Der Flügel

Der Flügel (English: The Wing, German pronunciation: [deːɐ̯ fly:gel]) was a far-right ultra-nationalist faction of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. It was founded by Björn Höcke in the state of Thuringia on 14 March 2015. It was reportedly the most radical faction of AfD, and Germany's domestic intelligence agency placed it under "formal surveillance" due to its alleged right-wing extremism in 2020. It ceased to exist the same year, after the executive committee of the AfD voted to dissolve it on 30 April 2020. After its dissolution, its founder and leader Höcke made a video on Facebook confirming that it no longer exists.

Der Flügel had approximately 7,000 members in Germany. It was already identified as "suspicious" by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) in January 2019. It was being monitored along with the AfD's youth organization, Young Alternative for Germany. According to German authorities, individual members of Der Flügel had links to organizations that were previously classified as extremist. Der Flügel's membership was one third of the AfD and it was considered the most "relevant" wing of the party.

It was led by the Thuringian and Brandenburg state AfD leaders, Björn Höcke and Andreas Kalbitz. Reportedly, racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, historical revisionism, and the relativization of Nazism were accepted political positions of Der Flügel. The faction was described by other AfD members as "party within the party"; before its dissolution, it had its own leadership cadres in the state associations, and it organized its own events with its own appearance and logo.