Christian Lüth

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Christian Lüth (born 1976 ) is a former press spokesman for Alternative for Germany . From 2013 to 2017 he was head of the party's communications department and then head of the press office of the AfD parliamentary group until 2020 . On April 24, 2020, it was from this position exempt and entered later from the party. His exit from the party was confirmed in August 2020. On September 28, 2020, after renewed controversies about Lüth, the AfD's parliamentary group discussed an urgent application to terminate his employment relationship and voted unanimously for an immediate dismissal.

Lüth was in the past untruthfully as a grandson of the submarine - commanders and staunch Nazis Wolfgang Lüth the Navy in World War II and described himself in a private conversation as " fascist ".

Life and work

Training and activity for the FDP

Lüth first studied business informatics at the University of Stuttgart and later moved to the Free University of Berlin , where he studied political science . After graduating, he worked for the Friedrich Naumann Foundation as a project manager in Honduras , where he also advised President Manuel Zelaya at times . As on 28 June 2009, the Honduran military democratically elected Zelaya violently managed out of the country and a coup , called Lüth the coup but in Honduras first as a "legend", then showed understanding for the coup-border military, of which he is a "return to the rule of law and Constitution ”in the Central American country. He later admitted that Zelaya's exile was a breach of the constitution . In view of the constitutional violations committed by Zelaya himself, however, it was right to remove him from office. Also in Honduras, Lüth said he advised the business tycoon Miguel Facussé , whom human rights organizations accused of having commissioned assassinations of political opponents in Bajo Aguán . In 2011 Lüth tried to move to the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation in Berlin, headed by Dirk Niebel (FDP), but did not succeed. At the end of 2011 he worked briefly at the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), which is subordinate to the ministry, and until the beginning of February 2012 as a consultant in Department 220 for topics such as “ innovation management ”, but then had to leave the ministry again. According to media reports, the background was Lüth's lack of suitability , who is said to have falsely stated that the ministry had to meet the minimum grade 2 for university graduates - with the exception of law - required by the ministry . In fact, his degree in political science with a diploma thesis on “Reform approaches in UN peacekeeping after the genocide in Rwanda ” is said not to have met these requirements. Afterwards Lüth worked as an employee of the Bundestag member Hans-Werner Ehrenberg (FDP). Ehrenberg was in the spring of 2012 in the Bundestag nachgerückt . After the FDP did not move into parliament again in the 2013 federal election , Lüth lost his job after a total of ten years in the service of the FDP and switched to the AfD.

Press spokesman for the AfD

Lüth has worked for the AfD since 2013, initially as head of the communications department until 2017, and after the party's entry into the Bundestag as a result of the 2017 federal election as head of the press office of the AfD parliamentary group. He was considered a close confidante of the party leadership of the AfD, especially the parliamentary group leader Alexander Gauland . On April 24, 2020 he was given leave of absence from Gauland and released from his work. His employment relationship was initially not terminated because the notice period could not be met. He then resigned from the party. On September 28, 2020, a dismissal as a consequence of new statements about the “shooting” or “gassing” of migrants (→ controversies ) was discussed and on the same evening its termination without notice was unanimously decided.

Private

Lüth is a family man and lives in the Berlin district of Zehlendorf .

Controversy

According to reports by Stern magazine in 2018, according to which Lüth is said to have embellished his résumé , he was nicknamed "Lügen-Lüth" , also because of his reputation for having lied to political reporters . In circles of colleagues at the FDP and AfD, Lüth was also credited with acting “unprofessionally”, “autocratically” and “unsupervant” when dealing with employees and journalists.

Self-designation as a fascist (April 2020)

In 2020 Lüth was released from his work as press spokesman after a " labor law examination" had previously taken place. According to Zeit Online , it turned out that Lüth had a problematic attitude towards National Socialism . He is said to have described himself as a “ fascist ” and referred to his great uncle, Wolfgang Lüth , of whom he claimed to be his grandfather, to have spoken of his “ Aryan ” descent. He had received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross from Adolf Hitler for his services as submarine commander in World War II . In addition, according to media reports, Lüth is said to have repeatedly sung old Wehrmacht songs and uttered "dubious sayings". Already in his time as an employee of the FDP he is said to have sung the Horst Wessel song publicly under the influence of alcohol .

