Maximilian Krah (January 28, 1977) is a corporate attorney and politician of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Until 2016 he was a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), but switched that year to the AfD. He has been the Deputy State Chairman of the AfD in the federal state of Saxony since 2018. In the 2019 European elections, Krah became one of eleven AfD MEPs in the European Parliament, and in 2022, he joined the executive board of the AfD. In July 2023, he was re-elected as leading AfD candidate for the upcoming European elections in 2024.
When switching from the CDU to the AfD in 2016, Krah joined the party's outspokenly pro-Russian camp. He was quoted in eleven Russia Today (RT) articles between 2016 and 2017,1 and was featured over 20 times as an "expert" in RT videos,2 which have been watched several hundred thousand times. In one video from 2017, Krah openly declared himself in favor of racial profiling.3 Krah, who is fluent in Russian, has remained defensive of Russia despite the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Krah has a strong following among the German far right, particularly on Twitter4 and Facebook.5 A 2019 German domestic intelligence report has classified statements by Krah as ethnic nationalist, Islamophobic, xenophobic and anti-constitutional.6 Krah represents racist positions and is a regular in New Right circles, such as the “Institute for State Policy” (Institut für Staatspolitik, IfS).
In his capacity as attorney, Krah has been offering legal assistance to offenders from the extreme Right, such as the holocaust denier Bishop Richard Williamson. Krah appears in ultra-Catholic circles, and has extensive contacts to the leading echelon of the Catholic fundamentalist Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), for which he ran legal and business matters. His contacts reach high up in the Vatican, and notably include Cardinal Raymond Burke, often designated as de facto leader of the Vatican’s right wing.
Equally prominent are his political connections, including Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini. As of late, Krah has intensified his American contacts. Having traveled to the U.S. at least three times in 2022, he met far-right firebrands such as Steve Bannon, Ted Cruz and Kellyanne Conway.
As of 2019, Krah's name appears in the orbit of the Spanish far-right Vox party and the affiliated petition platform CitizenGo as a liaison to the AfD.7 He was identified as such by Ignacio Arsuaga Rato, one of the most important figures in Europe's Christian fundamentalist anti-abortion and anti-LGBTIQ networks, and a longtime friend of Vox leader Santiago Abascal.8
Krah lives in Dresden. He is a practicing Catholic, is widowed and has eight children by three women.9 He appears to be a reserve officer (major) of the German army, since he regularly posts pictures from military refresher trainings on social media.
Timeline
Early Life
Christian Democratic Union
Krah was born in the municipality of Räckelwitz in the former GDR. He joined the Junge Union, the youth wing of the Christian Democrats (CDU), in 1991, when he was a teenager. According to Krah's LinkedIn account, he “worked in the office of Christa Reichard, Member of Bundestag [sic], to get an insight into the parliament.”10 I worked in the office of Christa Reichard, Member of Bundestag, to get an insight into the parliame
In 1996, Krah joined the law faculty of the Technical University in Dresden, and passed his first state examination in 2002. Between 2002 and 2004, Krah worked at the Dresden district court as a legal trainee. In January 2005, he joined the law firm Fetsch Rechtsanwälte, specialized in corporate law, and stayed with the firm until June 2015, eventually becoming a junior partner.10 The same year he started to prepare for his doctor degree, which he received in 2011. During his studies he was active in the Association of Christian Democratic Students, politically close to the Christian Democrats.
Between 2006 and 2007, he worked for Faass AS, "a company situated in Riga, Latvia, specialized in industrial floor construction in Germany, Poland, and Russia," according to Krah's LinkedIn profile.10
2008-2009
Society of Saint Pius X
The latter states that in 2008 Krah joined at least two ventures connected to the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), a Catholic fundamentalist sect adhering to the Latin Rite:
- the Dello Sarto AG, headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, as Delegate of the Board of Directors (2008-2014);
- and the “Jaidhof Private Foundation St. Josef and Marcellus” (Jaidhofer Privatstiftung St. Josef und Marcellus), based in Vienna, Austria, as board member (2008-2013).10 A look into the company register shows that Krah was a deputy chairman of the board of trustees since January 14, 2009.11
In 2009, he joined another company located in Zug called Laetitia AG as executive officer, "a company focused on consulting and private equity management."10 However, it is not known whether that company has any connections with the SSPX ventures.
