taz: AfD top candidate in Saxony-Anhalt Ulrich Siegmund has close ties to far-right network

Ulrich Siegmund wants to become AfD Minister-President in Saxony-Anhalt. How radically would he govern? His career and his environment provide insight.

September 1, 2026 | 7:13 AM

From Magdeburg, Dessau, and Erfurt

By Konrad Litschko and Gareth Joswig

Blue hour: The AfD youth wing "Generation Deutschland" applauds at its federal congress in Magdeburg. Photo: Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert/dpa

Martin Reichardt stands on the stage of the Old Theater in Magdeburg for his greeting speech at the AfD youth event, surrounded by a few plastic oak trees and German flags. Only a few days remain until the state election in Saxony-Anhalt, and the 57-year-old state leader is being discussed within his party as part of a possible AfD government, under a Minister-President Ulrich Siegmund. However, he doesn't seem particularly ministerial on this Saturday.

With his mouth wide open, Reichardt literally roars: Father State today is unfortunately a "dope-stinking lazy bum." He gets his money from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation "to regularly booze with his friends from public broadcasting and slur the Internationale!" The sharply parted AfD youth roars with laughter. Reichardt lowers the bar even further: The mother tongue is "a bloated intersectional-feminist hussy," whose green hair is always disheveled "because Father State genders her three times a day!" The AfD wants to "take custody of Germany away from the degenerate Left," Reichardt shouts. The AfD youth cheers.

The party's youth wing wants to give the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt a final boost in the state election campaign with its federal congress in Magdeburg. As the highlight of the day, they have naturally also invited the top candidate Siegmund. When he takes the stage after Reichardt, there is a standing ovation – and from Siegmund, first a demonstrative praise for his state leader's offensive performance. "I hear Martin Reichardt has found very clear and necessary words!" he says grinning and receives frenetic cheers.

It gets even louder when Siegmund rails against "fake news" and promises to terminate the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty as his first official act. After his short speech, he can hardly save himself from selfies and signs rows of Spiegel covers with his photo on them, along with the headline: "The Most Dangerous Man in Germany."

Unconstitutional Slogans

Siegmund's home game at the party youth is a show of solidarity with one of the most radical parts of the party:

• Besides Reichardt's tirades, the youth congress cheered that Germany could live well with 60 million people
• That the EU is "anti-white"
• That more than just citizenship is needed to be European

Siegmund does not distance himself from these unconstitutional slogans. He emphasizes that he himself was in the Young Alternative, which was classified as definitely right-wing extremist years ago and was therefore dissolved.

Also present in Magdeburg is Simon Kaupert, who is part of the congress direction behind the scenes. Otherwise, he is a permanent part of Siegmund's campaign team – responsible with his film art collective for photos and elaborate campaign videos, and if necessary, he even hands Siegmund a tissue if he starts to sweat. Kaupert's vita is also telling: He is a former activist of the Identitarian movement, a pioneer of the "remigration" concept, as they call the mass expulsion of migrants. His film art collective, a media agency by right-wing extremists for right-wing extremists, is also present at the congress with a booth.

Also sitting in the hall is Götz Kubitschek, the right-wing extremist thought leader from Schnellroda, whom Siegmund recently greeted with a broad smile at the AfD federal party conference in Erfurt, patting him on the back. And he tells taz that he is out.