Young Alternative for Germany

{{Short description|Youth wing of Alternative for Germany (2013–2025)}}

{{Infobox political youth organization

| name = Young Alternative for Germany

| native_name = Junge Alternative für Deutschland

| logo = Logoderja.png

| caption = Logo from 2019 to 2025

| founded = {{start date|2013|06|15|df=y}}

| dissolved = {{end date|2025|3|31|df=y}}

| chairperson = Hannes Gnauck

| headquarters = Berlin

| ideology = Right-wing populism

| position = Far-right

| mother party = None, formerly the AfD (2015–2025)

| website =[https://jungealternative.net/ www.jungealternative.net]

|membership = {{Circa}} 2,500 (March 2024){{Cite web |url=https://jungealternative.net/mitmachen/ |title=Junge Alternative - Über uns |date=2 March 2024 |access-date=2 March 2024}}

}}

The Young Alternative for Germany ({{langx|de|Junge Alternative für Deutschland}} or JA) was a far-right youth organisation in Germany. Founded in June 2013 and dissolved in March 2025,{{Cite web |date=2025-04-01 |title=Germany’s far-right AfD dissolves extremist youth branch to avert ban |url=https://www.politico.eu/article/afd-ends-youth-branch-germany/ |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=POLITICO |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |date=2025-03-31 |title='Junge Alternative': Why the AfD has dissolved its problematic youth wing |url=https://www.thelocal.de/20250331/junge-alternative-why-the-afd-has-dissolved-its-problematic-youth-wing |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=The Local Germany |language=en}} it was made for people aged 14 to 35 years, the JA was the de facto youth wing of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party until it was officially recognised as such in November 2015. The JA continued to the be official youth wing of the AfD until January 2025, when AfD leadership voted to replace it. It has been categorized as a confirmed extremist organization by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) since 2023.

Its last chairman was Hannes Gnauck.{{cite journal |title=Junge Alternative wählt als Extremisten eingestuften Soldaten zum Bundesvorsitzenden |journal=Der Spiegel |date=16 October 2022 |url=https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/junge-alternative-waehlt-als-extremisten-eingestuften-soldaten-zum-bundesvorsitzenden-a-95c63033-9622-4369-874a-7aee633ed025 |access-date=20 January 2023 |trans-title=Junge Alternative elects soldier classified as extremist as federal chairman |language=de}}{{cite web |title=Bundesvorstand |url=https://netzseite.jungealternative.online/start/bundesvorstand/ |website=Bundesvorstand Alternative für Deutschland |publisher=AfD |access-date=20 January 2023 |language=de}}

File:Logo der Jungen Alternative für Deutschland.png

History

The JA was founded on 15 June 2013, four months after the AfD, with Torsten Heinrich as the organisation's first chairperson.{{cite journal |author1=Anna-Sophie Heinze |title=Drivers of radicalisation? The development and role of the far-right youth organisation ‘Young Alternative’ in Germany |journal=International Political Science Review |date=January 2025 |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=108-124 |doi=10.1177/01925121231221961}}{{cite book |author1=Anna-Lena Herkenhoff |editor1-last=Häusler |editor1-first=Alexander |title=Die Alternative für Deutschland: Programmatik, Entwicklung und politische Verortung |date=2016 |publisher=Springer VS Wiesbaden |isbn=978-3-658-10637-9 |pages=201–217 |language=de |chapter=Rechter Nachwuchs für die AfD – die Junge Alternative (JA)}}{{rp|202}} Heinrich left the party in March 2014.{{rp|202}}

In view of the JA's independence, it has been regarded by the AfD hierarchy as being somewhat wayward,{{cite news|last=Lamparski|first=NIna|title=Germany's youth rebels against EU|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27341876|access-date=12 May 2014|newspaper=BBC News|date=12 May 2014}} with the JA repeatedly accused of being "too far right,"{{cite news|last=Krass|first=Sebastian|title=Zu weit rechts|url=http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/wahlkampf-der-afd-jugend-zu-weit-rechts-1.1922788|access-date=12 May 2014|newspaper=Süddeutsche Zeitung|date=31 March 2014|language=de}} politically regressive and anti-feminist among the German media.

