SAXONY-ANHALT — A photograph published by Politico's Inside AfD podcast shows Martin Reichardt, a federal lawmaker and chair of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Saxony-Anhalt, with his left arm raised while another man kneels before him. The image dates to 2020.

Two attendees at the gathering stated the gesture was intended as a Nazi salute. They also said Markus Motschmann presented an application for Reichardt to join the AfD and referred to him as "Mein Führer." Motschmann has denied using those words.

Reichardt told Politico his gesture "wasn't a Hitler salute," but instead part of "a humorous knighting ceremony." Sven Schulze, the Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt and a member of the Christian Democratic Union, issued a statement saying, "A Hitler salute is a declaration of belief, not a slip-up." Schulze added, "Anyone who displays such a thing has no place in a parliament," and "And anyone who downplays it, remains silent, or sits it out is clearly complicit." He called on Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD's candidate for Minister-President, to expel Reichardt from the party.

The AfD's Saxony-Anhalt branch defended Reichardt in a statement on X/Twitter, calling the scrutiny a "cheap attempt to spin a scandal out of nothing." The branch asserted Reichardt was making a "humorous knighting gesture" that was "anything but a Hitler salute." Public displays of Nazi symbols and gestures are illegal under German law. A regional court ruling in 2024 determined that a Nazi salute executed with the left arm is subject to the same penalties as one performed with the right arm.

Reichardt was among 20 AfD members who traveled to New York City in December for the New York Young Republican Club's annual gala. Matthias Moosdorf, another party member, faces a criminal charge for allegedly using a Nazi salute inside the Reichstag parliament building, an allegation he denies.