Saxony-Anhalt: Higher Administrative Court confirms exclusion of lawyer with right-wing extremist past from legal clerkship

In Saxony-Anhalt, the Higher Administrative Court has decided that a lawyer with a suspected right-wing extremist past can be excluded from the legal traineeship if there are reasonable doubts about their loyalty to the constitution. The man failed with a complaint that had already been rejected by the Halle Administrative Court.

The person concerned was released from the Bundeswehr in 2017 because he is said to have taken part in a meeting of former SS officers in Estonia and in events organized by a right-wing extremist organization. He is also said to have made anti-Semitic and racist comments, the decision said. Furthermore, he was an official of an effort that was classified as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. This apparently refers to the former AfD youth organization Junge Alternative. The lawyer denied several allegations and confessed in an affidavit to the free-democratic basic order.

The preparatory service, also known as the traineeship, is a practical training phase after the first state examination. The phase ends with the second state examination, which qualifies you to work as a judge, public prosecutor or lawyer.