Arya News - With his distinctive long beard, Stephan Kramer might seem an unusual fit for the grey and anonymous world of the German intelligence services.
With his distinctive long beard, Stephan Kramer might seem an unusual fit for the grey and anonymous world of the German intelligence services.
Having witnessed the rise of the hard-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD), from fringe eccentrics to de facto opposition, the country’s only Jewish spy chief is unafraid to be the face of the state’s crackdown on the party.
As president of the BfV domestic intelligence agency in the east German state of Thuringia, a political stronghold of the AfD, Mr Kramer has long been a thorn in the side of Alice Weidel, the party’s leader.
In 2021, Mr Kramer made Thuringia the first state in German history to formally classify its AfD branch as “extremist”, with other eastern states such as Brandenburg following his lead over the next few years.
By May this year, the BfV’s federal leadership had classified the entire party nationwide as Right-wing extremist , making Mr Kramer something of a bête noire for the AfD’s leadership.
The AfD, led by Alice Weidel, became the second-largest party in Germany after the general election in February - Soeren Stache/AFP
The spy chief has now gone even further by calling for the AfD to be banned , the ultimate sanction in Germany’s legal system for parties that risk repeating the horrors of Nazi rule.
It may seem an unusually brazen tactic for a German intelligence chief, especially in comparison to Britain’s highly secretive equivalent, MI5.
Mr Kramer has said that he and his family will emigrate to Israel if the AfD, which he has accused of using “covert anti-Semitism” to win voters, takes power in Germany.
“For me and my family, it’s clear that a red line will be crossed if the AfD enters government at the federal or state level. We won’t participate in that experiment,” he said in 2023.
“We have now reached a level of threat to our democracy where, in my view, a ban is warranted,” he has said.
Embroiled in neo-Nazi scandals
Founded in 2013, the anti-migrant, Kremlin-friendly AfD is the most divisive political movement in Germany’s post-war history.
To its supporters, the party speaks the uncomfortable truth about mass migration, “woke” politics and the costly war in Ukraine. Critics view it as a new iteration of German fascism.
While the party vehemently denies its extremist status, it has been embroiled in a litany of neo-Nazi scandals over the past decade. Perhaps most notoriously, the AfD disbanded its youth wing last March after some activists called for Jews to be rounded up in ghettos – and shot if they refused.
Despite this, the AfD is consistently leading the polls, having aggressively campaigned on an anti-migrant , Kremlin-friendly platform during last February’s federal elections, from which it emerged as the second-largest party.
Many now consider the AfD, which counts tech billionaire Elon Musk and JD Vance , the US vice-president, among its admirers, to be Germany’s populist government-in-waiting, a scenario that Mr Kramer considers a “red line”.
In recent days, Ms Weidel has taken notice of Mr Kramer, launching a series of personal attacks against him, comparing his “greasy” BfV agency to the Stasi, the Soviet-era secret police.
She resorted to mocking Mr Kramer’s beard in an ill-tempered TV interview, in which she observed: “That Kramer, with that beard and all. Look at him, you can see what kind of person he is, like something out of a biker club.”
‘It’s basically what Maggie said’
The Telegraph spoke with Mr Kramer this week, as he juggled his role as a spy chief with his newfound status as perhaps the country’s most prominent proponent of an AfD ban.
In a text message, Mr Kramer laughed off Ms Weidel’s beard jibe, which reminded him of Margaret Thatcher’s famous remark that “if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left”.
“It is basically what Maggie said, but they [Ms Weidel and Thatcher] are not in the same league ... there are light years between them,” Mr Kramer told The Telegraph.
Alice Weidel mocked Stephan Kramer’s beard in an ill-tempered TV interview - Imago / Alamy Stock Photo
He also defended the BfV’s intense scrutiny of the AfD, which he considers an integral part of upholding Germany’s post-war constitution.
“All actions of the BfV must adhere to the principles of the rule of law and are subject to constant scrutiny by the public, parliaments, and the relevant courts. None of that applied to the Stasi,” he said, alluding to the secret police force’s track record of torture and arbitrary detention.
He added: “It seems to me this is a desperate attempt by the AfD to distract from their own, in some cases, hostile attitudes towards the German constitution.”
AfD ‘rooted in racist positions’
He expressed concern that the populist party, which polls currently suggest will win the next general election – though all other parties have refused to build a coalition with it – is trying to spread a “climate of fear” among its critics in Germany.
Born in 1968 in West German city of Siegen, Mr Kramer served in the German navy and worked for the Central Council of Jews in Germany before he entered the intelligence services.
In 2021, as director of the BfV in Thuringia, the agency took the unprecedented step of classifying the AfD as a “confirmed Right-wing extremist” group, citing its opposition to “the free democratic order.”
The agency’s ruling, which partly drew on public statements by senior AfD members, was based on the assessment that the party was “fundamentally rooted not in criticism of cultures or religions, but in racist positions”.
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At that time, the AfD’s Thuringia branch was mired in controversy as Björn Höcke, its leader, had used a slogan that SA Stormtroopers used to engrave on daggers, “Alles für Deutschland [Everything For Germany],” during a speech.
Höcke was later convicted and fined €13,000 (£11,000) for using the phrase, which fell foul of Germany’s rules against Nazi symbols and slogans.
The BfV’s decision to designate the entire party as an extremist group nationwide was partially because of the conclusion that the AfD did not view those from a “migration background from predominantly Muslim countries” as truly German.
Kremlin-friendly and anti-Semitic statements by AfD members, both senior and junior, were also used to inform the ruling on the new classification.
The findings were rejected by the AfD’s leadership as “ complete nonsense ”, and triggered a rebuke from the Trump administration, which accused Germany of eroding free speech by labelling them as extremist.
But they also ignited a fierce debate in Germany, as many felt the country had taken a step closer to an AfD ban, which is permitted by Germany’s constitution in cases where a party endangers the “free democratic order” or “existence” of the state.
The process of banning the party can be initiated by the German parliament or the ruling government, which is led by Friedrich Merz , the chancellor. In May, the Chancellor suggested he was against a ban as he would rather defeat the party in the realm of debate.
Experts say that securing an AfD ban could be a complex process, though it has happened on two previous occasions in Germany’s post-war history. In 1952, the openly neo-Nazi Socialist Reich Party was banned, as was the Communist Party of Germany in 1956.
One recent open letter, penned by 200 German legal experts, claimed that the amount of evidence to justify a ban for the AfD was “overwhelming”.
Either way, Ms Weidel and her party allies can be sure of one thing: Stephan Kramer and his BfV agents are watching them.
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