A constitutional judge in Hamburg has been linked to Germany’s far-left extremist Antifa scene as well as the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist group.
Judge Cornelia Ganten-Lange, formerly an asylum lawyer, was elected to the Hamburg constitutional court in 2009 and again in 2015. She has been reported to have a deep history with Antifa far-left extremists during her legal career.
She has previously spoken at events held by the organisation Rote Hilfe, or Red Help, which is classified as extremist by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. She spoke on topics relating to Turkish far-left extremists after representing several members of the PKK terror group in court cases.
According to a report from German newspaper Die Welt, at least one of these conferences was held at the notorious Rote Flora building, an abandoned theatre in Hamburg that has been occupied by far-left Antifa extremists for over 30 years and is regarded as their headquarters in the city.
Along with the Rigaer 94 squat in Berlin, Rote Flora is regarded as one of the most important headquarters of Antifa in Germany and was their base for the 2017 G20 riots.
Rote Hilfe is described by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) as a legal organisation that provides “criminal and violent offenders from the left-wing extremist spectrum with political and financial support, for example in the case of legal and litigation costs as well as fines”.
They add that the group also attempts “to discredit the security and judicial authorities and democracy based on the rule of law through public opinion work”.
Ganten-Lange has also spoken for a similar legal fund for Kurds called Azadi which is also classified as extremist and is linked to the terrorist PKK.
“There are close ties to PKK-related organisations and the left-wing extremist prison aid organisation Rote Hilfe eV”, a BfV report claimed. According to the newspaper, the court was not aware of Ganten-Lange’s connection to Rote Hilfe.
Connections between Antifa and the terrorist PKK have been reported in Germany in the past, such as in 2018 when Antifa extremists admitted to firebombing Turkish mosques that were supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an enemy of the PKK.
Similar connections have been discovered in the UK as well between the two groups. UK Antifa have even tweeted pictures showing support for PKK flags on their Twitter accounts, despite the organisation being banned as a terrorist group by the UK Home Office.
Over the weekend, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that Antifa, like the PKK, would be designated a terrorist group by the United States following days of riots and looting across the country.