Christoph Hörstel

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Christoph Hörstel (2017)

Christoph R. Hörstel (* 1956 in Bremen ) is a German publicist and political activist . From 1985 to 1999 he reported as a journalist for the ARD from various countries. After that he worked as a freelance journalist and activist. Among other things, Hörstel represents views that have repeatedly been criticized as being conspiracy theory . He was the founder and first chairman of the small party Deutsche Mitte , which he left on October 31, 2017.

Life

After graduating from high school and doing basic military service, Hörstel studied Sinology , French and Spanish in Munich and obtained a master's degree in marketing strategy from the University of Basel in 2002 . Since 1985 he has toured Afghanistan and Pakistan . Other assignments also took him to India , Iraq , Iran , Jordan and Syria . From 1985 he worked for ARD television as a special correspondent, later also as a news presenter for the show MDR aktuell and as a senior editor. Hörstel moved to Siemens mobile in 1999 as head of communications and in 2001 founded the government and management consultancy Hörstel Networks in Munich. He was a coach for ISAF executives in the Bundeswehr and guest lecturer at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy in Hamburg.

In 2001, when the Taliban was overthrown, Hörstel was the only Western journalist in Kabul. He had obtained the visa through his contacts with Gulbuddin Hekmatyār . Through his contacts with Islamists, in 2006 he helped to initiate a conversation between members of the Bundestag of the SPD and the FDP and the Hamas Minister for Refugee Affairs.

In 2012, Hörstel advised the internally controversial working group on peace policy of the Pirate Party . In 2013 he founded the party Deutsche Mitte , which he left in 2017, and founded the new party Neue Mitte , which was also founded for the first time in 2013. Hörstel left this party in 2013. In the 2013 federal election he ran unsuccessfully as a single candidate in the Potsdam constituency .

In autumn 2014, Hörstel played a leading role in a Potsdam citizens' initiative that protested against the fencing of a dilapidated area on Pfingstberg . The previously publicly accessible area was left to Mathias Döpfner as a usufruct , who was to renovate it at his own expense and originally be able to use it privately at the weekend. After a short time, Hörstel left the - partially successful - citizens 'initiative after his criticism of Israel had been reported in various media and Hörstel had also made the concerns of the citizens' initiative the subject of the politics of his party Deutsche Mitte .

Hörstel was a guest several times on the German-language program of the Russian state- funded broadcaster RT . He finds words of praise for Vladimir Putin .

Views

Afghanistan

In an interview with Südwestrundfunk, Hörstel alleged that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 . In his opinion, the USA is officially waging the war on terror , but the CIA supports the Taliban through its contacts with the Pakistani secret service Inter-Services Intelligence . The German federal government also knows about it.

In 2007 Hörstel presented a peace plan for Afghanistan that was informally coordinated with the Taliban, Hekmatyār and Afghan ministries, as well as with the Presidential Office. In the most recent version (2009), all foreign troops should withdraw from Afghanistan in three stages and within three years.

Middle East conflict

In an interview in the German program of the Iranian government broadcaster IRIB - World Service on February 7, 2012, Hörstel denied that Germany was responsible for the existence and security of Israel :

“Since 2007, through Ms. Merkel, Germany has declared Israel's security to be Germany's reason of state - due to American interests. This can only be described as a policy of high treason. That is how quite a large number of Germans see it. We have no responsibility at all for Israel's security, including Israel's right to exist . Such complete political nonsense. "

Hörstel was a speaker at Al-Quds Day in Berlin from 2011 to 2018 . On this occasion, in July 2014, he dealt with the Israeli Operation Protective Edge 2014 and with Israel's right to exist: “This state is a non-state. And if a state is a problem, then it cannot be part of the solution. "

For several years, Hörstel has acted as media advisor to the anti-Zionist - ultra-orthodox Jewish group Neturei Karta in Germany, for example as host and translator at a press conference in Berlin on January 27, 2010, Holocaust Remembrance Day . Rabbi Yisroel David Weiss , who acts as the spokesman for the Neturei Karta , had a talk at speaker level on January 29, 2014 in the Federal Chancellery in Berlin; the office later distanced itself and attributed the reception to an "error". Rabbi Weiss was accompanied during the conversation by Christoph Hörstel.

reception

In an article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from 2008, Hörstel was accused of being “a politically highly conscious calculating lobbyist” of the Taliban .

Thomas Speckmann accused Hörstel in the daily newspaper Die Welt of misunderstanding the political truth behind the Afghanistan mission, and wrote that the soldiers did not come “to build a new state based on the European model, but to help Bin Laden to fight holy warriors. "Therefore mistaken Hörstel even when he warns," the German involvement in the anti-terror operation Enduring Freedom 'hinders all good intentions, the German ISAF forces will help secure. To 'shoot down' opponents with special forces does not damage the credibility of the western will, but is rather a prerequisite for the success of the ISAF mission ”, according to the daily newspaper.