Jaidhof Private Foundation
The Jaidhof Private Foundation was designated to fund the SSPX district headquarters in Austria, located on the large Jaidhof estate. Krah gives some details on his involvement with the Jaidhof Foundation in a 2012 interview with The Remnant columnist Robert Siscoe:12
Siscoe: Another company name that is mentioned is Jaidhofer Foundation. Can you discuss this company?
Krah: Yes, this is linked with the SSPX, and it is absolutely no secret. There is a family in Austria which wanted to donate to the SSPX, but did not want to donate directly. They wanted to establish a foundation that would support the SSPX. And in every foundation you need some trustees. It’s a kind of trust, and I am one of the trustees. I was chosen by the family who established the foundation, firstly because I am a Traditional Catholic attorney with links to the SSPX, and secondly because of my professional record. This foundation is supporting the SSPX and using the money which was donated by this family. As an example, it is supporting the new Seminary project in Virginia.
According to a website that runs some kind of a vendetta against Krah, the inheritance Krah is talking about concerns the Rosa und Wolfgang von Gutmann of Liechtenstein Foundation:13
... Max Krah ... is the trustee of a 90 million Euros (123 million US Dollars) foundation. This foundation was started by Mrs. Rosa Von Gutmann, who left her 30% share of the assets of the Rosa und Wolfgang von Gutmann of Liechtenstein Foundation to the Austrian District of the FSSPX in the form of a foundation ... Krah is assisting Fellay in transferring these assets into direct control of the FSSPX ...
Although those numbers could not be verified, the evidence available points to the Jaidhof Foundation as the conduit of funneling that inheritance to the SSPX. A 2003 obituary on Rosa von Gutmann, who had married into the Austrian Jewish noble von Gutmann family,14 reads as follows:15
Rosa von Gutmann, owner of the Gutmann Forestry Administration, Gföhl [Austria], died in Geneva/CH on November 24, at the age of 92. Born in 1912, she married Wolfgang von Gutmann, son of Baron Max von Gutmann, on February 12, 1938, one of the largest industrialists in the monarchy. During the war years the couple went to Brazil, and after the war [in 194714 ], with the support of the Liechtenstein family, bought the forestry business back from the Russian occupation authorities. Wolfgang von Gutmann died in 1964. At present, the scaled down operation is stretching from Jaidhof to Kamp ... Research projects are running on 200 hectares of primeval forest. Rosa von Gutmann spent the summers at Jaidhof Castle and was a passionate hunter of deer. Under the supervision of the great-nephew Dr. Guntard Gutmann, the forestry operation is continued.
Just one day prior to Krah's appointment as trustee of the Jaidhof Foundation, on January 13, 2009, the Dello Sarto AG was registered in Zug, Switzerland, with a starting capital of 100,000 Swiss Francs. Its management board included Krah (board member, manager), bishop Bernard Fellay (chairman), Niklaus Pfluger (deputy chairman) and Emeric Baudot (treasurer).16 Dello Sarto was liquidated in September 2014.17 In the interview with Sicoe, Krah himself linked the Dello Sarto AG to the SSPX:12
Siscoe: Let’s discuss some of the internet rumors. Can you tell us about the company, Dello Sarto AG? What was your affiliation with that company, and the status of that company today?
Krah: Yes, the first thing to realize is that a corporation prevents liability. This is something that is widely known and is a common practice for the SSPX, especially in the US. Dello Sarto was established to receive a large inheritance, which was expected to come but never did. So now we have a completely empty corporation that we will shut down. The rumors were complete nonsense. But maybe what are important to address are the rumors concerning my power of attorney. They say I have too much power but lawyers always have a very wide power of attorney. He can only use it if the client accepts it, but formally there is always a wide power of attorney. This is absolutely business as usual, so all the rumors concerning Dello Sarto show that those who are spreading this campaign on the internet have absolutely no idea what they are talking about.
Richard Williamson in 2020.