In March 2014, the Junge Alternative hosted Nigel Farage who had been invited to address the party's North Rhine-Westphalia organisation in Cologne.{{cite news|title=Junge Alternative: Nigel Farage zu Gast in Köln|url=http://ef-magazin.de/2014/03/19/5079-junge-alternative-nigel-farage-zu-gast-in-koeln|access-date=20 March 2014|newspaper=Eigenmütlich Frei Magazine|date=19 March 2014|language=de}} The invitation is alleged to have caused some trouble within the AfD itself over the youth wing's unauthorised invitation of Farage, with the regional association and the youth wing wanting to stress their independence.{{cite news|last=Weingärtner|first=Daniela|title=March of the populists|url=http://www.german-times.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=43234&Itemid=25|access-date=16 April 2014|newspaper=The German Times|date=April 2014}} The invitation was contrary to a decision of the AfD National Executive whose policy is that official contact with foreign parties is decided only by the federal executive. Nigel Farage's presence apparently led to a deterioration in relations with Bernd Lucke, the then-AfD leader, who called the move a "sign of poor political tact."

The JA launched an anti-feminist campaign entitled "Gleichberechtigung statt Gleichmacherei" (variously translated as "equal rights, not levelling down" or "equality instead of uniformity") on Facebook in response to the Young Socialists in the SPD, which posted photos supportive of feminism to mark International Women's Day. The Facebook page of JA describes feminism as a "left-wing ideology", and asks people to post reasons to reject it.{{cite news|last=White|first=J. Arthur|date=31 March 2014|title=Anti-euro party turns anti-feminist|newspaper=The Local (de)|url=https://www.thelocal.de/20140331/german-anti-euro-party-afd-turns-anti-feminist-alternative-for-germany-facebook-2/|access-date=11 May 2014}} The campaign was in reaction to proposals for gender quotas.{{cite news|title=Anti-feminist campaign targets German gender quota proposal|url=http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201404012147-0023610|access-date=12 May 2014|newspaper=Al Jazeera|date=1 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140404090116/http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201404012147-0023610|archive-date=4 April 2014}}{{cite web |author1=Patrick Timmann |title=Germany's Eurosceptic AfD meets to define party platform |url=https://www.euractiv.com/section/elections/news/germany-s-eurosceptic-afd-meets-to-define-party-platform/ |website=Euractiv |access-date=9 October 2023 |date=21 March 2014}} Sections of the German media labelled election campaign material of the JA which showed attractive women in swimwear under the slogan "equality instead of uniformity" as in bad taste. The JA followed with a poster of four shirtless men under the slogan "end soft justice".

In May 2014, the JA is said to have further irritated AfD bosses with a statement they released on Facebook advocating vigilante action against crime.{{cite news|last=Wagstyl|first=Stefan|title=Germany's anti-euro party AfD breaks national taboos|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6a6705ac-db84-11e3-a460-00144feabdc0.html|access-date=24 May 2014|newspaper=Financial Times|date=22 May 2014}}

In January 2015, the JA adopted its first statute, establishing basic organisational processes, and applied to become the official youth wing of the national party; the application was refused. In February 2015, Lucke proposed to dissolve the JA and found a new youth organisation. In May 2015, a JA convention removed sitting chair Philipp Meyer from office. Meyer, an ally of AfD leader Bernd Lucke,{{cite web |title="Ohne Lucke hat die AfD keine Zukunft" |url=https://jungefreiheit.de/debatte/interview/2015/ohne-lucke-hat-die-afd-keine-zukunft/ |website=Junge Freiheit |access-date=11 December 2023 |date=13 May 2015|language=de}} was a part of JA's liberal wing and was said to have acted against the JA board's wishes by publicly supporting expulsion proceedings against Björn Höcke. Meyer was replaced by Markus Frohnmaier, a member of JA's hardline right and an ally of Höcke.{{cite web |author1=Sebastien Kaiser |author2=Thomas Steiner |title=AfD-Jugendorganisation ist stärker von Rechtsextremen unterwandert als bisher bekannt |url=https://www.badische-zeitung.de/afd-jugendorganisation-ist-staerker-von-rechtsextremen-unterwandert-als-bisher-bekannt |website=Badische Zeitung |access-date=11 December 2023 |language=de |date=18 July 2016}} After Lucke himself was replaced as AfD leader in July 2015, the national party became more right wing; at the next party conference in November 2015, the JA was recognised as the national party's official youth organisation.

