Wolfgang Gedeon

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Wolfgang Gedeon at an AfD demonstration in 2018 (left: Stefan Räpple )

Wolfgang Michael Gedeon (born April 23, 1947 in Cham ) is a German doctor and politician (formerly AfD ). He has been a member of the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg since March 2016 . His writings, perceived as anti-Semitic , led to his resignation from the parliamentary group and its temporary split. In March 2020, he was also excluded from the AfD.

Life

Youth, studies and work

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Gedeon grew up in Cham in a Catholic environment and attended grammar school there until 1966 . After graduating from high school, he began studying medicine at the University of Würzburg in the same year and continued it in 1969 at the University of Munich , where he passed his state examination in 1972 and in 1973 with a thesis on a gynecological topic as a Dr. med. received his doctorate. He then worked briefly in gynecology in Regensburg and later internist in Gelsenkirchen , where he finally established his own practice as a general practitioner . He gave up the practice in 2005.

politics

Maoism and right esotericism

According to his own account, Gedeon broke away from the Catholic Church during his student days, turned to Marxist writings and became a “practicing communist”. He was politically active in the so-called '68 movement until around 1976 , and around 1973 he was a member of the Jusos for two years . In the 1970s he was also a member of the Maoist KPD / ML and after the death of Mao Zedong he wanted to gradually break away from communism , but for decades he had not found a political home and turned more and more to the right via esotericism .

AfD membership and mandate in the state parliament

In April 2013 he joined the AfD and was elected first board spokesman for the Konstanz district association. In the state elections in Baden-Württemberg in 2016 , he received a second mandate from the AfD for the state parliament based on 15.7 percent of the votes in the Singen constituency . Gedeon was assigned to the right wing of the party.

Anti-Semitism Controversy

Gedeon's anti-Semitic writings, in particular his book The Green Communism and the Dictatorship of the Minorities , published in 2012 , led to his resignation from the parliamentary group in 2016 and to a temporary split in the group. In the book Gedeon described the memory of the Holocaust as the “ civil religion of the West” and Holocaust deniers as dissidents . In addition, he described Judaism as the “internal” and Islam as the “external” enemy of the “Christian West ” and spoke of “ethnosuicide” and “ Zionism through the back door”. According to Gedeon, Jews are also working on the “enslavement of humanity in the messianic empire of the Jews” with the aim of “Judaizing the Christian religion and Zionizing western politics”. According to Gedeon, the “Zionist influence” in jurisprudence is expressed “in a restriction of freedom of expression”. Gedeon also used the falsified protocols of the Elders of Zion as alleged evidence of Zionist striving for power and referred to authors such as the right-wing extremist sedevacant Catholic theologian Johannes Rothkranz . Gedeon defended his works in interviews and criticized the central location of the memorial for the murdered Jews in Berlin. Armin Pfahl-Traughber sees Gedeon as a supporter of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories , which denies that the inflammatory pamphlet Protocols of the Elders of Zion is counterfeit. Furthermore, he distanced himself from the scientific processing of the Holocaust and characterized it as the product of a " Ministry of Truth in the Orwellian sense ". The Amadeu Antonio Foundation made a similar statement. For Marcus Funck from the Center for Research on Antisemitism, Gedeon's anti-Semitism becomes clear simply through his recourse to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as an allegedly “serious source”, since this text is “only received in right-wing extremist and National Socialist milieu”. According to Funck, Gedeon's publications show three levels of anti-Semitism: ideologems from the "arsenal of historical anti-Semitism of the 19th and early 20th centuries", the idea of ​​the existence of a Zionist world conspiracy combined with anti-Americanism , and secondary anti-Semitism in the form of the Holocaust -Relativization.

