Anti-Semitic German Lawmaker Loses Committee Chair

Photo Credit: Steffen Prößdorf via Wikimedia

For the first time in post-WW2 German history, on Wednesday, Bundestag lawmaker Stephan Brandner of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was stripped of his role as a parliamentary committee chair for making comments that were widely condemned as anti-Semitic, Deutsche Welle reported.

Brandner was voted out by all the Bundestag factions except his own. Jan-Marco Luczak, deputy parliamentary spokesperson for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), said “the dismissal of Brandner is a clear signal against incitement and hatred — we are finally returning dignity to the office. Mr. Brandner was simply no longer acceptable.”

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The German Bar Association and the German Women Lawyers’ Association issued a statement that Brandner was “not able to meet the demands of his office” nor to “always guarantee respect for people.”

According to Deutsche Welle, in early November, Brandner was fiercely attacked by politicians from across the spectrum for tweeting that singer Udo Lindenberg’s prestigious Federal Order of Merit was a “Judas reward” for his stand “against us” (the AfD). The German term, “Judaslohn,” is used to mean a traitor’s reward, as in the silver pieces that were paid to Judas for his betrayal of Jesus.

After the attack on a synagogue in Halle by a neo-Nazi on Yom Kippur this year, Brandner tweeted that politicians were “lunging” in front of synagogues, even though in Halle “a German was killed, who liked to listen to Volksmusik,” as well as “an organic German” woman.