By 2016, the JA reported that it had over 800 members across 16 regional organisations.{{rp|202}} At the time, the JA was the official youth party of AfD state parties in North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland, Hamburg, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Berlin.{{rp|202}}

Marvin Neumann and Carlo Clemens were elected as JA's co-chairs on 18 April 2021. Less than three weeks later, Neumann resigned after pressure from AfD leaders over racist and white supremacist social media posts which the party feared would lead to the group being designated an extremist organisation.{{cite web |title=Co-Vorsitzender der Jungen Alternative verlässt die AfD |url=https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/afd-co-vorsitzender-der-jungen-alternative-verlaesst-partei-a-0ad6b0c5-d8e3-4825-bffb-aaf5491a5d48 |website=Der Spiegel |access-date=11 December 2023 |date=3 May 2021}}

A 2021 report from the US State Department said that the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution was monitoring the JA.{{cite web |title=2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Germany |url=https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/germany/ |website=US State Department |access-date=9 October 2023 |date=2021}}

Since 2023, the JA has been classified as a right-wing extremist organisation by the German national intelligence service Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) after being a case of suspicion and an object of observation since 2019.{{cite web |title=Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz stuft "Institut für Staatspolitik", "Ein Prozent e.V." und "Junge Alternative" als gesichert rechtsextremistische Bestrebungen ein |url=https://www.verfassungsschutz.de/SharedDocs/pressemitteilungen/DE/2023/pressemitteilung-2023-2-ifs-ein-prozent-ja.html |access-date=24 May 2023 |website=Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz |language=de}}

In December 2024, the main party of the AfD announced its intention to cut ties with the JA in connection to its classification by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. AfD leadership are planning to found a new organisation as its youth wing.{{cite web |title=AfD will sich von Jugendorganisation trennen |url=https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/innenpolitik/afd-junge-alternative-100.html |website=Tagesschau |access-date=3 December 2024 |language=German}} On 12 January 2025, AfD leadership voted to formally replace the JA as its youth organisation.{{cite web |title=Germany's far-right AfD replaces 'Young Alternative' group |url=https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-far-right-afd-replaces-young-alternative-group/a-71278353 |website=Deutsche Welle |access-date=13 January 2025 |date=12 January 2025}} In February 2025, the JA voted to dissolve as an independent organization at a federal congress, with effect from 31 March 2025.{{Cite news |date=2025-02-01 |title=AfD: Junge Alternative wird durch neue Organisation ersetzt |url=https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/afd-junge-alternative-wird-durch-neue-organisation-ersetzt-a-eb16564a-6846-4415-8945-efb3606b0c35 |access-date=2025-02-04 |work=Der Spiegel |language=de |issn=2195-1349}}

