AGI Profiles: Andreas Kalbitz

Jakob Grein

Halle Foundation/AGI Intern

Jakob Grein is a research intern at AGI in summer 2024. He is currently pursuing his master’s degree in security studies at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service. Mr. Grein focuses on transatlantic security and intelligence but is also interested in energy security, geoeconomics and grand strategy. He earned his undergraduate degree at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where he studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics. Before coming to Washington, he completed the Bluebook Traineeship at the European Commission and worked as a research assistant on energy geopolitics and climate change. In the forthcoming academic year, Mr. Grein will serve as the deputy editor of the Georgetown Security Studies Review. He is also a candidate for the Certificate in Diplomatic Studies, administered by the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.

Member of the Brandenburg State Parliament

Andreas Kalbitz is a member of the Brandenburg State Parliament and a former member of the Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany, AfD). He underwent public scrutiny several times due to his ties to neo-Nazi and right-wing organizations in Germany, which he also carried over into the AfD. This article traces his political evolution and illuminates the many ties Andreas Kalbitz had, and still has, to the organized far right in Germany.

Andreas Edwin Kalbitz was born in 1972 in Munich, where he also attended primary and secondary school. During his high school years, he already exhibited particular political leanings. He was an active member of the student league “Saxonia-Czernowitz to Munich.” This staunchly conservative and nationalistic youth organization introduced the young Kalbitz to the world of right-wing activism. His mentor in the league was Alexander Wolf, who is today the deputy chair of the Alternative for Germany in Hamburg and who was part of the AfD’s federal leadership until 2022. The Saxonia student league regularly met in the house of the “Danubia” fraternity. This fraternity was itself assessed by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, BfV) to be right-wing extremist. In the circles of Danubia, another significant connection emerged for Kalbitz. He was introduced to Hans-Ulrich Kopp, who is a central figure in German right-wing circles. Among many other activities in right-wing circles, Kopp was also present at a secret meeting in Potsdam in November 2023 between AfD politicians, Identitarians (a loose amalgamation of right-wing extremists who argue for völkisch (folkish or racial) ethno-nationalism à la Oswald Spengler), and other right-wing ideologues, which sparked outrage in Germany.

In 1993, Kalbitz joined the so-called ‘Witiko-Bund,’ an ethno-nationalist society that has its origins in the national-socialist Sudeten-German Party. This party was formed in 1933 to represent the interests of the allegedly persecuted minority of Sudeten Germans in then Czechoslovakia. In reality, it was propped up by Germany’s Nazi government to serve as a “fifth column” in Czechoslovakia, subverting the state and contributing to the annexation of large parts of the country in 1938. The party was founded by Konrad Henlein, who would become Gauleiter (a Nazi term for governor of a province) of Sudeten Germany. The historical and ideational legacy of the Sudeten-German Party and the Witiko alliance could thus not be clearer. In the context of this alliance, the relationship between Andreas Kalbitz and Hans-Ulrich Kopp deepened. Starting from 1992, Kopp was the editor of the Witiko-Bund’s publication, the Witiko Letters. Andreas Kalbitz took over this editorial function in 2001 and was responsible for the publication of this nationalist magazine.

A year after his entry into this right-wing society, Andreas Kalbitz joined the Bundeswehr. He served from 1994 to 2005 as a paratrooper. Thereafter, his vita reads that he studied computer science at the Technical University of Brandenburg from 2005 to 2007. This claim, however, is deceptive, a trait that recurs throughout Kalbitz’s life and career. He indeed matriculated at this university; he however never attended classes or took exams and was discharged after four semesters of absenteeism. After his unsuccessful university career, he completed vocational training in media sales and became manager of the Edition Apollon publishing company.

However, Kalbitz’ professional career was always secondary to his political ambitions. The beginning of his political career occurred in the youth wing of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU). As part of his political activism there, he wrote for the right-wing newspaper Junge Freiheit (Young Freedom), where he demanded “a real paradigm shift within [the Conservative Party].” As presumably this revolution did not materialize, Kalbitz shifted his political allegiance and joined the far-right party “The Republicans” in 1993. The Republicans were originally formed by disgruntled members of the CSU and critiqued indirect democracy, the European bureaucracy, and the ‘cultural alienation’ they saw Germany undergoing due to continued immigration. The party eventually disintegrated due to internal struggles between the nationalist-conservative wing and the more radical right-wing part of the party. Kalbitz remained a member of the Republicans for at least a year, with details about continued engagement woefully absent. Nevertheless, other details about his political engagement are well documented.

