Hocke was fined for using a Nazi slogan, illegal in today's Germany, during a campaign rally in 2021.
A court has convicted one of the best-known figures of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party for using a Nazi slogan in a speech and ordered him to pay a fine.
Judges fined Bjorn Hocke 13,000 euros ($14,000) on Tuesday for using the phrase “Alles fur Deutschland” (“All for Germany”) during a 2021 campaign rally.
It was once a motto of the paramilitary group Sturmabteilung, or SA, which played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power, but the phrase is illegal in modern Germany along with the Nazi salute and other slogans and symbols of that era. Hocke maintained that it is an “everyday saying.”
He declared at trial that he is “completely innocent.” The former history teacher described himself as a “law-abiding citizen.”
The verdict was issued months before regional elections in the eastern state of Thuringia, in which Hocke plans to run for governor.
The charge can carry a maximum sentence of three years in prison. Prosecutors had asked for a six-month suspended sentence, while defense lawyers asked for acquittal.
Hocke, 52, is an influential figure in the far-right AfD and is considered an “extremist” by German intelligence services. He previously called the Berlin Holocaust Memorial a “monument of shame.”
He has led the AfD's regional branch in Thuringia since 2013, the year the party was founded, and must lead its campaign in the state elections scheduled for September 1. In 2018, a party court rejected an attempt to expel him.
Prosecutor Benedikt Bernzen said in closing arguments Tuesday that Hocke had used Nazi vocabulary “strategically and systematically” in the past.
Hocke accused prosecutors of not looking for exonerating circumstances and argued that freedom of opinion is limited in Germany.