Political positions

The social scientist Alexander Häusler sees the JA as a proponent of a right-wing populist direction that acts as a "bridgehead"{{cite book |last1=Häusler |first1=Alexander |last2=Roeser |first2=Rainer |title=Wut, Verachtung, Abwertung. Rechtspopulismus in Deutschland. |date=2015 |publisher=Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung |location=Bonn |isbn=978-3-8012-0478-5 |page=134 |url=https://dietz-verlag.de/isbn/9783801204785/Wut-Verachtung-Abwertung-Rechtspopulismus-in-Deutschland-Andreas-Zick-Beate-Kuepper |access-date=6 July 2024}} of the party to the New Right. Like other youth organizations, it attempts to escalate the position of the parent party.{{cite web |last1=Schaum |first1=Marlis |title=Radikaler als die AfD (Gespräch mit Alexander Häusler) |url=https://www.deutschlandfunknova.de/beitrag/junge-alternative-radikaler-als-die-afd |website=Deutschlandfunk Nova |date=30 January 2015 |access-date=6 July 2024}} According to the social scientist David Bebnowski ({{ill|Göttinger Institut für Demokratieforschung|de|lt=Göttingen Institute for Democracy Research}}), the youth organization presents itself as an "anti-feminist force."{{cite book |last1=Bebnowski |first1=David |title=Die Alternative für Deutschland. Aufstieg und gesellschaftliche Repräsentanz einer rechten populistischen Partei |series=Essentials |date=2015 |publisher=Springer VS Wiesbaden |location=Wiesbaden |isbn=978-3-658-08286-4 |page=10 |doi=10.1007/978-3-658-08286-4 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-08286-4 |access-date=6 July 2024}} Contrary to the resolution at the 2016 national congress, there are repeated collaborations with the far-right Identitarian Movement at the local level.{{cite news |last1=Krebs |first1=Felix |title=Identitäre Bewegung": Wehrsport mit Burschenschaftlern. |url=https://www.zeit.de/hamburg/politik-wirtschaft/2017-02/identitaere-bewegung-hamburg-rechtsextremismus |newspaper=Die Zeit |date=6 February 2017 |access-date=6 July 2024}}{{cite journal |title=Junge Alternative: AfD-Abgeordneter bestätigt Zusammenarbeit mit Identitärer Bewegung |journal=Die Zeit |date=30 January 2017 |url=https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2017-01/junge-alternative-afd-identitaere-bewegung-zusammenarbeit |access-date=6 July 2024}}

According to researcher Anna-Lena Herkenhoff, members of the Junge Alternative "repeatedly stand out due to public statements that are astoundingly compatible with extreme right-wing discourse."{{cite book |last1=Herkenhoff |first1=Anna-Lena |editor-first1=Alexander |editor-last1=Häusler |title=Die Alternative für Deutschland. Programmatik, Entwicklung und politische Verortung |date=2016 |publisher=Springer VS |location=Wiesbaden |isbn=978-3-658-10638-6 |page=203 |doi=10.1007/978-3-658-10638-6 |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-658-10638-6 |access-date=6 July 2024}} The sociologist alludes to statements by Markus Frohnmaier and Robert Wasiliew, that exemplify how "the Junge Alternative uses a common right-wing, racist discourse" and follows a "public relations strategy typical of the extreme right". Whether the Junge Alternative also "has affinities with right-wing populist or extreme right-wing positions as an association as a whole" however, is still a "research desideratum" for sociologist {{ill|Martin Langebach|de}}.{{cite book |last1=Langebach |first1=Martin |last2=Virchow |first2=Fabian |last3=Häusler |first3=Alexander |title=Handbuch Rechtsextremismus |date=2016 |publisher=VS Verlag |pages=375–440 |chapter=Rechtsextremismus und Jugend}}

According to Häusler, the Junge Alternative is "more offensive than the parent party" in its efforts to "establish contacts with other right-wing populist parties in Europe." In 2014, for example, the JA organized a controversial event within the party with Nigel Farage, the leader of the British UK Independence Party. Moreover, Frohnmaier and Tritschler had also "sought direct contact with the FPÖ earlier than the leading functionaries of their parent party [...]" and now also maintained contacts with the Young SVP, the Finns Party Youth and the Young Guard of United Russia. {{cite journal |last1=Häusler |first1=Alexander |last2=Roeser |first2=Rainer |last3=Scholten |first3=Lisa |title=Programmatik, Themensetzung und politische Praxis der Partei "Alternative für Deutschland" (AfD) |journal=Heinrich Böll Stiftung |date=7 June 2016 |url=https://www.weiterdenken.de/sites/default/files/uploads/2016/08/haeusler_roeser_scholten_afd_2016-08.pdf |access-date=6 July 2024}}{{cite book |last1=Häusler |first1=Alexander |title=Strategien der extremen Rechten |date=2016 |publisher=Springer Fachmedien |location=Wiesbaden |page=119 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-658-01984-6_5.pdf |access-date=6 July 2024 |chapter=Die » Alternative für Deutschland « – eine Antwort auf die rechtspopulistische Lücke ?|doi=10.1007/978-3-658-01984-6_5 |isbn=978-3-658-01983-9 }}

In the summer of 2014, the JA advertised frontier justice as "the new police" in a campaign on Facebook.{{cite news |last1=Asche |first1=Christoph |title=AfD-Jugendorganisation Junge Alternative "Fast unverhohlen rechtsradikal" |url=https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/junge-alternative-umstrittene-afd-nachwuchsorganisation-a-997102.html |access-date=6 July 2024 |date=17 October 2014}}