After the anti-Semitic writings of Gedeon became known, parliamentary group leader Jörg Meuthen threatened to resign from the parliamentary group chairmanship and to leave the parliamentary group if Gedeon did not rule it out. On June 7, 2016, the majority of the parliamentary group voted to deal with a corresponding motion. At their meeting on June 21, 2016, the parliamentary group agreed to have Gedeon's writings examined by three independent scientists before a decision was made. At the meeting, Gedeon had also offered to suspend his membership in the parliamentary group pending this assessment. The reports submitted by Werner J. Patzelt and Manfred Gerstenfeld supported the allegation of anti-Semitism. According to Patzelt, Gedeon represents anti-Zionist positions and argues in the context of Christian anti-Judaism . He not only considers a “Zionist conspiracy” to be possible, but expressly sees it at work. Hence, in the writings of Gedeon there were recurring figures of thought of secondary anti-Semitism. Gerstenfeld describes Gedeon's writings as extremely anti-Semitic. Anti-Semitism is the basic structure of his thinking, on which he builds a number of false statements and conspiracy theories. A third report by the ethnologist Bernhard Streck , which declares the anti-Semitism allegations incorrect, was published by Gedeon himself. After the two-thirds majority required for exclusion was missed in a vote on July 5, Meuthen and twelve other members of the parliamentary group resigned. On the same evening and after personal discussions with federal spokeswoman Frauke Petry , Gedeon announced that he would not be a member of the parliamentary group. For the social scientist Samuel Salzborn , the fact proves that the AfD parliamentary group asked whether Gedeon's statements were anti-Semitic at all, and wanted a “conviction TÜV” that should take over this assessment, that one “at least parts” of Gedeon's view of the world as unproblematic ”- there is no“ other plausible explanation ”. Also “in order not to have to scare off any of its own comrades”, the AfD wanted to “externalize all responsibility for its own actions”.

At the beginning of 2017 Gedeon demanded in a paper ( Will the AfD a Zionist party? ) A clear distancing from " Israeli Zionism". In December 2017, together with other members of his party, at their national party congress, he spoke out in favor of supporting the “ Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions ” campaign against Israel, which is often classified as anti-Semitic . In addition, in this motion he rejects the term “secondary anti-Semitism” and describes it as an “ideological battle term” which is used to “defame political opponents and intimidate the public”.

In January 2018, Gedeon failed before the Berlin Regional Court with an injunction against the President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany , Josef Schuster , who had called him a Holocaust denier . According to the court, Schuster's statement is covered by the fundamental right to freedom of expression .

In an open letter to the mayor and the municipal council of the city of Singen, Gedeon demanded the end of the stumbling block campaign in the city in February 2018 . The occasion was the laying of stumbling blocks for the KPD politician Ernst Thälmann and his family. He called on the people of Singen to oppose the laying of stumbling blocks, as initiators would impose “a certain culture of remembrance ” on their fellow human beings and dictate “how they should remember whom and when”. Christoph Heubner , Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee , assessed this demand as an “attempt to force the survivors and their memories out of society”. In his words, the AfD is fighting “ever more brutally and unscrupulously what the survivors of Auschwitz have achieved as contemporary witnesses in German society” and “deliberately destroying the basic democratic consensus that has become common property in German society after the confrontation with the murderous Nazi system Republic is invoked again and again ”. The Singen municipal council unanimously supported the Stolperstein initiative launched by the Working Group of Christian Churches in the city. In a statement they wrote that every stumbling block "also sets a sign against current tendencies and structures of intolerance, xenophobia and exclusion". "It is expressly desired if one of these stones becomes the 'stumbling block' - to deal with the individual fates and the political and social backgrounds as well as for lively discussion."

In an interview with the right-wing extremist and anti-Semitic video blogger Nikolai Nerling ( Der Volkslehrer ) about Section 130 of the Criminal Code ( sedition ), Gedeon said at the end of 2018: "This is primarily a Zionist paragraph, this 130 ".

