Young Republicans Chapter Plans To Host Far-right German Leader After ‘i Love Hitler’ Chat

NEW YORK — A New York City-based Republican club will honor a far-right German leader at its annual gala — just eight weeks after its statewide counterpart was disbanded over a group chat in which members praised Adolf Hitler.

The city-based New York Young Republican Club’s gala will recognize Markus Frohnmaier, a political leader from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Months before his visit, the club appeared to play up the party's controversial place in German politics. In August, it published a statement calling for a “new civic order” in Germany and declaring “AfD über alles,” an adaptation of a phrase associated with the Nazi party.

In a statement to POLITICO, the group defended inviting the German politician, calling the AfD a model for fighting the far left and denying their “über alles” statement was intended to invoke Nazism.

Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the country’s domestic intelligence agency, has labeled the AfD extremist, alleging the party holds an ethnic, racial conception of the German people that violates core tenets of the country’s democratic order.

But the party has been ascendent for several years, with some polls ranking it the most popular in Germany. President Donald Trump’s administration and his allies have taken note. Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the German intelligence agency’s move to label the party extremist, calling it “tyranny in disguise”; Vice President JD Vance criticized other parties’ efforts to ostracize the AfD; and MAGA ally Elon Musk has also been a staunch supporter of the party.

Frohnmaier, the deputy chair of AfD’s parliamentary group, will be an “honored guest” at the club’s Dec. 13 gala, which will also feature GOP Reps. Andy Ogles, Mike Collins, and William Timmons, according to the group’s website.

“It’s deeply concerning that the New York Young Republican Club is planning to honor a regional co-chair of the far-right extremist AfD party at their upcoming gala,” Todd Gutnick, a spokesperson for the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement. “The German AfD party has a disturbing history that includes antisemitic and xenophobic rhetoric. AfD has embraced the antisemitic ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy, and its current leader, Alice Weidel, has denounced Germany’s dedication to Holocaust remembrance as a ‘guilt cult.’”

The event is taking place amid a broader rift among Republicans over whether anti-Jewish voices have a place in their party and as an anti-Israel fervor among Democrats has sparked a wave of primary challenges in New York. As the war between Israel and Hamas raged on, anti-Israel voices rose to prominence on both the right and the left, including New York City’s Democratic mayoral-elect Zohran Mamdani. The rhetoric around Israel has prompted House Republicans to accuse Democrats in New York City, home to the country’s largest Jewish population, of stoking anti-semitism. It also gave moderate Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Reps. Tom Suozzi and Laura Gillen — all of whom did not endorse Mamdani — pause, with Gillen telling her fellow Democrats that Mamdani’s “antisemitic views deserve to be condemned, not endorsed.”

A split in the GOP is taking hold as well. In late October, popular conservative host Tucker Carlson invited white nationalist Nick Fuentes onto his online show, sparking fierce debate among Republicans over whether Fuentes and Carlson should have a voice within the conservative movement. Those who defended Carlson, including conservative media personality Megyn Kelly and the Heritage Foundation’s president Kevin Roberts, faced fierce backlash.

The New York City club has long been at odds with the now-defunct New York State Young Republicans, whose leaders played prominent roles in group chats leaked to POLITICO. The contents of the chats, which were published in October, included members of the state organization fantasizing about putting their opponents in gas chambers, burning their enemies and joking about their love of Hitler. Some of the chat members apologized for the messages, while also blaming the city-based New York Young Republican Club for their coming to light.

While the state organization was disbanded by the New York state GOP in October, the city club is still recognized by the Young Republican National Federation, according to the club’s website.

The gala is scheduled to happen less than one month after Vish Burra, the city-based club’s former chairman to their board of advisors, lost his job as a producer on former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s One America News Network show. Burra had posted an antisemitic cartoon video depicting Jews as cockroaches and called them “vermin.” He was fired three days later, according to his own post on social media acknowledging the firing.

“We make mistakes,” Burra said in the post. “Life goes on, and so does mine, so I’m not going anywhere.”

The New York Young Republican Club said that Frohnmaier “is a major figure” and AfD’s lead representative for external affairs.