Richard Williamson
Krah’s affiliation with the Society of Saint Pius X became widely known when in January 2009, he became the lawyer of Richard Williamson, "a notorious Holocaust denier and one of the four bishops whose excommunications were recently lifted by [former] Pope Benedict XVI," as well as of other German SSPX members.18 Der Spiegel reported:18
Holocaust denial is forbidden by law in Germany, and on January 23, public prosecutors in Bavaria opened an investigation into Williamson for incitement ... Krah is defending him, and he is basing his defense on the conditions under which the now-notorious interview - in which Williamson told a Swedish television station that he did not believe any Jews were killed in Nazi gas chambers - was conducted. "If you give an interview in English to a Swedish television station, you can't automatically assume that it will be broadcasted in Germany," Krah told SPIEGEL ONLINE. Krah also says that the two journalists who conducted the interview said there were no plans to broadcast the interview in Germany. The journalists - Göran Svensson and Ali Fegan - disagree. "There was no agreement with Williamson regarding when and where the interview would be broadcasted," they say.
2010
As a consequence, in a 2010 ruling Williamson was condemned to pay a €10,000 fine. The final court meeting, when the verdict was returned, was attended by the repeatedly condemned holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck.19
Ursula Haverbeck and Horst Mahler in 2004 at the Rudolf Heß March in Wunsiedel.
In 2010, Krah started a dual curriculum at the London Business School and Columbia Business School in New York, receiving his MBA in 2012.20 His alumni biography on the London Business School website mentions that Krah speaks Spanish, English, and Russian.21
2012
In May 2012, a picture appeared that shows Krah with descendants from the von Gutmann family on the Jaidhof property, consecrating a new SSPX chapel. To build the chapel was a "long time concern and wish of Bishop Fellay and Father [Helmut] Trutt," said a local press report.22
In the picture: Mayor Franz Aschauer with wife Leopoldine, the two foundation chairmen, Nikolaus Ankershofen and Maximilian Krah, Cathrin Gutmann with daughter Emilie, Father Helmut Trutt, Guntard Gutmann with his parents Gerhard and Elisabeth Presenhuber, Monika Ernst.
A picture that allegedly shows Maximilian Krah (right) during a trip to Israel in April 2012.
While legally defending anti-Semites and holocaust deniers, such as Richard Williamson, Krah seems to have good contacts in Israel. In June 2012, the obscure "Traditional Roman Catholic Network" reported about a trip to Israel by Krah in April 2012. According to the article, "Krah was photographed at a Jewish military camp, where he joined a group of Tel Aviv University students for a 'Talmudic pilgrimage,'" which was allegedly organized by a Mossad agent, Oren Hieman, "who is said to be Krah's eMBA classmate."23 The author apparently had a bone to pick with Krah and the SSPX, however, seems to be well informed about Krah's background. The article states inter alia that Krah's graduate degree was sponsored by the SSPX and that "Krah doubles as Fellay's business partner (they sit on various corporate investment boards together)."23 The article goes on as follows, making some sensational claims about Krah:
The man with whom Fellay and his Neo-SSPX is associated received his training at one of only six ‘religious’ schools that were allowed to operate in Communist East Germany. Fellay was well aware of what was going on in these schools. Fellay stated at a conference given at the Church of St. Vincent de Paul, Kansas City, Missouri, on January 7, 1999:
"In an interview three years ago, a Mason from Mexico boasted of four Freemasonic lodges of the Scottish Rite within the Vatican. In further explanations he claimed that Freemasons have the power to reward cooperating priests with the episcopacy. A NATO report [1974] on the activities of the Communist Secret Service in the Eastern Bloc nations within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church estimated 3000 agents had successfully infiltrated the Catholic hierarchy. In 1984, just before the reunification of Germany, the Secret Service of East Germany was known to dramatically increase its number of agents with the aim of subverting Catholic and Protestant churches."
Catholic German Student Fraternity Chursachsen
One June 16, 2012, Krah posted a picture on Facebook revealing his student fraternity to be the Catholic German Student Fraternity Chursachsen (Katholische Deutsche Studentenverbindung Chursachsen).24
Maximilian Krah with his companions of the dueling fraternity Katholische Deutsche Studentenverbindung Chursachsen in 2012.
2014
Mordechay Lewy
In March 2014, Krah posted a picture on Facebook showing him together with former Israeli ambassador to the Holy See, Mordechay Lewy. The picture was subtitled "Haven't seen us [sic] for more than two years: w/ former Israeli ambassador to the Holy See, Mordechay Lewy, who took part at our panel discussion on Jerusalem," at the Hyperion Hotel in Dresden.25
Maximilian Krah with former Israeli ambassador to the Holy See, Mordechay Lewy, in 2014.