On October 16, 2019, a week after the anti-Semitic attack in Halle (Saale) , Gedeon, who according to Matthias Kamann ( FAZ ) still has "some supporters" in the Stuttgart parliamentary group, published his draft resolution for the AfD on his homepage -Party convention at the end of November 2019. In it he wrote that anti-Semitism in Germany was "being hugely exaggerated by an army of state-paid 'anti-Semitism officers'' and their media henchmen". The “bigger problem” is the “Israeli membership”; an “Israel lobby” “systematically misuses the anti-Semitism accusation in order to enforce a one-sided culture of remembrance and a distorted view of history as well as an unconditional pro-Israel policy”.

Acting in the AfD and exclusion

Gedeon was voted out of office as district chairman on July 18, 2016 by 16 votes to 11 with three abstentions. He himself described the vote as a mere opinion and wanted to remain in office until the new election of the board planned for September. On September 6, 2016, a new district board was elected to which Gedeon was no longer a member. Gedeon was a delegate at the federal party conference in Cologne in April 2017 . According to his district association, he was elected delegate for federal party conferences for two years in March 2015.

Despite his factionlessness , the cooperation with his former AfD parliamentary group colleagues continued. Together with four AfD members of the state parliament, Gedeon submitted three proposals to the federal party congress in December 2017. Furthermore, on November 21, 2017, he was accepted by the state parliamentary group in their working group Europe, after a decision by the group enabled him to take part in working group meetings as a "guest".

In the summer of 2017, the political scientist Hajo Funke described the announced party exclusion proceedings by Gedeon, Jens Maier and Kay Nerstheimer as a "show" by the AfD for the public. Due to their lack of results, these would prevent a “de-radicalization of the party”, so Funke. Finally, in January 2018, AfD state spokesman Ralf Özkara declared that the regional arbitration court had rejected Gedeon's exclusion "for formal reasons". This was explained by the fact that the evidence was not submitted in due time. The request for exclusion from the party consisted only of newspaper clippings and individual quotations from Gedeon's books. An assessment of the content of Gedeon's writings and statements was not made, said the AfD spokesman. Özkara announced that the party would not appeal against the judgment, nor would it take it to the federal arbitration tribunal. This ends the party exclusion process. In contrast, the AfD member of the Bundestag Uwe Witt , spokesman for the Alternative Center , said on June 21, 2018 in an interview with the daily newspaper Die Welt : “But I am sure that there will be a new [ie party exclusion process], which will hopefully take place at Exclusion leads "; the first failed, "because it was raised in a dissolute manner." In fact, in October 2018, the AfD federal executive made another attempt to exclude Gedeon from the party because of his statements about Jews. In a conference call, the panel voted unanimously in favor of a party expulsion process. In September 2019, a narrow majority of AfD members of the state parliament voted for Gedeon to be re-admitted to the state parliamentary group, but the two-thirds majority required for this was not achieved. In October 2019, the Schleswig-Holstein Regional Arbitration Court - the Baden-Wuerttemberg Regional Arbitration Court had previously declared itself biased - rejected Gedeon's exclusion from the party again, as the Federal Board's motion was "partly inadmissible" and "partly unfounded". The federal chairman Jörg Meuthen announced that the case would be pursued until the federal arbitration court.

In December 2019, the constitutional court for the state of Baden-Württemberg rejected an urgent application by Gedeon, who wanted to oblige the parliamentary group in a main proceedings to allow him to participate temporarily. He did not effectively end his membership in the parliamentary group, but only let it rest and saw his rights as a member of parliament being violated. At the present time, the court held the main proceedings to be inadmissible, since an organ dispute did not serve “the quasi-expert clarification of a problematic legal question”. According to the court, Gedeon should have made his request to the parliamentary group in a clear manner before the proceedings were initiated. The exact circumstances under which he left the group are also still unclear. In the same month, a majority of the AfD members of the Baden-Württemberg state parliament again spoke in favor of accepting Gedeon as a member of the parliamentary group again; however, the two-thirds majority required for this was again not achieved.