“Celebrating his and his party’s success against German leftism is entirely appropriate,” the club said in a statement to POLITICO. “The pernicious nature of Germany's current political climate, which Frohnmaier works to combat, was well summarized by Vice President JD Vance in his February 14 speech at the Munich Security Conference. Your reckless lack of nuance, which seeks to brand large swathes of the right as ‘Nazis,’ is exactly the type of rhetoric that got Charlie Kirk killed.”

Frohnmaier also responded to POLITICO with a statement, saying, “I categorically reject the claim that we use antisemitic or xenophobic rhetoric.”

“I strongly condemn all forms of antisemitism — including the Islamist antisemitism imported into Germany through the illegal opening of the borders,” he said.

He touted his strong support for Israel and his opposition to funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, which he called a “Hamas front organization.” He said the ADL’s description of “our country's historical responsibility” is “inaccurate.”

“We stand for responsible, comprehensive remembrance that takes into account both the darkest chapter and the positive achievements of our country,” he said. “I believe that Germany, especially in this area, does not need lectures from foreigners.”

In August, the New York Young Republican Club posted a lengthy statement to its website entitled “It’s Time for a New Civic Order in Germany” in support of the AfD. The statement concluded with the phrase “AfD über alles” in bold, a play on the line “Deutschland über alles,” which was frequently used in Nazi propaganda and party language. After World War II, Germany adopted a variation of its former national anthem which dropped the stanza that included the line.

The German publication t-online reported that the New York Young Republican Club held an October event with two AfD parliament members where an opera singer performed the old national anthem with the Nazi-linked line. Video of the event shows one man the outlet identifies as Christian von Hoffmeister, an AfD staffer, loudly singing the line too. A person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to speak freely with POLITICO confirmed it was Hoffmeister in the video and said he still works with the AfD.

When asked about the October event, the New York Young Republican Club criticized POLITICO’s inquiry as a dishonest attempt "to brand everyone right of center as ‘Nazis’” and again likened it to “the cultural climate that killed Charlie Kirk.”

“It must be an extraordinarily slow news day,” a club spokesperson said.

Louise Davidson-Schmich, a political science professor at the University of Miami who studies German politics, said she considered “AfD über alles” a “very concerning phrase.”

“It’s certainly a phrase that’s clearly associated with the Nazi era,” she said. “I don't know what the New York Young Republicans know about the German context, but if you were using that phrase it would be considered very problematic in Germany.”

The club defended the use of the term in its statement to POLITICO.

"Neither the first verse of the Deutschlandlied nor the phrase ‘Deutschland über alles’ is banned in Germany,” the club said. “All three verses remain legal, though only the third is used as the national anthem today. All verses continued to be sung in West Germany for decades after 1945. Our statement referenced August Heinrich Hoffmann, the song’s 19th-century author. The Deutschlandlied predates National Socialism by many decades, and any suggestion that our usage invoked Nazism is plainly false.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights watchdog group, told POLITICO in a statement that the Frohnmaier invitation “is yet another example of attempts to mobilize the far right in U.S. politics.”

“AfD doesn't only push in anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim ideas and policies, but they have used tactics straight from Germany's Nazi-era — including antisemitic actions by its members and use of Nazi slogans,” Seth Levi, the group’s chief strategy officer, said in a statement.

Across the aisle, the Manhattan Young Democrats said the decision to host Frohnmaier was typical for the young Republican club.

“The NYYRC has consistently chosen to platform figures aligned with far-right extremism, and that decision reflects a deep disregard not only for democratic norms, but for basic human dignity and the social fabric that holds this city together,” said Democratic state Assemblymember Jordan Wright, president-elect of the Manhattan Young Democrats. “NY Young Republicans need to look inward and reckon with how unserious and nonsensical this behavior is.”

The city-based GOP group drew widespread attention two years ago when it hosted then-former president Donald Trump at its annual gala, held at Cipriani Wall Street, the same location this year’s event will take place. At the 2023 gala, the club also hosted the secretary-general of Austria’s Freedom Party, a party founded by former Nazis. The club has hosted party allies of Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán, as well as his political director.

Gala tickets for non-members range from $799 to $30,000. The event will honor women's sports and anti-trans activist Paula Scanlan, hard-right personality Jack Posobiec and New York City local elected officials Michael Tannousis, Frank Morano, David Carr and Inna Vernikov.

Pauline von Pezold contributed to this report.