like Donald Trump gathered his supporters, family and friends in Mar-a-Lago on the day of the US election last month to wait for the results to roll in, a small group of far-right Germans went largely unnoticed.
Among them was alleged semi-professional, one-time porn actor, self-confessed ex-cocaine user, convicted thief and far-right German parliamentary candidate Philipp-Anders Rau. Along with a compact delegation of young political activists and influencers, Rau posed for the cameras with the US president-elect at his invitation, chanting “Fight! fight! Fight!” in English and German.
Members of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party were already making their way into Trump’s camp several months before the US vote, while European populist anti-immigration forces are trying to harness Maga’s momentum ahead of Germany’s general election in February.
Alice Weidel, the leader of the AfD, became one of the first politicians abroad who I welcome Trump’s victoryand party members say they are cultivating a closeness to the incoming administration, with several planning to attend next month’s inauguration in Washington.
Rau, the AfD candidate for the Bundestag from the state of Saxony-Anhalt, posted Instagram snapshots since his brief meeting with Trump in Florida on Nov. 5, with voting still underway.
“It will remain a lasting memory as I was allowed as the first and so far only member of the AfD to shake the hand of @realdonaldtrump on the day of his victory,” he wrote. “We hope that Donald Trump will create the renewal for his country that we as the AfD are planning for our country.”
Rau stood beaming next to Trump, who was wearing a Wizard’s hat. They were joined by Leonard Jaeger, who as a “Ketzer der Neuzeit” (Heretic of the New Age) posts anti-LGBTQ videos and conspiracy theories on YouTube; right-wing activist Beat Ulrich Zirpel; and Fabrice Ambrosini, former regional leader of the centre-right youth wing of the CDU, who was forced to step down in 2021. after allegedly flashing the Hitler salute with his right hand. The criminal investigation against him was eventually dropped.
Jäger and the lesser known Zirpel later share a video from their moment in the spotlight, in which Trump steps onto the club’s porch and waves the group over to him: “Hey everybody, where are my German friends?” The men start chanting “Fight! fight! Fight!, Trump then shouted the attempt on his life at a rally in Pennsylvania in July.
Someone off-camera asks them to say it in German, and they comply, before Trump shakes their hands and says, “Thank you guys.”
Jäger posted: “We just shouted ‘Kämpft, fight, fight’ (‘fight, fight, fight’) with President Trump at the Mar-a-Lago club right before election night!”
“We as Germans need a conservative revolution based on Christian values as well! Elon MuskThe German mainstream media will not like this.’
Two months before the February 23 election and a second-place vote with about 18%the nationalist AfD was undaunted by Trump’s criticism of Germany for its defense spending, export of cars and energy policy.
But the young men’s enthusiasm for Trump, 78, and their giddy bewilderment upon arriving at his private club are less surprising than how they ended up on his side in the first place, with the origins of the meeting remaining unclear.
Rau is a divisive figure even within the anti-immigrant and anti-Islam AfD. He belongs to a head of state that the Homeland Security Agency has classified as established right-wing extremistwhile the national party is counted suspected right-wing extremist.
The 41-year-old has taken legal action against the Magdeburger Volksstimme newspaper, which published a series about a number of alleged scandals in Rau’s past.
Accused by a rival at an AfD party congress in August of working as a paid porn actor, Rau denied: “I have never made professional videos… I am neither a virgin nor a porn star.” However, after Rau sued the publishers of Volksstimme a ruled the court in Frankfurt in favor of the journalists, saying: “He was involved in the filming of a professional porn video that was apparently intended for release.”
Rau was also convicted of fraud in 2017 faking his final high school report card to gain admission to a university, according to court records cited by Volksstimme; defense attorney argued his addiction to cocaine then it was a mitigating circumstance. And in 2012 he was found guilty of stealing, together with an accomplice, goods worth more than €1,500 from a hotel in Munich, including 100 towels, 80 bed linen and 21 soap dispensers. In both cases, Rau, who has since declared bankruptcyreceived a suspended sentence.
According to media reports, AfD politician Jan Wenzel Schmidt served as Rau’s gateway to Trump as early as early 2023. The news website t-online said Schmidt was known to have ties to ethno-nationalists Identity movementwho authorities say is a “confirmed right-wing extremist.” The 33-year-old served in the state legislature of Saxony-Anhalt from 2016-2021. and from 2021 in the Bundestag.
Schmidt and Ambrosini reportedly attended a reception in December 2023. at the Young Republicans Club in New York, where Trump spoke. The former president also appeared in photos with the AfD MEP Maximilian Krach and Matilda Martina Huss, who hosted a month ago secret meeting in Potsdam with AfD politicians and neo-Nazi activists at which they discussed “remigration” or the forced deportation of German-born migrants and people of immigrant descent.
“I was convinced that Trump would become president again and I wanted to make contact with the Republicans early on,” Schmidt told the daily Bild recently. “Other parties are running wild and we already have a good relationship.”
Last April, in return, young New York Republicans were invited by the AfD to Berlin and Magdeburg, the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt – while Rau, Schmidt and other AfD officials later photographed themselves as a Trump campaign volunteer in Florida. “As a thank you, there were a handful of tickets to the Trump campaign party,” said Bild, who quoted Schmidt as saying he and an entourage would attend the opening in January.
Rau and Ambrosini did not respond to requests for comment. Schmidt said through a spokesman that he was not in Florida on the night of the US election and did not have an “official meeting” with the 2023 Young Republicans. He added that he had no “final travel plans” for when the election opened.
On his stance on Trump, Schmidt referred to a motion by his AfD state chapter in the regional parliament after the US election, which said the president-elect’s pledge to end the war in Ukraine “offers hope for the normalization of economy and security relations with Russia”.
Although the AfD is traditionally pro-Russian and critical of US influence in Europe, the party’s opposition military assistance in Kiev’s fight against the Russian invasion coincides with the views expressed by Trump, whom they hailed as a promising “bringer of peace” in Ukraine.
“Peace in Germany and Europe will be decided by the elections in the United States,” Rau writes in an Instagram Caption of Florida on November 5. “Patriots must work together internationally.”