On March 20, 2020, it became known that the three-member federal arbitration court had excluded Gedeon from the AfD. It decided that Gedeon's utterances were ideologically not within the framework of internal party opinion formation. His behavior damaged the party's reputation. According to media reports, the decision was unanimous. Gedeon announced that he wanted to take legal action against his exclusion and described the arguments of the arbitral tribunal as "advanced and superficial - so to speak, politics in legal disguise".

Candidate as federal chairman

In November 2019 Gedeon ran against Jörg Meuthen for the office of one of the two AfD federal chairmen. After boos and after some of the delegates left the hall in protest during Gedeon's speech, Gedeon received 3.8 percent of the vote. Tino Chrupalla , who was elected as co-federal chairman, announced in his application speech that he wanted to ensure "that people like Gedeon are never allowed to speak again at an AfD party congress".

Positions

In March 2019, when the Stuttgart state parliament was about to make amends for the genocide committed by German troops from 1904 in the colony of German South West Africa against the Herero , Gedeon said that colonialism was “a sign that the European white race is different from other peoples and ethnicities was far superior in terms of civilization ”. Colonization has "saved the people there a lot of blood and a lot of sweat".

After the right-wing extremist murder of Walter Lübcke , the Kassel district president, Gedeon relativized the political significance of right-wing extremist terror in Germany in June 2019. In the Stuttgart state parliament, Gedeon said in a debate about right-wing extremism that there is extremism on both sides, including the use of force, but added: "But if we see the matter politically, then we have to be very clear: In comparison to Islamist terror and also in the In comparison to left-wing extremist terror, right-wing extremist terror in Germany is a bird shit. "With this choice of words, Gedeon's formulation recalled the statement made by AfD federal party leader Alexander Gauland , who had said a year earlier:" Hitler and the Nazis are just bird shit in over 1000 years of successful German history. "

At the beginning of March 2020, Gedeon speculated that the coronavirus might be a biological weapon attack from the United States. He interpreted the contact restrictions imposed by the authorities at the beginning of the pandemic as an attack on democracy and referred to an alleged paper by the Rockefeller Foundation from 2010, in which “this scenario”, namely the creation of a “panic mood” by a virus infection, “sketched out “Has been. According to Gedeon, the corona crisis is proving "in retrospect as an elegant path for the rulers into dictatorship".

Private

Gedeon is married and has three children. He has lived in Rielasingen-Worblingen since 2006 .

Publications

  • The clinical picture of the stroma endometriosis (dissertation), Munich 1972
  • Empirical healing methods in general medicine , Haug Verlag, 1986, ISBN 3-7760-0915-2 .
    • 2nd edition under the title empirical medicine and naturopathic treatment - an introduction to biological medicine , 1991, ISBN 3-7760-1184-X
  • Introduction to Naturopathy , Haug Verlag, 1986
  • From biological medicine to holistic medicine - a total view of medicine , 1991, ISBN 3-7760-1221-8
  • (with Johann Abele): Eigenbluttherapie und other autologe procedures , 2000, ISBN 3-8304-7021-5
  • (under the pseudonym WG Meister ): Christian-European leading culture. The Challenge of Europe through Secularism, Zionism and Islam , Frankfurt a. M .: RG Fischer Verlag 2009, 3 volumes:
  • Green Communism and the Dictatorship of Minorities: A Critique of the Western Zeitgeist , Frankfurt a. M .: RG Fischer Verlag 2012, ISBN 978-3-8301-9856-7
  • Me, the AfD and anti-Semitism. Populism or the courage to truth , WMG Verlag, Stuttgart 2018, ISBN 978-3-9819552-4-8 .

