Jens Maier

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Jens Maier

Jens Maier (born February 10, 1962 in Bremen ) is a German lawyer and politician ( AfD ). He is counted to the völkisch wing of the AfD, which was classified by the protection of the Constitution as a suspected case for right-wing extremist activities. After the 2017 federal election , he entered the Bundestag via the state list of the AfD Saxony . From 2019 he was chairman of the party's right-wing extremist group Der Flügel until its official dissolution.

Life

Maier grew up in Bremen. According to the biographical information on the pages of the German Bundestag, he studied law at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen , passed the first state examination in 1986 and completed his legal clerkship in Lower Saxony (second state examination in 1991), moved to Dresden in the same year and was briefly a consultant at the State Ministry for culture in Saxony, then public prosecutor in Dresden, followed by a lectureship at the University of Meissen (FH). In 1997 Maier became a judge at the Dresden Regional Court and remained responsible for civil matters until 2017 .

After racist statements ( see below ), Maier was assigned other responsibilities at the regional court in 2017 instead of media and personality rights and a reprimand was issued . The reason for this is the judiciary's law of moderation, which he violated during a joint appearance with Björn Höcke in January 2017, especially with his statements about the NPD.

Maier lives separately from his wife in a new relationship, from the marriage he has a son and a daughter. He lives in the Dresden district of Blasewitz .

politics

Maier was a member of the SPD until 1986 . In April 2013 he joined the AfD .

Maier is (as of August 2017) a member of the regional arbitration court of the AfD Saxony and “deputy local group leader” in Dresden.

In May 2017, at the instigation of Frauke Petrys , the state board of the AfD Saxony initiated a party expulsion procedure against Maier, contrary to a party convention resolution . He had u. a. the NPD praised ("The defendant repeatedly and persistently praises the NPD and is aware of the fact that it is an anti-constitutional party") and expressed understanding for the right-wing terrorist Breivik ("in the particularly repulsive case of a child and mass murderer one unprecedented tastelessness in the AfD ”). However, the exclusion process was generally considered hopeless from the outset because of the great support within the party for Maier and his views. Against Petry's explicit request, Maier was elected to second place on the list of candidates for the Bundestag at the state party conference, five out of twelve members of the state executive stood against her and the general secretary Uwe Wurlitzer and published a protest note in favor of Maier. The district association of Saxon Switzerland and Eastern Ore Mountains, for which Petry had already been designated as a direct candidate for the Bundestag, tried to revoke her candidacy, but refrained from doing so after pointing out legal deadlines. At the end of November 2017, state board member Carsten Hütter confirmed to Tagesspiegel that the proceedings against Maier had been stopped. This is based on broad approval in the regional association. According to Hütter, representatives of the district associations, the state executive committee and the Junge Alternative came out in favor of Maier.

In the 2017 federal election , Maier moved into second place in the state list of the AfD Saxony in the Bundestag. As a direct applicant in the Dresden I constituency , he received 22.4% of the vote; Andreas Lämmel (CDU) received 24.5%. The AfD parliamentary group appointed him an advisory board member of the Alliance for Democracy and Tolerance - Against Extremism and Violence (BfDT). He is chairman and full member of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Consumer Protection, full member of the body in accordance with Article 13 Paragraph 6 of the Basic Law and deputy member of the Interior Committee and the Committee on Election Review, Immunity and Rules of Procedure .

Within the AfD, Maier belongs to the völkisch-nationalist group “ Der Flügel ” around the Thuringian state chairman Björn Höcke; he described himself as a "little hump". Media like Der Tagesspiegel or the FAZ classify Maier as a right-wing extremist , Die Zeit , Deutschlandfunk and Dresdner Latest Nachrichten described him as a “legal interpreter” within the AfD. The extremism researcher Kailitz sees him in his attitude to the "creation of mixed peoples [...] completely on the line of the NPD".