In May 2019, David Eckert, Chairman of JA Berlin, criticized the parent party's denial of climate change: the AfD should "distance itself from the [near incomprehensible] statement that humans do not influence the climate".{{cite web |title=Offener Brief an Parteivorstand. AfD-Jugend meutert gegen Klimaleugner |url=https://www.n-tv.de/politik/AfD-Jugend-meutert-gegen-Klimaleugner-article21054615.html |website=ntv |access-date=6 July 2024 |date=28 May 2019}} As a result, several members of the state executive committee resigned, leaving the committee unable to continue working.{{cite web |last1=Kraetzer |first1=Ulrich |title=Nachwuchs der Berliner AfD gerät in Führungskrise |url=https://www.morgenpost.de/berlin/article225885861/Nachwuchs-der-Berliner-AfD-geraet-in-Fuehrungskrise.html |website=Berliner Morgenpost |access-date=6 July 2024 |date=31 May 2019}}

In 2022, the Young Alternatives supported a resolution calling for Germany to acquire nuclear weapons.[https://taz.de/AfD-streitet-ueber-nukleare-Bewaffnung/!5889231/][https://regionalheute.de/teile-der-afd-fordern-atomwaffen-fuer-deutschland-1666030326/][https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/plus241641601/AfD-Der-Atomwaffen-Plan-der-Jungen-Alternative.html]

Federal chairpeople

June 2013–February 2014: Torsten Heinrich
February 2014–January 2015: Philipp Ritz,{{cite news|title=Bernd Lucke und die wilde Jugend|url=http://www.n24.de/n24/Nachrichten/Politik/d/4900908/bernd-lucke-und-die-wilde-jugend.html|access-date=2 July 2014|publisher=N24|date=13 June 2014|language=de|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140617200744/http://www.n24.de/n24/Nachrichten/Politik/d/4900908/bernd-lucke-und-die-wilde-jugend.html|archive-date=17 June 2014}} resigned from JA
January–April 2015: Philipp Meyer{{cite news |author1=Tilman Steffen |title=AfD-Nachwuchs kickt Lucke-Anhänger raus |url=https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2015-05/afd-lucke-petry-meyer-weckruf2015-junge-alternative |website=Zeit Online |access-date=11 December 2023 |language=de |date=23 May 2015}}
May 2015–February 2018: Sven Tritschler and Markus Frohnmaier{{cite web |title=Sven Tritschler MdL |url=https://www1.wdr.de/unternehmen/rundfunkrat/Sven-Tritschler-100.html |website=WDR |date=3 November 2021 |access-date=11 December 2023|language=de}}{{cite web |title=Markus Frohnmaier, AfD |url=https://www.bundestag.de/abgeordnete/biografien/F/frohnmaier_markus-857304 |website=Bundestag |access-date=11 December 2023|language=de}}
February 2018–April 2021: Damian Lohr
April 2021 – October 2022: Marvin Neumann (resigned May 2021) and Carlo Clemens{{cite web |author1=Markus Balser |author2=Jens Schneider |title=Chef von Jugendorganisation tritt aus AfD aus |url=https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/afd-junge-alternative-neumann-ruecktritt-1.5282934 |website=Süddeutsche Zeitung |access-date=11 December 2023 |date=3 May 2021|language=de}}
October 2022–present: Hannes Gnauck

Political scientist Anna-Sophie Heinze has described Heinrich, Ritz, Meyer, Tritschler and Clemens as being from the moderate wing of the organisation and Frohnmaier, Lohr, Neumann and Gnauck as from the radical wing.

Literature

Herkenhoff, AL. (2016): Rechter Nachwuchs für die AfD – die Junge Alternative (JA). In: Häusler, A. (eds) Die Alternative für Deutschland. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-10638-6_14
Raabe, L. (2018): Diskursstrategien in Online-Teilöffentlichkeiten am Beispiel der Jungen Alternative für Deutschland. In: Oswald, M., Johann, M. (eds) Strategische Politische Kommunikation im digitalen Wandel. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007