Web links

Commons : Wolfgang Gedeon  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Landtag Baden Württemberg - Gedeon Website of the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
  2. ^ AfD arbitration court throws Gedeon out of the party. FAZ, March 20, 2020, accessed on March 20, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Sabine Am Orde: Basic program of the AfD: May it be a little right? taz.de , April 20, 2016, accessed on January 29, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Matthias Kamann: How does an ultra-left agitator become an AfD right wing? , Die Welt from July 13, 2016
  5. ^ District Board of Constance. Archived from the original on March 15, 2016 ; accessed on March 16, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Selected applicants , State Statistical Office Baden-Württemberg , accessed on March 14, 2016.
  7. ^ Rainer Roeser: AfD: Unmistakable legal drift. Look to the right , March 14, 2016, accessed March 16, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Justus Bender and Rüdiger Soldt: In the zealot mode against Jews. FAZ.net , June 4, 2016, accessed June 6, 2016 .
  9. ^ Hajo Funke : From angry citizens and arsonists. AfD - Pegida - violence networks. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg 2016, p. 113
  10. ↑ Samuel Salzborn: “Antisemitism in the 'Alternative for Germany'.” In: ders. (Ed.): Antisemitism since 9/11. Events, debates, controversies. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2019, p. 208
  11. ↑ Wolfgang Benz: The "Alternative for Germany" and anti-Semitism. www.bpb.de, July 26, 2016
  12. ↑ Hannelore Crolly: AfD wants to get rid of MP Wolfgang Gedeon. welt.de , June 7, 2016, accessed June 13, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Armin Pfahl-Traughber : Wolfgang Gedeon and the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion". hagalil.com , accessed June 1, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Armin Pfahl-Traughber: More twisted history and conspiracy fantasies of AfD member of the state parliament Wolfgang Gedeon. hagalil.com , accessed June 5, 2016 .
  15. ↑ Jan Riebe: How anti-Semitic is the AfD. Retrieved April 26, 2017 .
  16. ^ Rüdiger Soldt: Researcher: Writings “clearly anti-Semitic.” Www.faz.net, June 22, 2016
  17. ↑ Joseph Kelnberger Stuttgart: Baden-Wuerttemberg: AFD-power struggle under supervision . In: sueddeutsche.de . ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed on June 22, 2016]).
  18. ↑ a b Gedeon and anti-Semitism , report by Werner J. Patzelt , accessed on March 5, 2017
  19. ↑ a b Manfred Gerstenfeld : European populism is here to stay. In: israelnationalnews.com. July 11, 2016, accessed March 5, 2017 .
  20. ↑ Anti-Semitism report by Prof. Dr. B. Streck. November 7, 2016, accessed April 26, 2017 .
  21. ↑ AfD defends Gedeon's appearance, FDP criticizes sharply. Retrieved July 7, 2017 .
  22. ↑ Baden-Württemberg: AfD boss Meuthen leaves with twelve members of the state parliament. Spiegel Online, July 5, 2016, accessed on the same day.
  23. ↑ Jan Friedmann: AfD in Baden-Württemberg: The Chaos Day of Stuttgart. Spiegel Online, July 5, 2016, accessed on the same day.
  24. ↑ Samuel Salzborn: "Anti-Semitism in the" Alternative for Germany "." In: ders. (Ed.): Antisemitism since 9/11. Events, debates, controversies. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2019, p. 209
  25. ↑ Stephan Grigat : "Learn from Austria." In: ders. (Ed.): AfD and FPÖ. Anti-Semitism, ethnic nationalism and gender images. (Interdisciplinary Research on Antisemitism Series, Vol. 7) Nomos 2017, p. 15
  26. ↑ Patrick Gensing : Campaign against Israel - What is BDS ? , tagesschau.de from December 8, 2017.
  27. ↑ Dietmar Neuerer: The AfD and anti-Semitism. www.handelsblatt.com, November 25, 2017
  28. ↑ AfD politician Gedeon may be called "Holocaust denier" , Tagesspiegel.de, January 16, 2018
