The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, having secured slightly over 20% of the votes in the recent federal election, is set to occupy roughly double the number of seats in the new parliament, bringing in new members as well as some familiar faces with contentious histories.

Notable among the newcomers to the far-right faction are Maximilian Krah and Matthias Helferich, two individuals whose previous stances on Germany’s Nazi legacy were deemed too revisionist and too radical, even within the AfD.

Krah, formerly the lead AfD candidate in European elections, faced a ban from campaigning by his own party in 2024 after he suggested in an Italian newspaper interview that “not everyone in the SS” — the Nazi paramilitary force chiefly responsible for the Holocaust during World War II — “was automatically a criminal.”

Subsequently, he faced an investigation over allegations of receiving “payments” from Russian and Chinese sources.

In a parallel vein, Helferich has previously referred to himself in WhatsApp messages as “the friendly face of national socialism” and “democratic Freisler” — a nod to Roland Freisler, a high-ranking Nazi lawyer known for his role in the 1942 Wannsee Conference, where the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” was planned, leading to the intensification of the Holocaust.

Following his meeting with his new parliamentary colleagues, Helferich expressed an interest in joining the culture select committee, aiming to promote “patriotic cultural politics” and foster “a positive approach to nation and people.

Sebastian Münzenmaier, the vice-chairman of the AfD’s parliamentary group and a close associate of party leader Alice Weidel, commented: “I consider Matthias [Helferich] a very good speaker. He is intelligent and smart and does good work.”