Bundeswehr
In April 2014, Krah posted a picture on Facebook that shows him in a military outfit in front of the German Army's officer school (Offiziersschule des Heeres) in Dresden.26 The picture is subtitled: "Major Max at the German Army's officer school."
Maximilian Krah at the German Army's officer school (Offiziersschule des Heeres) in Dresden, 2014.
2015
In 2015, he once more posted pictures of a military training course. The subtitle reads: "One week military training for CIMIC at the Center for Civil-Military Cooperation of the German Armed Forces."27
Maximilian Krah (left) at a "one week military training for CIMIC at the Center for Civil-Military Cooperation of the German Armed Forces."
2016
Alternative for Germany
In 2016, Krah left the CDU, and the same year joined the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. According to the newspaper Saechsische, at that time "He belonged to the circle around the resigned PEGIDA co-founder René Jahn, who was behind the citizens' meetings in the Kreuzkirche" in Krah's hometown Dresden.28
2017
Russia Today
In an RT Deutsch video broadcasted in June 2017, titled "Krah on terrorism: Racial profiling, isolation of Europe and a division of society are the solution," Krah stands openly for racial profiling.3
Two days later, he appeared on RT International where, in line with AfD rhetoric, he pertained that Germany and Europe are going down in a whirlwind of violence caused by “deadly political correctness” towards migrants, who would be the main culprit of an alleged “lack of security."29 Although crime statistics showed a considerable decrease of criminal offenses by almost 10% overall at the time,30 the AfD has been systematically trying to exaggerate violence by foreigners in Germany in order to rally for its anti-immigration policy.
2018
On January 12, 2018, Krah demanded during an AfD event in Saxony to use shooting clubs as armed "auxiliary police."31 An "auxiliary police force" (Hilfspolizei, HiPO) already existed once in Germany, from February to August 1933. It served mainly as a tool to strengthen the power of the Nazi Party.
In February 2018, Krah was elected deputy chairman of the AfD Saxony.28
In September 2018, Krah was caught lying about statistics in regards to sexual offenders with a migrant background. He stated that of 60 female rape victims in Chemnitz 56 had been committed by foreigners. The Saxony police was replying to Krah on Twitter, stating the real numbers: from 14 reported rapes in Chemnitz during 2018 three were perpetrated by persons of non-German origin.32
At the end of 2018, Krah was promoting his candidacy for the AfD's 2019 European election list, ending up on place three.
2019
Institute for State Policy
Maximilian Krah speaking at the Institut für Staatspolitik in Schnellroda in September 2019.
On January 19, 2019, Krah and Alexander Gauland were speakers at the Winter Academy of the far-right think tank "Institute for State Policy" (Institut für Staatspolitik), run by Götz Kubitschek and Erik Lehnert.33 The IfS is considered the most important New Right think tank in Germany, which i.a. serves as a cadre school for far-right influencers. Kubitschek also runs the Antaios publishing house, one of the most important publishers of the German New Right. Krah returned to the IfS as a speaker in September 2019, as a picture on his Facebook profile shows.
World Congress of Families
In March 2019, Krah appeared at the World Congress of Families in Verona, Italy, an internationally active Christian Right organization, rallying mainly against LGBTIQ rights and abortions. A picture shows him together with Italy's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior at the time, Matteo Salvini, who is shaking hands with David Bendels, a close affiliate of Krah.34 Bendels is the chairman of the AfD-affiliated "Association for the preservation of the rule of law and civil liberties" (Verein zur Erhaltung der Rechtsstaatlichkeit und bürgerlichen Freiheiten) and editor-in-chief of the association's Deutschland-Kurier, an AfD mouthpiece. The association has been in the focus of an ongoing investigation into illegal party financing schemes and illicit election ads.
Maximilian Krah (right) with Deputy Prime Minister of Italy, Matteo Salvini, who is shaking hands with David Bendels, head of the AfD-affiliated free newspaper Deutschland-Kurier.
In May 2019, Krah was elected to the European Parliament for the AfD, a member of the far-right Identity and Democracy (I&D) group. Krah has been a Delegate for Relations with the United States, Deputy Member of the Committee on International Trade (INTA) and Deputy Member of the Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly. From 2019 to 2022, he was deputy chairman of the AfD delegation in the European Parliament.
