Karl Martin Kohlmann | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader ofFreie Sachsen | |
| Assumed office February 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1977-07-18)18 July 1977 (age 48) |
| Political party | Free Saxons (2021–present) German Social Union (2006–2009) The Republicans (–2006) |
| Other political affiliations | Pro Chemnitz (2009–present) |
| Children | 3 |
Karl Martin Kohlmann (born 18 July 1977) is a German politician and lawyer. He is the founding chairman of theFree Saxons and was a member ofCitizens' Movement Pro Chemnitz, theGerman Social Union andThe Republicans.
He is being monitored by the Saxony StateOffice for the Protection of the Constitution, which recognises him as a "long-standing activist in theright-wing extremist scene". Kohlmann maintained relationships with theNational Socialists Chemnitz [de] among others.[1] At the end of 2020, he gave the former neo-NazicadreMichael Brück [de] a job in his law firm inChemnitz. Kohlmann has stated he seeks the return of theSaxon Monarchy and the increased independence of the state ofSaxony.[2]
After hismilitary service in theGerman army from 1996 to 1998, Kohlmann studied law inLeipzig andBasel. He completed part of his legal traineeship in the Russian city ofKrasnojarsk.
Kohlmann works as a self-employed lawyer. In 2010, he representedBernd-Rüdiger Kern [de], a professor at theUniversity of Leipzig, in court. The case concerned a dispute in a law lecture at a first-semester information event with Kern in thefraternity house of theBurschenschaft Arminia zu Leipzig [de].[3] Kohlmann's clients also included convictedHolocaust denierGünter Deckert, chairman of theNPD from 1991 to 1996.[4] In mid-October 2017, he was named by theReichsbürger movement supporter Adrian Ursache as the third criminal defence attorney alongside the twopublic defenders in the ongoing trial.[5]
As a defence attorney for the right-wing extremistGruppe Freital, he disrupted the verdict.[6] After informing the court, the SaxonyBar Association initiated proceedings against Kohlmann and examined his conduct in this regard from a professional perspective.[7] The Association of Criminal Defence Lawyers Saxony/Saxony-Anhalt then expelled him from the association.[8]
One of Kohlmann's legal focuses is the legal representation of rejected asylum seekers, especially from the formerSoviet Union. TheGeorgian chairman of the cultural association "Tolstoi e. V." introduced numerousasylum seekers to Kohlmann as clients due to his knowledge of Russian. The television magazineReport Mainz [de] described it as a "contradiction" that Kohlmann, on the one hand, as a Chemnitz city councillor, demands the immediate deportation of asylum seekers whose applications have been legally rejected, but on the other hand advocates for their right to remain in court.
In 2014, Kohlmann was co-founder and initially secretary of the cultural association "Tolstoi e. V." which was initially based in his law firm and whose "aim is to promote the idea of international understanding as well as the social and cultural support of refugees, emigrants, late emigrants and national minorities." The services also include "legal advice for migrants". Until 2016, the association listed him as head of the legal department in the association's magazine "Berliner Telegraph", in which Kohlmann places advertisements.[9] Alexander Boyko, founder and editor-in-chief of the Berliner Telegraph, has been in close contact with Kohlmann since 2014. According to Report Mainz, Boyko has specifically recruited asylum seekers in the vicinity of refugee camps as clients for Kohlmann as "the only Russian-speaking lawyer for asylum law in Chemnitz."[10]
Kohlmann was born in Chemnitz and lives there to this day. He is married and has three children.[11] He is a member of theBurschenschaft Arminia zu Leipzig [de] fraternity.
On 9 October 2020, the Verden District Court sentenced him to a fine of 2,100 euros forincitement to hatred. Kohlmann initially appealed.
On 8 November 2022, Kohlmann was sentenced by the Chemnitz District Court to a fine of 120 daily rates of 50 euros each forincitement to hatred. The verdict initially did not become final.[12]
On 12 April 2023, it was announced that the Chemnitz public prosecutor's office had applied for a penalty order of 7,500 euros against Kohlmann for withholding and embezzling wages because Kohlmann was alleged to have paid two employees a wage below the minimum wage for three years.[13]
Kohlmann was first elected to thecity council ofChemnitz in 1999. In 2000, he accused the then mayor of Chemnitz,Peter Seifert [de] (SPD), in a city council meeting of having "trivialized" an air raid onChemnitz duringWorld War II. Seifert then insulted Kohlmann, for which Seifert was later ordered to pay Kohlmann compensation.[14] Kohlmann was a candidate in the2004 European Parliament election on the third place list ofThe Republicans. In early 2004, he organized a concert with the right-wing extremist musicianFrank Rennicke inChemnitz.[15] After the resignation of the state chairwomanKerstin Lorenz [de], Kohlmann was elected state chairman of the Republicans inSaxony on 24 July 2004.[15] In this role, he rejected cooperation between the Republicans and the NPD.[16] In 2006, the current state chairman Mario Heinz left the party and the city councillorPeter Grüning left the Chemnitz faction and the party.Mario Heinz accused the faction chairman Kohlmann of being a "right-wing political clown".[17]
In March 2006, Kohlmann switched to theGerman Social Union (DSU) and wanted to run for them in the mayoral election. However, the candidacy was not approved because Kohlmann did not provide the necessary supporting signatures. The non-admission of the nomination was ultimately confirmed by theSaxon Higher Administrative Court [de]. The legal action taken by Kohlmann against the 2006 mayoral election inChemnitz meant that the elected mayor's inauguration was delayed by a year, but he acted as acting mayor during this time. In 2008, Kohlmann ran as a DSU candidate for theoffice of district administrator in theErzgebirgskreis and received 1.2% of the vote.