Judicial decision in favor of the NPD

In May 2016 Maier banned by injunction as the competent judge of the District Court of Dresden at the request of NPD extremism researcher Steffen Kailitz from the Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism on NPD to say this plane "racist crime against the state".

Kailitz had evaluated the party program of the NPD and other public sources that could be attributed to the party and came to the assessment - repeated in a guest article in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit - that the party intends in the event of government to "attract eight to eleven million people from Germany. distribute, including German citizens with a migration background. " This results from the explicitly expressed opinion of the NPD that German citizens of “other races” always remained foreigners who had to be removed from Germany because - as Kailitz further quoted the NPD - “the award of printed paper (a FRG passport) yes does not change the biological genetic makeup [...] Members of other races therefore remain physically, mentally and emotionally foreign bodies, no matter how long they live in Germany, and by being awarded printed paper they do not mutate into Germans of Germanic origin. "The NPD complained against Kailitz ' Assessment that such a policy can only be realized through “state crimes”, on the grounds that if this policy is not arbitrary, but is carried out in accordance with legal rules, then it cannot be a crime at all, but is then lawful state action.

Maier agreed with this point of view: “I don't know how one can come up with state crimes after reading the NPD's program”, because if “someone is returned on the basis of legal principles, that is not a state crime.” He took Kailitz 'Assessment not as an expression of opinion, but as a factual assertion - which can be more easily prohibited by law . His decision was made in an urgent procedure without hearing from Kailitz and threatened Kailitz with a “fine of up to 250,000 euros, or alternatively administrative detention for up to six months” in the event of a violation.

Kailitz saw his freedom of science violated and filed an objection . The decision was later repealed by the responsible chamber in full. In the main proceedings, in which Maier was no longer participating, the NPD's action was finally dismissed in April 2017. The court assessed Kailitz's assessments as a permissible expression of opinion that the NPD must allow itself to be countered.

The original resolution was u. a. rated by the German Association for Political Science as an encroachment on academic freedom: Kailitz had been scientifically involved with the NPD for years and "to present research results publicly is one of the central tasks of scientists". "Prohibiting their publication in a court of law restricts the freedom of science inadmissibly." The decision was particularly explosive because Kailitz was heard by the Federal Constitutional Court as an expert in the second prohibition proceedings against the NPD, which were still ongoing at the time , i.e. Maier effectively forbade the repetition of statements that Kailitz had been asked to make elsewhere.

Maier stated that he had no knowledge of Kailitz's academic engagement with the NPD and his role as an expert before the Federal Constitutional Court, and "protested against being associated with the NPD. As a member of the AfD's regional arbitration court, he held it on the contrary for his task not to tolerate neo-Nazis as members of the AfD. "

While the NPD's lawsuit was still ongoing, Steffen Kailitz checked Maier's Facebook account and discovered various politicians from the party “in Maier's list, which has now apparently been cleaned up”. At the end of 2016, the NPD chairman Frank Franz was on the friends list.

Political positions, disciplinary proceedings and controversies

Facebook comments, especially on Muslims and asylum seekers

In January 2017, the Sächsische Zeitung analyzed over 100 Maier's comments on the Facebook social network . There he said on August 20, 2014: “Yesterday a barn owl passed me by the car at the traffic lights . I was about to blow the horn. I can only feel anger and anger for these servants. ”Maier regards asylum seekers as“ potential criminals ”. A statement in September 2014 read: "What National Socialism was on the political route, Islam is today on the religious route". In May 2015, Maier said that the Red Army could not really be seen as the liberators of Germany: “What the Americans associated with the victory can be seen today. We are not sovereign and we will not be. Is that liberation? We are waiting for liberation. ”Furthermore, Maier connected on Facebook with users who saw themselves threatened by an“ illegal regime ”and defamed the rule of law as a“ shitty state ”. He showed sympathy for Christian fundamentalists , the ideology of Reich citizens and the Pegida movement.