According to Spiegel Online , Hörstel, who was “once in demand as an expert and journalist”, is now “largely discredited” because of his views.

In the summer of 2014, the Simon Wiesenthal Center criticized the fact that Hörstel was scheduled to speak at an event in the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp on the occasion of the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 . He was accused of being close to Hezbollah and denying the Holocaust . The event was then canceled.

In various media, Hörstel and his theses are referred to as conspiracy theoretic , and he was also noticed by anti-Semitic statements.

Publications

  • Explosive device in Afghanistan: the Bundeswehr on a deadly mission . Knaur, Munich 2007, ISBN 3-426-78116-6 .
  • Fire in Pakistan: How the war of terror comes to Germany . Kai Homilius Verlag, Werder an der Havel 2008, ISBN 3-89706-841-9 .
  • Afghanistan-Pakistan: NATO at a turning point . Kai Homilius Verlag, Werder an der Havel 2010, ISBN 3-89706-417-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans UP Tolzin: Hörstel's exit enables Reformation. Deutsche Mitte, accessed on November 1, 2017 .
  2. ^ Yassin Musharbash: Diplomatic misstep: Members of the Bundestag met Hamas ministers . In: Der Spiegel , May 17, 2006.
  3. ↑ Hour of the freaks. In: Der Spiegel , June 6, 2012.
  4. ↑ NEW CENTER | We'll be back soon. July 18, 2014, accessed July 16, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Hörstel founds Deutsche Mitte (DM) | berlin-region.info. Retrieved on July 16, 2020 (German).
  6. ^ A b Henri Kramer: Personnel in the Pfingstberg fence dispute: Im offside. In: Potsdam's latest news. October 17, 2014, accessed May 1, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Anna Herbst: Who is behind “Offener Pfingstberg”? ( Memento of the original from October 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Brandenburg aktuell (rbb) from October 14, 2014 (accessed October 29, 2014) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rbb-online.de
  8. ↑ Die Welt, November 27, 2014: Moscow's propaganda is now also available in German
  9. ↑ Timo Stein: Don't be afraid of propaganda. Cicero , November 28, 2014
  10. ^ A b Henri Kramer: District Court Potsdam: The Purse Conspiracy . In: Potsdam's latest news . April 26, 2016 ( pnn.de [accessed March 16, 2017]).
  11. ^ Bitter end of illusions: Christoph Hörstel . SWR 1, November 10, 2008.
  12. ↑ Thomas Wolf: Money Week: “The Taliban are also capable of learning” . In: Focus-Money , January 27, 2010.
  13. ↑ IRIB - World Service, February 7, 2012: An interview with Christoph Hörstel.
  14. ↑ Speech on Quds Day in Berlin 2012 .
  15. ↑ Frederik Schindler: Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories on al-Quds Day in Berlin In: Audiatur-Online , June 25, 2017, accessed on June 26, 2017.
  16. ↑ Jihadist propaganda on the Qudstag March in Berlin - HaGalil , July 3, 2017.
  17. ↑ Mareike Enghusen (The Star, July 25, 2014): The irreconcilable.
  18. ^ Jewish Israel haters received in the Chancellery . In: Die Welt , February 5, 2014.
  19. ↑ Amazing mix . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 15, 2008.
  20. ↑ Peace without a plan . In: Die Welt , July 26, 2008.
  21. ↑ Annett Meiritz, Raniah Salloum: Hour of Freaks. In: Spiegel Online , June 6, 2012, accessed on March 28, 2017.
  22. ↑ Benjamin Weinthal: Wiesenthal Center: Concentration camp memorial fails to heed warning from the Holocaust. In: Jerusalem Post , June 15, 2014 (English); Holocaust denier's invitation to concentration camp memorial nixed after media exposé . In: Jerusalem Post , June 9, 2014 (English).
  23. ↑ Filip Piatov: "Russia Today" Moscow's propaganda is now also available in German . In: Welt Online , January 27, 2014, accessed March 18, 2017.
  24. ↑ Hanning Voigts: "Cross-Thinking Congress" in Friedberg: Meeting of the conspiracy theorists . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , August 17, 2015, accessed on March 18, 2017.
  25. ^ Lausitzer Rundschau: 19 parties are available for election in Saxony, 15 in Brandenburg. In: lr-online.de. Retrieved August 29, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Hörstel, Christoph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hörstel, Christoph R.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist, political advisor and conspiracy theorist
DATE OF BIRTH 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremen