At the age of just 22, Daniel Haleba, a law student and head of the local organization of the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the city of Würzburg, has become the youngest member of parliament ever to be elected to the Bavarian parliament. However, before he even takes office, he faces legal adventures. The Würzburg Prosecutor’s Office accuses Haleba of being (jointly) responsible for inciting racial hatred and using prohibited symbols, “hostile to the country’s Constitution”, as a member of the Teutonia student fraternity. It should be noted that Haleba also participates in the youth organization of the AfD, which is monitored by the Service for the Protection of the Constitution.

In mid-September, German police raided the headquarters of the Teutonia student fraternity in the Frauenland suburb of Würzburg. According to information from the Bavarian Radio (BR), there had been previous protests by residents, who expressed their annoyance at “Nazi slogans” and “rock concerts with far-right content”. Teutonia was founded in 1876 and on its Facebook page it declares its pride because, for 140 years, it has been fighting “for Honor, Freedom, Homeland”.

Warrant and procedures-express

On October 8, elections were held in Bavaria, and the AfD emerged as the third force (and first opposition party) with 14.7% of the vote, while the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) of Prime Minister Markus Zeder won again with 37%. Daniel Haleba was elected MP. Probably in order to avoid the obstacle of parliamentary immunity, the Prosecutor’s Office moved quickly and issued an arrest warrant against Haleba last Friday, while the first meeting of the new Parliament was scheduled for Monday, October 30. For two days the newly elected member of parliament was missing, but on Monday morning he was located in the neighboring state of Baden-Württemberg and arrested. But he was soon released again, with restrictive conditions.

Haleba’s lawyer, Dubravko Madic, believes that “according to a first assessment, all the accusations against members of Teutonia are unfounded” and that the judicial investigation against his client is due to “political reasons”. Haleba himself attacked his critics via the X platform (formerly Twitter): “I am an elected member of parliament and they want to arrest me with an arbitrary arrest warrant,” he claims. “This is yet another sad climax in the CSU’s hunt against the democratic opposition.”

These statements caused the strong reaction of the head of K.O. of the Christian Social Union (CSU), Klaus Holecek. “Warrants are issued by independent judges,” says Holecek. “I therefore do not understand why the AfD plays the role of the victim and questions the rule of law.” As for the head of the Social Democrats (SPD) in the Bavarian Parliament, Florian von Brunn, he estimates that Haleba’s arrest was only the beginning, as “there are many AfD extremists who are elected parliamentarians.”

Waiver of immunity by abstention AfD

Finally, on Monday, the Bavarian parliament came together and decided to lift Daniel Haleba’s parliamentary immunity, with the votes of all political groups except the AfD, which abstained from the vote. A spokesman for the Prosecutor’s Office now states that it will “probably take a few more days” to decide on the next steps.

Daniel Haleba was born in 2001 in Poland. He declares that he is a student, but also an “entrepreneur”. In an interview with the Main Post newspaper in September, he cited Björn Hecke, one of the most extreme members of the AfD, as his role model in politics.

The organized ones “student fraternities»

The Haleba case brings back to the fore many questions about the role played by organized “student fraternities”. By the early 20th century, fraternities were a force to be reckoned with on every German university campus. It is even estimated that they had a decisive contribution to the efforts to unify Germany, after 1800. In an earlier DW report sociologist Dietrich Heyer had pointed out that “in the time of the Kaiser and in the Weimar Republic more than 50% of students were organized in fraternities , while today this percentage does not exceed 1.5 to 2%”.

Traditionally fraternities functioned as “closed clubs” and often only accepted male, Catholic, and German students. In recent decades, most have been modernized and opened their doors to students of other religions and nationalities. However, there is no shortage of those who remain attached to the past and maintain contacts with nationalist circles and identity movements. Speaking to Bavarian Radio, journalist Leon Montero, who has specialized in the issue, points out that “in Würzburg there are thirty fraternities and almost none of them maintain friendly relations with Teutonia, which is known for its extremist views.”