Guillaume Pradoura
After Krah’s election, he appointed the French Guillaume Pradoura as his assistant.36 From 2014 onward, Guillaume Pradoura had been an assistant of the former ENF parliamentary group leader, Nicolas Bay, but eventually was dismissed from the post on March 17, 2019, when it was revealed that he had posted an anti-Semitic picture on Twitter, dressed up like an Orthodox Jew while trying to look menacing. According to Belltower News:37
The picture’s existence was made public by Sophie Montel, former member of the European Parliament for the Rassemblement National (RN), who has since resigned from the party. She had published the picture, pointing out that Pradoura, who at the time was an assistant to Nicolas Bay, also an RN MEP, was in contact with both the "Identitarian Movement (IB)" and the Ku Klux Klan.
Pradoura has various connections to the French neo-Nazi scene, which had been first revealed by the French research portal Mediapart in 2016.38 According to Belltower News:37
As a young man, Guillaume Pradoura was involved in the right-wing extremist scene in France and had contacts with the group Unité Radicale, i.e. the group of which one member was responsible for the attempted assassination of Jacques Chirac in 2002. The group was subsequently banned. Some former members then founded the Bloc Identitaire, the nucleus of the Identitarian Movement in Europe. Guillaume Pradoura established the Identitarian Movement chapter in Marseille in 2007.
During this period, Pradoura became friends with a young, martial arts-affine skinhead named Jérémy Racagno, who in 2008/09 was sentenced to two years in prison for several acts of racist violence.39 According to Le Point, "He had assaulted a woman of North African descent in 2008 and then raped a Communist militant in 2009, before beating up an activist of SOS Racism two months later."40
In 2010, Racagno was able to escape from prison, when he obtained the permission to leave for a day, and fled to the USA, where he sought contact with the Arkansas Ku Klux Klan and other relevant groups. During the time Racagno had found shelter in the US, Pradoura stayed in contact with him.
Mediapart had reported in 2016 on a conversation between Pradoura and Recagno, in which Pradoura shows himself pleased about the escape, and envies his friend for his contacts to the KKK, which he thought was defunct.
When Racagno finally returned to Europe, he first settled in Bulgaria and asked Pradoura for help. According to Belltower News:37
He [Pradoura] advised him, after having consulted Borislav Prangov, a right-wing extremist Bulgarian painter who mainly painted portraits of famous national personalities such as Ferdinand Céline and Julius Evola, not to stay there because Bulgaria belonged to the EU. He referred him to Boyan Rasate, party leader of the Bulgarian extreme right-wing BNU, Anton Rachev and Dimitar Nikolov, mayor of Burgas.
But all efforts seemed in vain, since Racagno was arrested in France in 2011 under unknown circumstances. Questioned by Mediapart why Pradoura had helped Racagno, he said it was a “a sort of paternalistic reflex.”38
Vox & CitizenGo
As of 2019, Krah’s name appears in the orbit of the Spanish far-right Vox party and the affiliated petition platform CitizenGo as a liaison to the AfD.7 He was identified as such by Ignacio Arsuaga Rato himself, one of the most important figures in Europe’s anti-abortion and anti-LGBTIQ networks and a longtime friend of Vox leader Santiago Abascal.41
Raymond Burke
Maximilian Krah and Cardinal Raymond Burke. Facebook picture from September 27, 2019.
In September 2019, Krah met Cardinal Raymond Burke for "an exchange of thoughts," according to a Facebook post.42 Burke is frequently portrayed as a de facto leader of the Vatican’s right wing. Burke was prefect of the Vatican’s highest court, the Apostolic Signatura, from June 2008 until November 2014, when pope Francis removed Burke as head, and named him patron to a “largely ceremonial post” at the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, which he held until 2017.43 Burke is known as a sharp critic of Pope Francis, accusing him for being too lenient towards homosexuality and abortion. The Washington Post called Burke the “rebel prince” of the catholic church, who is “undermining Francis’s reformist, compassionate papacy, and gospel teaching […] using his position […] to legitimise extremist forces that want to bring down Western liberal democracy, Stephen K. Bannon-style.”44
Matteo Salvini
In October 2019, Krah met Matteo Salvini once more as a picture on Facebook shows - two months after Salvini's failed motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Conte that cost him his post as Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister.45
Maximilian Krah and Matteo Salvini in Rome. Picture posted on Facebook on October 19, 2019.
