The father of a German teenager murdered by a migrant on a regional train has questioned whether he and other bereaved parents could be treated as right-wing extremists after Saxony-Anhalt’s domestic intelligence agency cited an Alternative for Germany (AfD) politician’s remarks about “murdered children” in its classification of the party’s state branch as an extremist organization.
According to Apollo News, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Saxony-Anhalt justified its classification of the AfD state association as a confirmed right-wing extremist organization in part by pointing to the party’s migration rhetoric.
The agency’s report accuses the AfD of being “essentially permeated by the racist ideology of ethnopluralism” and says the party promotes the vision of ethnically homogeneous states. It claims that such a vision amounts to “the expulsion of all ‘aliens’.”
Among the examples cited as “xenophobic agitation” were a carnival speech by AfD deputy state chairman Hans-Thomas Tillschneider in which he claimed that illegal migrants “stream in here in masses and want to squander our money,” and a Facebook post from Oliver Kirchner, co-chairman of the AfD parliamentary group in Saxony-Anhalt in which he wrote, “”Let us never forget the murdered children for whom this illegal and uncontrolled immigration by the established parties is responsible. It can happen to anyone in Germany, anytime, anywhere!”
He also called for the removal of those “on whose hands the blood of the victims is stained and who are responsible for these conditions.”
The reference to murdered children has now become the center of a wider dispute after Michael Kyrath, whose 17-year-old daughter Ann-Marie was stabbed to death on a train near Brokstedt on Jan. 25, 2023, publicly challenged the state government.
Ann-Marie was killed alongside her 19-year-old boyfriend, Danny, by a stateless Palestinian man who had reportedly been released from custody just days earlier despite a history of violent crime.
Since his daughter’s murder, Kyrath has become a prominent voice among bereaved families demanding answers over violent crime, immigration, deportation failures and political accountability.
His daughter was murdered by an illegal Palestinian migrant, stabbed 38 times, along with her boyfriend.
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 16, 2024
17-year-old Ann-Marie is gone, but her father won't let her memory die. He delivered a message to Olaf Scholz's face:
"There are parents standing at the grave or coffin of… pic.twitter.com/JDslDGKFA4
In an interview with FAZ in January, Kyrath said families like his were repeatedly told that such attacks were isolated incidents.
“People always talk about these as regrettable isolated incidents. But we’re in contact with more than 1,000 families who have lost loved ones to violent crimes in recent years. It’s always the same perpetrator profile. It’s almost always the same weapon. It’s nearly always the same sequence of events. It’s always the same motives. And it’s always the same platitudes from the same politicians, who, after such an act, tearfully cry into the cameras. Then nothing happens,” he said.
Following the Saxony-Anhalt report, Kyrath asked on X whether he too would now be considered a right-wing extremist for publicly commemorating victims of illegal immigration.
The Saxony-Anhalt Interior Ministry replied to his post, saying, “Unfortunately, we are unable to comprehend why you assume that the Constitutional Protection Agency of Saxony-Anhalt would classify you as hostile to the constitution. We would be happy to discuss this in person. A phone number will follow via direct message.”
Kyrath responded by directly linking his own campaigning to the AfD passage cited by the intelligence agency.
“Is it not correct that someone from the Constitutional Protection Agency of Saxony-Anhalt was classified as a confirmed right-wing extremist because he thought of the murdered children by an illegal and uncontrolled immigration, and warned that it can strike anyone and anywhere?
“According to hearsay, the Constitutional Protection Agency of Saxony-Anhalt must also classify me and countless other bereaved parents as right-wing extremist — for after all, we too commemorate our children who were killed by murderers who immigrated illegally, had multiple prior convictions, and were subject to deportation! After all, we citizens are all equal before the law, aren’t we?” Kyrath wrote.
The ministry replied, “We can assure you that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution does not classify anyone as extremist for mourning the victims of the most horrific crimes.”
Kyrath later clarified that he did not believe he personally would be classified as a confirmed right-wing extremist, but said the logic of the report still raised a troubling question.
So, an diesem Punkt muss eines mal klar, deutlich und unmissverständlich klar gestellt werden:
— Michael Kyrath (@kueksElm) June 4, 2026
NEIN, ich persönlich werde wohl nicht vom Verfassungsschutz als gesichert rechtsEXTREM eingestuft!
Allerdings hat der Verfassungsschutz einen Politiker als gesichert rechtsextrem…
“The Constitutional Protection Agency has classified a politician as a right-wing extremist because he reminded people of the murdered children of illegal and uncontrolled migration and warned that it could strike anyone at any time!” he wrote.
“That’s exactly what I’m doing, and many other bereaved parents are doing too… we publicly remember our children murdered by illegal and uncontrolled migration and try to change something, because it can indeed strike anyone anywhere!”
“Of course, my post was deliberately provocative — and posed more as a question than as a fact,” he added.
“Nevertheless, the question remains hanging in the air: What is extreme right about it if one mourns murdered children of uncontrolled and thus illegal migration?”
The Saxony-Anhalt report also accuses the AfD of comparing modern Germany to the former East Germany and National Socialism, which officials say denigrates the democratic system and its institutions. It claims the state branch aims to break with the existing order across several areas of society.
The report additionally names a restaurant used for AfD events, describing it as a hub for “supra-regional gatherings of the far-right spectrum.”