Who is the "Hitler speaker"? The search for Alexander Eichwald comes to nothing
Alexander Eichwald's appearance at the founding of the new AfD Youth caused horror - even within the party's own ranks. Was it satire? Even after intensive research, there is no clear answer.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Alexander Eichwald's appearance at the AfD youth organization caused a stir and speculation about a possible satirical act.
- Despite research, Eichwald's origins and intentions remain unclear. He used to publish party music as "Alex Oak", but is otherwise barely tangible.
- The AfD has distanced itself from him and is planning to expel him from the party, while the satirical magazine "Titanic" has claimed responsibility for the action - but without any credible evidence.
His appearance at the founding event of the AfD youth organization "Generation Deutschland" overshadowed all other speeches. Alexander Eichwald addressed the delegates as "party comrades", rolled the "R" over and said sentences such as: They shared a "love and loyalty to Germany" and that it was a "national duty" to protect German culture from foreign influences.
The entire appearance came across as an exaggerated imitation of Hitler.
Clips of his speech quickly circulated on social media and soon many were asking themselves: Who is this Eichwald? Is he a smuggled-in figure making fun of the AfD? Was it satire?
Eichwald published party songs as "Alex Oak"
On stage, Eichwald simply said that he was Russian-German - hence the heavily rolled "R" - and that he came from Herford. Nothing more is known about him at first.
The German weekly newspaper "Die Zeit" therefore began to investigate. But finding information about Eichwald proved to be difficult: his social media accounts have been deleted, former superiors or colleagues either don't remember him or don't want to comment. Only the music platform Deezer has anything to offer - party songs that he released under the name "Alex Oak".
Inquiries to Jan Böhmermann, activists from the Center for Political Beauty and the fun party "Die Partei" have also been unsuccessful, according to "Die Zeit". No one claimed to be involved, but everyone emphasized that they would have liked to have been.
Finally, the Zeit journalist managed to find Eichwald's e-mail address and contact him. Eichwald replied, but asked his acquaintances not to write to him again. He was basically prepared to talk to the media about his speech, but first wanted to do so in a TV interview.
AfD wants to expel him from the party
So was Eichwald's appearance really authentic? The AfD doesn't know much about him either - only that they distrust him. They want to expel him from the party. According to AfD leader Tino Chrupalla, Eichwald's content and appearance were not compatible with the party's principles.
Meanwhile, the satirical magazine "Titanic" claims to have organized the appearance. That would certainly be interesting - if it weren't for the fact that "Titanic" is, well, known for satire, which in turn makes the claim hardly credible.