  29. ^ AfD: Member of Parliament Gedeon calls for the end of the stumbling block campaigns. In: zeit.de . February 18, 2018, accessed February 20, 2018 .
  30. ↑ Torsten Lucht: Singing: Gedeon fears “memory dictatorship”: AfD member of the state parliament calls for the end of the stumbling block campaign. In: suedkurier.de. February 18, 2018, accessed February 20, 2018 .
  31. ↑ Discussion about stumbling blocks “This time defending against the beginnings”. In: tagesschau.de. February 20, 2018, accessed February 20, 2018 .
  32. ^ Südkurier Medienhaus: Singen: Reject for Wolfgang Gedeon: Singen City Councilors unanimously agree to stumbling blocks | SÜDKURIER Online . In: SÜDKURIER Online . ( suedkurier.de [accessed on May 28, 2018]).
  33. ↑ Monika Schwarz-Friesel : Jew hatred on the Internet. Anti-Semitism as a cultural constant and collective feeling. Hentrich & Hentrich, Leipzig 2019, p. 53
  34. ↑ a b c Matthias Kamann: Why it is so difficult to throw this man out of the AfD. www.welt.de, October 31, 2019
  35. ↑ AfD district association Konstanz votes out Gedeon , Focus online, July 19, 2016; District AfD elects chairman - Gedeon still sees himself in office , Südkurier online, July 19, 2016
  36. ↑ Wolfgang Gedeon is no longer the district chairman of the Konstanz AfD , Südkurier online, September 7, 2016
  37. ^ Matthias Kamann: Delegate despite anti-Semitic writings. In: welt.de . April 5, 2017. Retrieved April 21, 2017 .
  38. ↑ bnr.de: Südwest-AfD: Gedeon's loyal friends. Retrieved November 23, 2017 .
  39. ↑ Schwäbische Zeitung: Gedeon is allowed to work again with AfD. Retrieved November 23, 2017 .
  40. ^ Rüdiger Soldt: Dispute over anti-Semitism: Another member of parliament leaves the AfD in Baden-Württemberg. In: faz.net . November 24, 2017, accessed December 30, 2018 .
  41. ↑ tagesschau.de: AfD exclusions: Much announced, nothing implemented? Retrieved July 23, 2017 .
  42. ↑ Willi Reiners: AfD does not exclude Wolfgang Gedeon. January 10, 2018, accessed January 13, 2018 .
  43. ↑ Ricarda Breyton: Does the AfD attract anti-Semites? In: welt.de . June 21, 2018, accessed June 21, 2018 . .
  44. ↑ tagesschau.de: AfD federal executive wants to exclude Gedeon from the party. Accessed October 15, 2018 (German).
  45. ↑ Ulrike Bäuerlein: AfD parliamentary group refuses to accept the Landtag successor from Donaueschingen. Südkurier from September 18, 2019
  46. ↑ Sabine am Orde: Anti-Semite remains AfD member. taz.de, October 31, 2019
  47. ↑ AfD politician cashed in before the Constitutional Court. www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de, December 12, 2019
  48. ↑ a b c Felix Bohr: Anti-Semite Gedeon excluded from AfD. Der Spiegel, March 20, 2020, accessed on March 20, 2020 .
  49. ↑ Gedeon wants to defend himself against being expelled from the AfD. www.spiegel.de, March 21, 2020
  50. ↑ Tino Chrupalla succeeds Gauland as AfD party leader , WeltN24, November 30, 2019.
  51. ↑ Markus Wehner : Analysis of the party congress: The AfD wants to rule , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, December 1, 2019.
  52. ↑ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH (ed.): After the Lübcke murder case: AfD politician calls right-wing extremist terror "bird shit". In: www.faz.net. June 27, 2019, accessed June 29, 2019 .
  53. ↑ Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (ed.): Situation picture of anti-Semitism . Cologne July 2020, p. 61 f .
  54. ↑ Südkurier: AfD Landtag candidate Wolfgang Gedeon warns of Islamization ( Memento from March 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  55. ↑ parliamentwatch.de: Profile of Dr. Wolfgang Gedeon, non-attached - Baden-Württemberg. Retrieved December 10, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Gedeon, Wolfgang
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gedeon, Wolfgang Michael (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicians and politicians (AfD), MdL
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Cham