Speech about "guilt cult" and "mixed peoples"

In January 2017, Jens Maier was the previous speaker for Björn Höcke at the Brauhaus Watzke in Dresden. There Maier talked about the "creation of mixed peoples", through which the "national identities" should be wiped out, which was "simply unbearable". In addition, he described the reappraisal of the Nazi crimes as "propaganda and re-education directed against us, which wanted to persuade us that Auschwitz was practically the consequence of German history." About the NPD, Maier said that until the emergence of the AfD it was the only party that had "always stood united to Germany".

In the wake of the speech, the Dresden Regional Court saw public trust in judicial independence in honor protection and media proceedings as endangered and restructured its responsibilities - with Maier's consent - in such a way that such proceedings would now take place in a newly formed civil chamber without Maier.

The President of the Dresden Regional Court issued Maier an official reprimand in the course of disciplinary proceedings , since Maier had violated the law of moderation applicable to judges with his statements : "Especially against the background that Judge Maier was a member of the press and honor protection matters at the time Judge Maier, whose profession as a judge had always been known, had the reputation of the judiciary in general and of the Dresden Regional Court in the responsible chamber of the regional court and was also involved there with proceedings of the NPD, his statements on the NPD had violated the moderation requirement Dealed special damage. " Maier waived his right to appeal.

Understanding for the right-wing terrorist Breivik

At an event organized by the right-wing populist magazine Compact , published by Jürgen Elsässer , Maier expressed his understanding for the Norwegian right-wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik , who murdered 77 people in 2011 , as journalists from Zeit online and Vorwärts followed in the live stream . He had "become a mass murderer out of desperation". The reason was the immigration of "cultural strangers". He also cited the book Defending Europe by the blogger “ Fjordman ” as an impetus for his political activities. Fjordman's contributions had also cited Breivik in his “Manifesto” as justification. Immediately after Maier's appearance, Compact had taken the video of the event offline. Maier, who asserted that he neither apologized nor played down Breivik's actions, says he has a manuscript of his speech but does not want to publish it.

Statements as a member of the advisory board of the BfDT

Even before the first meeting of the Alliance for Democracy and Tolerance - Against Extremism and Violence , Maier announced that he wanted to discuss “specifically German culture” in this body and saw the opportunity “to shed light on the dark cave of left and left-wing extremist financial and association structures bring to".

Racist insult to Noah Becker by employees

On January 2, 2018, Maier's Twitter account Noah Becker, Boris Becker's son , was racially insulted after he reported about his experiences with racist attacks in Berlin, which is a rather "white city" compared to London or Paris. Maier stated that he did not write the tweet himself. The author was an employee whom he had warned . Meanwhile, the employment relationship with the employee no longer exists.

Initially, the authorship was unclear, which is why Maier himself was often criticized and sanctioned. The AfD Berlin asked Maier to resign. The AfD chairman Jörg Meuthen described the tweet as undoubtedly racist. The chairman of the judges' association , Jens Gnisa , called Maier's public appearance “unbearable and completely unacceptable” and accused him of “calculated provocation”. The chairwoman of the new judges' association Brigitte Kreuder-Sonnen rated the statements about Becker as "unacceptably stupid". The Berlin Regional Court was - after Maier neither apologized nor a declaration of signed - a restraining order out against Maier, which forbids him to repeat his racist statement. The federal board of the AfD warned Maier for his tweet. The faction board of the AfD parliamentary group followed this warning.

Noah Becker filed a criminal complaint for insulting Maier. On February 14, 2018, the Dresden Public Prosecutor's Office initiated a formal investigation against Maier. In a letter to Becker's lawyer dated February 5, 2018, Maier asked for the criminal complaint to be withdrawn, since the statement, whose offensive character he acknowledged, did not come from him, and asked for an apology. Becker's lawyer ruled out a withdrawal of the criminal complaint. Maier rejected Becker's request for payment of 15,000 euros in compensation for pain and suffering, as did Becker's suggestion to donate seven thousand five hundred euros to a charitable organization. Instead, he accused Becker of having “first expressed himself racist”, and whoever “hands out” has to take it.