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In 2009, Kohlmann founded the Citizens' Movement Pro Chemnitz together with Reinhold Breede, formerCDU member and former president of the City Council of Chemnitz, which ran under the nameCitizens' Movement Pro Chemnitz in the 2009 local elections. Thevoters' association achieved a result of 4.57 percent of the vote and thus elected three city councillors, including Kohlmann himself.
According to theDGB Region Southwest Saxony, Kohlmann is sympathetic to theNPD Party as in 2010 Kohlmann gave up a competing rally in favour of them. In addition, in 2009 he carried a banner together with representatives of theneo-NaziErzgebirge Action Alliance at a demonstration he had registered.
At the end of April 2009, during a city council meeting, Kohlmann called MayorBerthold Brehm [de] (CDU), who had had removed from a school mural, a "culturalTaliban" and an "iconoclast". He responded to theLeft Party's parliamentary group leaderHubert Gintschel with the words "You're the Nazi!" after Gintschel had previously associated Kohlmann withNational Socialism.
As a result, Kohlmann was finally expelled from the hall by MayorBarbara Ludwig [de] (SPD). Kohlmann refused to leave and was carried out of the hall by the police. He was subsequently sentenced by theChemnitz District Court [de] to a fine of 2,275 euros fortrespassing, but acquitted of the charges of insulting Brehm and Gintschel.[18]
Kohlmann is chairman of the Pro-Chemnitzfaction in the Chemnitz city council. He is also a member of various committees of the Chemnitz city council: the planning, construction and environment committee and the administration and finance committee as a member, and the petitions committee, the social committee and the school committee as a deputy member. In addition, he is a deputy member of the association council of the SparkassenZweckverband [de], the sponsor of theSparkasse Chemnitz [de].
Kohlmann was a candidate in the 2013 mayoral election in Chemnitz.[19][20] In the election on 16 June, he received 5.6% of the vote.[21] Since none of the candidates achieved anabsolute majority in the election, a new election was held on 30 June 2013, in which Martin Kohlmann also ran again and received 5.5% of the vote.[22][23] Kohlmann had previously proposed to all of the incumbent's challengers that they agree on a new, non-partisan candidate for the new election and forego a re-election in his favour, but was unable to prevail. On 25 May 2014, Kohlmann was re-elected to the city council.
On 27 August 2018, Kohlmannorganized a demonstration in connection with thefatal knife attack on a German-Cuban in Chemnitz, from which he did not exclude theright-wing extremistNPD. However, he asked that party flags not be carried. In his speech at the demonstration, he spoke out against both the elites in Germany and theIntegration of immigrants. He justified the distribution of an illegally photographed arrest warrant for one of the alleged perpetrators to the ARD. Although "passing it on to us was of course problematic," publishing it on the Pro ChemnitzFacebook page was covered bypress law.Die Tageszeitung commented that Kohlmann "obviously had no qualms about using a crime for his political goals."
In connection with the knife attack in Chemnitz, Kohlmann spoke out in favour of Saxony's autonomy andrapprochement withPoland,Hungary and theCzech Republic. Saxony has more in common with these states than with the states ofWestern Germany.
On 26 February 2021, Kohlmann became chairman of the newly founded organization "Freie Sachsen" (not to be confused with theFree Saxony - Alliance of Independent Voters [de] party founded in 2007). On the other hand, it saw itself as an umbrella for a collective movement "in the face of the lockdowns and restrictions during theCOVID-19 pandemic.[24]
Within a few months, the organization has succeeded in taking control of the discourse on Telegram, which had 150,000 subscribers as of February 2022,[25] and influential in the organising of theCorona protests inSaxony.[26]
Programmatically, they are calling for closer cooperation with the nations in theVisegrád Group, with which they have more in common in terms of security or family policy than with the states ofWestern Germany. The Free Saxons are monarchists who believe that "the Saxon royalHouse of Wettin be involved in shaping the future.
The deputy chairmen are Stefan Hartung, anNPD city councillor inAue-Bad Schlema and district councillor in theErzgebirgskreis and thePlauen bus operator Thomas Kaden. The party treasurer is the Pro-Chemnitz official Robert Andres, who is a city councillor inChemnitz. TheState Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Saxony has the alliance in its sights[27] and classified it asright-wing extremist in June 2021. Since January 2022, the Free Saxons have been classified as a suspected case by theFederal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and are being monitored nationwide.
After the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Putin masks were worn and Russian flags waved at their events. The Free Saxons said "Suddenly theunvaccinated are no longer the main enemy No. 1!" Now "theRussians areenemy No. 1".
The Free Saxons ran in the2022 Saxony local elections [de] with candidates for the district ofNorth Saxony, the district ofSächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge and theErzgebirgskreis district. They were unable to win any seats.
In September 2023, Kohlmann explained that the Free Saxons' reasons for running in the 2024 local elections were that they wanted to gain information in local parliaments; in addition, potential city and municipal councillors should acquire skills and knowledge of public administration so that they could fall back on such people after a "change". However, the Free Saxons would not become "part of the system" by running in elections, because they were "not there as friends and to support the whole thing, but to look around, to learn from the opponent and to make life more difficult for him".
Kohlmann was his party's top candidate in the2024 Saxony state election.[28] In the election they did not win any seats but did garner 52,195 votes (2.2%).[29]
While Kohlmann claims that the Free Saxons are not an extremist group, German authorities say this is clearly the case. Co-founder Stefan Hartung is a member of the district council of the National Democratic Party of Germany, a neo-Nazi party. Kohlmann stated that he seeks the return of the Saxon monarchy and the independence of the state.
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