Hans-Thomas Tillschneider's disturbed relationship to anti-Semitism

The fact that AfD right-wing extremist Hans-Thomas Tillschneider wanted to enter the synagogue there on the anniversary of the right-wing terrorist attack in Halle an der Saale expresses a dangerous mixture of chutzpah, provocation and shamelessness. The fact that young Jewish students stood in his way as a human firewall was actually an act of political beauty that deserves respect.

It was only on October 6th that Tillschneider was elected Vice President of the State Parliament of Saxony-Anhalt. He once stood on the extreme fringes of the right-wing extremist party, but today he is part of its mainstream and holds one of the highest government offices the AfD has ever occupied. A Holocaust relativizer and Israel critic whose relationship to Jewish life is at best instrumental and at worst threatening. Even if he himself says that Jewish life is part of German culture “without any ifs and buts”.

How Tillschneider understands them leaves no doubt. He accused the Central Council of Jews of using Islam “to bring about multicultural conditions in Germany” and “to weaken German culture.” The goal is “ultimately the abolition of our people.” Translated: The Jews are behind the supposed Islamization. It was precisely this madness that drove the Halle assassin.

Perhaps Tillschneider would have also told the community about the “cult of guilt”? “Our past should no longer be a burden to us, but rather a pleasure,” he once told his friends in Schnellroda. Or about the fact that only a “vanishingly small proportion of Wehrmacht soldiers” committed crimes: “Our great-grandfathers and our grandfathers were not criminals!” In history class he would like to see “more Bismarck, less Hitler.”

This relief strategy also shapes his view of the Middle East conflict, which serves him primarily as a projection surface for making amends for the Germans. Two weeks after the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023, Tillschneider wrote on X that Israel was collectively punishing the entire population of Gaza for Hamas' crimes. This goes back “to archaic ideas that are incompatible with enlightened thinking.” And: “There is no #collectiveguilt!”

In a TikTok video he added: "Exactly the same applies to the Germans and the Holocaust. You cannot hold the entire German people responsible for the crimes of a few."

Flexible relationship to the truth

Tillschneider found the Iranian missile and drone attack on Israel in April 2024 “moderate” compared to the “breach of civilization” of the Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate building in Damascus shortly before, in which commanders of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force were killed.

He is also spreading conspiracy stories about October 7, 2023. Shortly afterwards, he told the right-wing extremist magazine “Freilich” that the “most likely explanation” was that “the USA could have at least provided an impulse for the attack through its clandestine Hamas contacts.”

With such a flexible relationship to the truth, it is only logical that Tillschneider now claims on

“He has put himself in the role of victim,” criticized JSUD President Ron Dekel in the “taz”. Actually, survivors and relatives should have entered the synagogue first. “But Hans-Thomas Tillschneider was obviously of the opinion that this didn’t apply to him.”

Tillschneider now complains about a lack of “respect” for the people’s representatives; he wanted to preserve the “dignity of the office” as deputy to the state parliament. He has long since damaged this dignity himself with his historical revisionist and right-wing extremist views.

Nicholas Potter is a chief reporter covering anti-Semitism and political extremism.