2020
Deutschland-Kurier
In 2020, Krah started a video column “Here crows the Krah” (Hier kräht der Krah) for the AfD-affiliated Deutschland-Kurier, edited by his compatriot David Bendels.35 There he regurgitates far-right clap traps of the day mixed with praising galleon figures of the Right, such as Viktor Orbán.
2021
Gleb Nikitin
In September 2021, Krah visited Russia. On Facebook, he posted a picture from Nizhni Novgorod, subtitled: "Class reunion with Gleb Nikitin, the governor of Nizhny Novgorod. To our Friendship!." According to Krah, the two had studied together in the U.S.
Gleb Nikitin is a real heavy hitter who worked at the Federal Agency for State Property Management from 2004 to 2012, heading the agency from December 2011 to June 2012. According to his Wikipedia page, "As a member of the board of directors, he represented the interests of the state in such major Russian companies as Rosneft, Transneft, RAO UES, OJSC Aeroflot, OJSC НПК, Uralvagonzavod, OJSC Concern VKO, Almaz-Antey, Energia, OJSC Sovcomflot, and OJSC Alrosa." In July 2012, Nikitin was appointed Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, in June 2013, becoming the first deputy under Denis Manturov. A member of the United Russia party, Nikitin was appointed the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region in September 26, 2018, by a decree of Vladimir Putin.46
From left to right: Unknown, Maximilian Krah, Gelb Nikitin, and Valery Doronin, in Nizhni Novgorod. Picture posted on Facebook on September 19, 2021.
In November 2021, Krah visited Kyiv, alongside the AfD MP Petr Bystron and AfD member of the Bavarian state parliament, Ulrich Singer. A Facebook post reads47 :
Ukraine is a wonderful country that has fallen into the clutches of robbers. Currently, it is the biggest obstacle to the normalization of relations with Russia. With my colleagues Petr Bystron and Uli Singer from the Bundestag and the Bavarian Landtag, respectively, we caught up: yesterday as election observers in Kharkov, today at an opposition TV station under threat, and finally on a solidarity visit to the country's most famous political prisoner, opposition leader [Viktor] Medvechuk, who is under house arrest. The EU and U.S. are funding a repressive, corrupt regime and its war. A new Ukraine policy is needed!
From left to right: Maximilian Krah, Viktor Medvechuk and Petr Bystron. Picture posted on Facebook on November 1, 2021.
Petr Bystron (*1972) is a Czech-German far-right politician, who sits in the Bundestag for the AfD since September 2017. A member of the party since its inception in 2013, he has been accused of having pushed the Bavarian AfD section markedly to the far right, of which he was chairman from October 2015 to November 2017. In the recent years, Bystron has become a veritable power player in the party, meeting high-ranking politicians at the forefront of the far-right resurgence in Europe, amongst them the current president of the Czech Republic, Miloš Zeman, and Hungarian president Viktor Orbán, as well as prominent international far-right galleon figures, such as Steve Bannon.
Bystron does not seem to care about the optics of openly appearing in neo-Nazi contexts. For example, in May 2016, he traveled to Prague to meet with representatives of the Islamophobic and racist groups PEGIDA and Fortress Europe.48 In early September 2018, he traveled to South Africa at the expense of the Bundestag, supporting an “anti-white racism” campaign. In the course of the trip, he participated in a shooting training with the controversial organization Suidlanders, a right-wing extremist and racist paramilitary group, which prepares for an “inevitable race war in South Africa.”49 Due to his proximity to the Identitarian movement, which he called a “front organization” of the AfD, in 2017 he was put on the surveillance list by German authorities, and subsequently lost his post as chairman of the Bavarian AfD.50
2022
Steve Bannon
According to Belltower News, in "April 2022, Krah had taken another AfD colleague, Severin Köhler, to a meeting with Stephen Bannon and GETTR CEO Jason Miller in the United States."51
Maximilian Krah together with Steve Bannon in April 2022.