On September 12, 2018, the Dresden public prosecutor announced that they had discontinued the criminal proceedings against Maier. The investigations had confirmed that the racist tweets were dropped by a Maier employee. The man who admitted the tweets is still under investigation. On January 15, 2019, the 27th press chamber of the Berlin Regional Court ruled that Maier, as the account holder, had to pay Becker compensation for pain and suffering in the amount of 15,000 euros plus interest. Maier appealed against the judgment calling a. At the end of July 2019, Becker was awarded € 7,500 in compensation from Maier in a settlement . He was also reimbursed for legal fees.

Verbal attack on parliamentary group colleague Verena Hartmann

After a violent verbal attack by Maier on his group colleague Verena Hartmann, who belongs to the moderate wing of the party, in January 2018, the AfD group announced that it would carry out a mediation process between the two . As a result of this incident, the AfD parliamentary group wanted to develop internal rules of conduct and a catalog of penalties for violations of these rules.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. Assessment by Steffen Kailitz , in: Christian Jakob: AfD judge in Dresden: Herr Maier awakens. In: the daily newspaper . September 12, 2017, accessed February 10, 2018 .
  2. Frank Jansen: The Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies AfD as a “test case” . In: Tagesspiegel . 15th January 2018.
  3. ^ German Bundestag - Jens Maier . In: German Bundestag . ( bundestag.de [accessed on February 10, 2018]).
  4. ^ A b Sven Eichstädt: AfD: Judge Jens Maier praises Björn Höcke and the NPD. In: The world . January 19, 2017. Retrieved August 12, 2017 .
  5. § 64 I Judges Act .
  6. Reference for AfD judge Jens Maier. In: Saxon newspaper . August 11, 2017. Retrieved November 23, 2018 .
  7. Dresden Regional Court, press release of August 11, 2017: Disciplinary order issued against Judge Jens Maier ( Memento of the original of January 9, 2018 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.justiz.sachsen.de
  8. Dresden Regional Court: Dresden Regional Court - 2017. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 9, 2018 ; accessed on February 10, 2018 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.justiz.sachsen.de
  9. ^ Ansgar Siemens: With a hard hand. In: Spiegel Online. May 15, 2018, accessed May 15, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Regional Arbitration Court. In: AfD Saxony . Retrieved August 12, 2017 .
  11. Stefan Locke, Dresden: Trouble in the AfD: Petry vs. Maier . In: FAZ.NET . May 18, 2017, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed February 24, 2018]).
  12. ^ Matthias Meisner: AfD functionaries in Saxony rebel against Petry. In: Tagesspiegel . May 22, 2017. Retrieved August 12, 2017 .
  13. Tilman Steffen, Michael Heck, Tilman Steffen: AfD: Petry applies for exclusion from the party of Bundestag candidate Maier. In: The time . May 19, 2017. Retrieved August 12, 2017 .
  14. ^ Stefan Locke, Dresden: AfD in Saxony: applause for ranting against Petry . In: FAZ.NET . June 9, 2017, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed March 9, 2018]).
  15. Stefan Locke, Dresden: Trouble in the AfD: Petry vs. Maier . In: FAZ.NET . May 18, 2017, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed February 24, 2018]).
  16. ^ A b c AfD functionaries in Saxony rebel against Petry. Retrieved March 9, 2018 .
  17. Tim Schulz: The state list of AfD Saxony: Hardliners occupy top positions. In: right end of the line . August 9, 2017. Retrieved August 12, 2017 .
  18. ^ A b Stefan Locke, Dresden: AfD in Saxony: applause for ranting against Petry . In: FAZ.NET . June 9, 2017, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed March 9, 2018]).
  19. Matthias Meisner: Exclusion proceedings against "small Höcke" stopped. In: Tagesspiegel . November 29, 2017. Retrieved November 29, 2017 .