Documentation by ProSieben (September 2020)

According to Zeit Online, based on research into a production for the documentary "Rechts. Deutsch. Radikal" by the TV station ProSieben , Lüth, when he was still head of the press office of the AfD parliamentary group, was supposed to have a confidential conversation with right-wing activist Lisa Licentia about it Have “raved” that migrants could also be “shot or gassed”. When asked whether he wanted to bring more migrants to Germany, he replied: “Yes. Because then the AfD is better. We can still shoot them all afterwards. That's not an issue at all. Or gas, or whatever you want. I don't care! ”Lüth went on to say that the AfD had to ensure that Germany was in the most dire situation possible in order to secure its own political position in the country. In an interview with Licentia, he said: "As long as the AfD is still a bit unstable [...] we have to make sure that Germany is doing badly".

The results of this research led the AfD parliamentary group chairman to terminate Lüth without notice on September 28, after several MPs had prepared proposals for the parliamentary group meeting on the same day that provided for this. An application for termination without notice was also decided unanimously at the meeting. Several AfD MPs accused the parliamentary group leader Gauland of protecting Lüth for too long, which Gauland rejected.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nadine Lindner: Public Relations of the Parties - Do Politicians Still Need Journalists? In: Deutschlandfunk broadcast “Format des Political”. November 15, 2019, accessed May 1, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b AfD parliamentary group board dismisses ex-spokesman Lüth without notice. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . September 28, 2020, accessed September 28, 2020 .
  3. ^ A b Severin Weiland: AfD parliamentary group board dismisses ex-press spokesman Lüth without notice. In: Der Spiegel . September 28, 2020, accessed September 28, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b c Severin Weiland: Affair with AfD parliamentary group spokesman: "You can't leave it that way". In: Der Spiegel . May 1, 2020, accessed on May 1, 2020 (interview with Jan Lüth).
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Christian Fuchs, Jan Aleksander Karon: Christian Lüth: The silent speaker. In: Zeit Online . May 1, 2020, accessed May 2, 2020 .
  6. ^ Philipp Lichterbeck: Coup: Friedrich Naumann Foundation justifies a coup in Honduras. In: Tagesspiegel.de . August 14, 2009, accessed April 27, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Ole Schmidt: You can cut off all flowers. In: Friday . July 16, 2011, accessed May 1, 2020 .
  8. ^ A b Hans-Martin Tillack , Rainer Nübel : Unpleasant career station: How AfD parliamentary group spokesman Christian Lüth retouched his résumé. In: Stern.de . June 12, 2018, accessed May 1, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Christian Lüth: AfD dismisses press spokesman because of allegations of fascism. In: Welt Online . April 26, 2020, accessed April 26, 2020 .
  10. ^ A b Martin Schmidt: AfD gives notice to previous spokesman without notice. In: tagesschau.de . September 28, 2020, accessed September 28, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Georg Schwarte: AfD faction throws press spokesman out. In: tagesschau.de. April 26, 2020, accessed September 28, 2020 .
  12. ^ A b Christian Fuchs: "The worse Germany is doing, the better for the AfD". In: Zeit Online. September 28, 2020, accessed September 28, 2020 .
  13. ↑ a b Jan Sternberg: Inhuman statements: AfD wants to fire ex-spokesman Lüth. Editorial network Germany, September 28, 2020, accessed on September 28, 2020 .
  14. ^ Steffen Vogel, Hendrik Vöhringer: Hire and fire in the Bundestag: Losers looking for a job. In: Spiegel TV . September 29, 2013, accessed on April 27, 2020 (video, 6:44 minutes, on Lüth from minute 2:44).
  15. ↑ Christian Fuchs, Jan Aleksander Karon: Christian Lüth: The silent speaker. In: Zeit Online . May 1, 2020, accessed May 2, 2020 .
  16. ^ Werner Kolhoff: Fascism Outing: AfD parliamentary group releases press spokesman Christian Lüth. In: Saarbrücker Zeitung . April 27, 2020, accessed April 27, 2020 .
  17. ↑ "We have to make sure that Germany is badly off." For the report "Rechts. Deutsch. Radikal." researches ProSieben reporter Thilo Mischke in the power center of the AfD. In: Presseportal.de. ProSieben, September 27, 2020, accessed on September 28, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Lüth, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German political scientist and former press spokesman for Alternative für Deutschland
DATE OF BIRTH 1976