The same month, Krah's membership in the EU parliamentary group Identity and Demcoracy was suspended for six months, from April to September 2022, because of behavior damaging the reputation of the group.52
In June 2022, Krah ran for the election for mayor of Dresden but lost to incumbent mayor Dirk Hilbert.53 In the same month, he was elected as fourth assessor of the AfD’s federal executive board at the 13th federal party conference.54
In mid-November, Krah visited the U.S. once more. On November 14, he posted a picture of himself on Facebook alongside Kellyanne Conway and State Senator Dick Black from Virginia.55 A day later he posted pictures that show him together with Congressman Pat Fallon and Senator Ted Cruz from Texas.
Maximilian Krah with Texas Congressman Pat Fallon in November 2022.
Maximilian Krah with Ted Cruz in November 2022.
On November 29, 2022, the Qatari mission to the European Union posted a picture of Krah on Twitter alongside Abdulaziz bin Ahmed Al-Malki, Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the European Union and NATO, saying "they exchanged friendly talks and ways of joint cooperation."56 Barely two weeks later, a bribery scandal shook the EU when it became known that Qatar had handed out suitcases full of cash to EU parliamentarians as incentive to speak favorably about the country. Although Krah is not implicated, it should be pointed out that he met with Qatari officials during the Fifa Cup 2022 taking place in the sheikhdom.
Abdulaziz bin Ahmed Al-Malki, Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the European Union and NATO, alongside Maximilian Krah, Member of the European Parliament for the AfD.
In December 2022, Krah embarked on a trip to the U.S., alongside Nicolaus Fest, and AfD politician in the European Parliament and David Bendels of the AfD-affiliated newspaper Deutschland-Kurier. Fest had been a staple at the German tabloid Bild from 2001 to 2013, belonging to the Springer media empire, lastly as head of the culture section. From 2013 until 2014, he was briefly deputy editor-in-chief of Springer's Bild am Sonntag, a tabloid weekly, where his Islamophobic remarks ultimately cost him his job. Fest subsequently joined the AfD and in 2018 joined the European Parliament for the party.
From left to right: David Bendels, William Happer and Maximilian Krah in front of Albert Einstein's house on the Princeton Campus.
On December 9, 2022, Krah posted a picture of himself, Bendels and William Happer on Facebook. Happer is a former Trump aide who was "pushing climate denial inside the White House," according to The Guardian.57
On December 10, Krah made it into the international news when he appeared at a far-right gathering at a gala event of the New York Young Republican Club. The event was kicked off with a fiery speech by Marjorie Taylor Greene, who stated that the January 6 insurrection would have been successful if the protestors would have been armed. It has been speculated that Krah was the organizer of the trip, since he had met at least one of the gala participants, Steve Bannon, back in April 2022.51
Present were also two Austrian politicians, Gerald Grosz and Harald Vilimsky (FPÖ). Vilimsky is known for his friendliness towards Russia. In 2016, he was part of a trip to Moscow with then-FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache, Norbert Hofer and Johann Gudenus. Not long after, Strache and Gudenus largely disappeared from the stage after the infamous Ibiza Affair which brought down the Kurz government. Gerald Grosz was long involved in a right-wing Austrian minority party Alliance for the Future of Austria, who in 2022 ran for presidency as independent.
The NYYRC organized as Pre-Gala Reception with the foreign guests, headlined by Vilimsky.58
Event posting on the website of the New York Young Republican Club for the "Pre-Gala Reception" of the foreign delegation, headed by Harald Vilimsky of the FPÖ party.
2023
At the end of July, Maximilian Krah was re-elected as AfD's top candidate for the upcoming European elections in 2024.59 Around that time a TikTok video of the politician went viral on social networks, in which the 46-year-old Krah gives utterly chauvinist dating tips:9
One in three young men has never had a girlfriend. You belong to them? Don't watch porn, don't vote green, get out in the fresh air, stand up for yourself, be confident, look straight ahead. ... Real men are right-wing, real men have ideals, real men are patriots, then it works with the girlfriend too.
Links
- 1Search results for "Krah" on RT International, https://www.rt.com/search?q=krah.
- 2Search results for "Maximilian Krah" and "RT" on Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22maximilian+krah%22+rt.
- 3 a b RT Deutsch, "Krah zu Terrorismus: Racial Profiling, Isolation Europas und Spaltung der Gesellschaft sind Lösung," YouTube video, June 6, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk-bcKo2G8s.
- 4Twitter account of Maximilian Krah, https://twitter.com/KrahMax/.
- 5Facebook page of Maximilian Krah, https://www.facebook.com/maximilian.krah.
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