  20. ^ A b Matthias Meisner: After the AfD moved into the Bundestag: culture of remembrance with right-wing radicals . In: Tagesspiegel . 29th November 2017.
  21. ^ German Bundestag - Jens Maier . In: German Bundestag . ( bundestag.de [accessed on March 12, 2018]).
  22. "Kleiner Höcke": AfD boss Petry wants to get rid of controversial judge Maier. In: Westfalen-Blatt . May 18, 2017. Retrieved August 12, 2017 .
  23. ^ Stefan Locke: Applause for ranting against Petry . In: FAZ June 9, 2017.
  24. Toralf Staud: The Union determines how dangerous the AfD becomes . In: The time . September 24, 2017.
  25. ^ Bastian Brandau: Doubts about legal independence . In: Deutschlandfunk . 2nd February 2017.
  26. Half of the AfD state board resigns . In: Dresdner Latest News . 29th September 2017.
  27. cit. according to: Olaf Sundermeyer and Markus Pohl: Will there be any more professional bans soon? RBB-Online, accessed on March 9, 2018 .
  28. Steffen Kailitz: NPD: keep wrong . In: The time . October 6, 2016, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed February 11, 2018]).
  29. quoted from Steffen Kailitz, in: NPD: Wrong keep . In: The time . October 6, 2016, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed February 11, 2018]).
  30. cf. Steffen Kailitz: NPD: Be wrong . In: The time . October 6, 2016, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed February 11, 2018]).
  31. Jens Maier quoted from, Sven Eichstätt, in: NPD may plan state crimes be assumed. Retrieved February 11, 2018 .
  32. ^ Christian Bommarius: Dresden Regional Court: Judge with AfD party book gives NPD right. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . May 19, 2016. Retrieved August 12, 2017 .
  33. Media information 5/17. In: Dresden Regional Court . April 28, 2017. Retrieved August 12, 2017 .
  34. Tilman Steffen, © Michael Heck, Tilman Steffen: Dresden: NPD political scientists cannot shut up . In: The time . April 28, 2017, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed February 11, 2018]).
  35. ^ Board of Directors and Advisory Board of the DVPW: Statement by the German Association for Political Science (DVPW). Retrieved February 11, 2018 .
  36. LTO: LG Dresden forbids researchers to make statements about NPD . In: Legal Tribune Online . ( lto.de [accessed on February 11, 2018]).
  37. so Maier opposite the Süddeutsche Zeitung, see: Heribert Prantl: Richter with AfD party book helps the NPD . In: sueddeutsche.de . 2016, ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed on February 11, 2018]).
  38. Christian Jakob: AfD judge in Dresden: Mr. Maier awakens . In: The daily newspaper: taz . September 12, 2017, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed February 10, 2018]).
  39. Tilman Steffen, © Michael Heck, Tilman Steffen: AfD Saxony: Where Höcke is hope . In: The time . September 15, 2017, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed March 9, 2018]).
  40. Karin Schlottmann and Ulrich Wolf: The dignity of the office. In: Saxon newspaper. January 20, 2017. Retrieved November 23, 2018 .
  41. a b Ronja Ringelstein: The judge from the AfD: A demagogue in robe. In: Der Tagesspiegel. January 24, 2017, accessed January 5, 2018 .
  42. Matthias Meisner: “The independence of the judiciary and its limits. The incendiary speech by Höcke, a Dresden judge and a Gera public prosecutor. ”In: ders./Heike Kleffner (ed.): Extreme Sicherheit. Right-wing extremists in the police, the protection of the constitution, the armed forces and the judiciary. Herder, Freiburg 2019, p. 212
  43. ^ Justice - Dresden Regional Court withdraws several proceedings from AfD judges. In: Dresdner Latest News . January 31, 2017, accessed August 12, 2017 .
  44. LTO: After scandal speech: new responsibility for AfD judges . In: Legal Tribune Online . ( lto.de [accessed on February 12, 2018]).
