Stephan Brandner

Stephan Brandner (born 29 May 1966 in Herten) is a German politician. He has been a member of the Bundestag for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) since 2017 and served as chairman of the Bundestag's Legal Affairs Committee from 31 January 2018 to November 2019. He was the front runner candidate of the AfD in the state of Thuringia for the 2017 German federal election. Since November 2019, Brandner has been one of three chairman deputies of the AfD.

Stephan Brandner
Brandner in 2017
Deputy Leader of the Alternative for Germany
Incumbent
Assumed office 30 November 2019 Serving with Mariana Harder-Kühnel Beatrix von Storch Peter Boehringer
Leader	Alice Weidel Tino Chrupalla
Preceded by	Albrecht Glaser
Chair of the Legal Affairs and Consumer Protection Committee
In office 31 January 2018 – 13 November 2019
Preceded by	Siegfried Kauder
Succeeded by	Heribert Hirte
Member of the Bundestag for Thuringia
Incumbent
Assumed office 24 September 2017
Constituency	Alternative for Germany List
Member of the Landtag of Thuringia
In office 14 September 2014 – 24 September 2017
Constituency	Alternative for Germany List
Personal details
Born	(1966-05-29) 29 May 1966 (age 59) Herten, West Germany
Political party	Alternative for Germany (since 2013)

Biography

Brandner was born on 29 May 1966 in Herten. He became an industrial management assistant (Industriekaufmann) and then studied law at Universität Regensburg. Since 1997 he has been working as a lawyer, previously in Munich, then in Gera.

He is member of KStV Agilolfia Regensburg in Kartellverband katholischer deutscher Studentenvereine.

Controversies

After the Halle synagogue shooting, Brandner shared a message on Twitter, criticising that politicians were "lingering" with candles in front of synagogues and mosques, whereas the two casualties were neither Jews nor Muslims, but "organic Germans". Social Democratic politicians and associations of German lawyers called on Brandner to resign from his office as chairman of the Bundestag's Legal Affairs Committee.^[1][2] Brandner is close to the positions of the ultra-nationalist wing (Der Flügel) within the AfD.^[3]