Kalbitz actively built networks in ultra-nationalist and extreme-right circles. Already in 1994, Kalbitz attended a pilgrimage of neofascists in Diksmuide, Belgium. Diksmuide is the destination of the so-called Ijzerbedevaart, an annual remembrance gathering to commemorate the fallen soldiers of the First World War. In the 1980s, this pilgrimage was hijacked by neo-Nazis who transformed it into a fascist ‘networking’ event. At one such networking event, Hans-Ulrich Kopp attended and was photographed together with Kalbitz. In interrogations with the German Military Intelligence Agency during his time in the Bundeswehr, Kalbitz also admitted  membership in an organization called Junge Landsmannschaft Ostpreußen (JLO). This youth group, whose name roughly translates to Young Compatriots of Eastern Prussia, is yet another staunchly right-wing organization. It became famous, or rather infamous, due to its leading role in organizing the Dresden ‘funeral marches,’ which commemorate the bombing of Dresden and seek to spread the narrative that these aerial assaults were war crimes. Kalbitz is rumored to have organized at least two events for the JLO in 2000 and 2001. These events most probably saw the participation of Horst Mahler, a former left-wing RAF terrorist now turned notorious Holocaust denialist and Nazi pundit. Around the early 2000s, Kalbitz engaged in even more Nazi-networking. He is documented to have attended a ‘summer camp’ organized by the Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend, (HDJ, roughly translated as Patriotic German Youth) in 2007, which was banned just two years later for its ‘likeness to national-socialist ideology.’ The documentation is important, because when confronted with accusations about his ties to the HDJ, he said he “could not remember” being there. He revised this statement later and downplayed his involvement, stating that he found the organization’s meetings “uninteresting” and “had no desire to participate in the youth group.” The BfV published a report coming to a very different conclusion. It states that Kalbitz was an active member of the HDJ for at least fourteen years.

In the same year, in which he attended the ‘boring’ fascist youth camp, he also traveled to Greece. Together with Jens Pühse, an official of the NPD (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschland), which is yet another hardline right-wing party, Andreas Kalbitz attended a parade commemorating Greek officers slain in the Aegean Dispute of 1996. This parade was organized by the Greek fascist party Chrysí Avgí (Golden Dawn). The group, including Kalbitz, Pühse, and twelve other neo-Nazis, displayed fascist symbols, including a Swastika, during their stay in Athens, as reported by the Greek police.

Also in 2007, Andreas Kalbitz joined a cultural association named Kultur- und Zeitgeschichte – Archiv der Zeit (Cultural and Contemporary History – Archive of the Times). While the name suggests engagement with history and an educational mission, the society propagates a revisionist worldview, is staunchly antisemitic, and denies the Shoah. This association was founded by the former SS officer Waldemar Schütz. A familiar name also reappears in this context. Hans-Ulrich Kopp, who had mentored Kalbitz during his fraternity days, assumed the role of president of the cultural association in 1999. Andreas Kalbitz succeeded Kopp in this position in 2014, which he held for a year. And he assumed this position while being a party member of the Alternative für Deutschland.

According to his official biography on the website of the State Parliament of Brandenburg, he became a member of the AfD in its founding year 2013, commencing his official political career. He was elected into the aforementioned parliament in October 2014. Within the AfD, Kalbitz quickly became part of the right-wing faction within the right-wing party, which is hardly surprising given Kalbitz’ prior engagements. This faction, called Der Flügel (the Wing) was judged by German security services to be ‘definitively right-wing’ and as ‘having anti-constitutional aspirations.’ To preempt an outright legal prohibition, the Flügel dissolved itself in 2020. However, the networks and personal connections remained intact. Membership in the Wing did not prevent Kalbitz from rising through the ranks. In December 2017, he reached his zenith when he was elected as one of six chairs of the national leadership of the AfD, the highest committee within the party.

This right-wing association within the AfD is not the only element that came into conflict with the German justice system. Kalbitz’ troubles began in May 2020. Upon the initiative of the then-party chairman Jörg Meuthen, party exclusion proceedings were opened against Kalbitz. The party leadership argued that Kalbitz had failed to disclose two important elements of his resume: his membership with The Republicans and his activities in the JLO. Both of these organizations were named in an ‘incompatibility list’ of the AfD, meaning that a membership in them is irreconcilable with a membership in the party. Consequently, Kalbitz was thrown out of the party that he himself once described as “the last evolutionary opportunity for [Germany].” Kalbitz contested the decision, but several courts rejected his efforts and confirmed the argumentation of the AfD that Kalbitz had knowingly deceived the party. Thus, Kalbitz is now—at least officially—no longer part of the right-wing party. However, he still attends AfD party events and is still listed as a member of the AfD parliamentary group of the State Parliament of Brandenburg. The BfV has placed Kalbitz under surveillance due to his subversive aspirations and extremist ideology. Thus, if he becomes a threat to the German state, the security services should be able to prevent it. However, what happens when the AfD starts securing majorities in parliaments? Brandenburg will have elections in September. And some polls put the AfD at around 32 percent. While this is quite a way off from a majority, the party is nonetheless by far the strongest force in the state. One day, one of the other parties, for its own opportunist reasons, may decide to enter a coalition with the AfD. Or the Alternative may secure an outright majority. And then people like Kalbitz will have control over the very instruments of the state that are designed to protect it.