  45. ^ Dresden Regional Court issues reprimand for Jens Maier . ( Memento of the original from January 7, 2018 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: MDR . 11th August 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mdr.de
  46. Dresden Regional Court: Dresden Regional Court - 2017. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 9, 2018 ; accessed on February 5, 2018 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.justiz.sachsen.de
  47. Dresden Regional Court: Dresden Regional Court - 2017. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 9, 2018 ; accessed on February 5, 2018 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.justiz.sachsen.de
  48. ^ Matthias Meisner: Jens Maier from Saxony: AfD politician expresses understanding for right-wing terrorist Anders Breivik. In: Tagesspiegel . April 21, 2017. Retrieved August 12, 2017 .
  49. ^ Robert Kiesel: AfD politician Jens Maier: Breivik acted out of desperation. In: Vorwärts (Germany) . April 20, 2017. Retrieved August 12, 2017 .
  50. Matthias Meisner: “The independence of the judiciary and its limits. The incendiary speech by Höcke, a Dresden judge and a Gera public prosecutor. ”In: ders./Heike Kleffner (ed.): Extreme Sicherheit. Right-wing extremists in the police, the protection of the constitution, the armed forces and the judiciary. Herder, Freiburg 2019, p. 213
  51. Matthias Meisner: “The independence of the judiciary and its limits. The incendiary speech by Höcke, a Dresden judge and a Gera public prosecutor. ”In: ders./Heike Kleffner (ed.): Extreme Sicherheit. Right-wing extremists in the police, the protection of the constitution, the armed forces and the judiciary. Herder, Freiburg 2019, p. 215
  52. a b Insults in tweets: AfD politician now accuses Noah Becker of racism . In: FAZ.NET . March 24, 2018, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed March 28, 2018]).
  53. Racist comment: AfD member of parliament incites against Boris Becker's son. In: FAZ.net. January 3, 2018, accessed January 10, 2018 .
  54. Outrage over AfD politician Maier. In: tagesschau.de. Retrieved January 4, 2018 .
  55. ^ After tweet about Noah Becker: Meuthen: Maier's statement is racist. In: faz.de , January 4, 2018
  56. LTO: AfD-MdB Jens Maier: How far can judges go? In: Legal Tribune Online . ( lto.de [accessed on February 11, 2018]).
  57. Tweet about Noah Becker: Interim injunction against AfD politicians. In: tagesspiegel.de. Der Tagesspiegel , January 10, 2018, accessed on January 10, 2018 .
  58. ^ According to a racist tweet: AfD man Maier warned by his own party. In: Focus Online. Retrieved January 23, 2018 .
  59. Noah Becker reports criminal charges against AfD MP Maier. In: sueddeutsche.de. Süddeutsche Zeitung , January 7, 2018, accessed on January 10, 2018 .
  60. Noah Becker on racism - "We have to give love to people who hate". In: spiegel.de. January 6, 2018, accessed January 7, 2018 .
  61. Jens Maier apparently wanted to prevent preliminary investigations. In: Zeit Online. February 16, 2018, accessed February 21, 2018 .
  62. Proceedings against AfD judge Jens Maier for insulting Noah Becker suspended. In: Dresdner Latest News. September 12, 2018, accessed September 14, 2018 .
  63. Landgericht Berlin (Civil Chamber 27), judgment of January 15, 2019 - 27 O 265/18
  64. Ansgar Siemens: AfD right wing winger has to pay Noah Becker compensation for pain and suffering. Der Spiegel , January 15, 2019, accessed on January 16, 2019 .
  65. AfD politician defends himself against judgment on compensation for pain and suffering
  66. ^ Spiegel Online: AfD politician transfers Noah Becker 7500 euros in compensation for pain and suffering. Retrieved October 12, 2019 .
  67. Markus Wehner : Mediation in the AfD parliamentary group, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of January 31, 2018, p. 4.
  68. Jens Schneider: Parliamentary behavior course for AfD members. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. January 30, 2018, accessed February 5, 2018 .