlin fraternity Gothia and Peter Kurth left written questions from SPIEGEL unanswered.
DER SPIEGEL No. 4/2023, p. 24
Contact: sven.roebel@spiegel.de