Alexander Gauland

Alexander Eberhardt Gauland
Alexander Gauland in 2014
Born	(1941-02-20) 20 February 1941 (age 76) Chemnitz, Germany
Institution	University of Hamburg
Field	Jurisprudence

Alexander E. Gauland (born 20 February 1941 in Chemnitz) is a German lawyer, journalist and politician. Gauland is a leading politician of the national conservative AfD as its co-founder, its federal spokesman and as the party leader for the state of Brandenburg.

Gauland was born in 1941 in Chemnitz, a city that became part of [East Germany] in 1949, and after graduating from high school in 1959, he fled to West Germany. He studied political science and law at Marburg, where he also received his doctorate.

In 1972 Gauland entered the Federal Press Office and worked as the Director of the Office of the Mayor of Frankfurt am Main for 10 years.

Afterwards he became the head of a department of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety in Bonn and Member of the Hessian Prime Minister´s cabinet.

From 1991-2006 worked as an editor of the local newspaper in Potsdam.

On the morning of March 25, 2010 German Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly assured that there would be no direct financial aid to Greece, but reverted that statement hours later by agreeing with the leaders of the euro states to send the first of many "rescue packages" to Greece. Gerd Robanus, Assessor in the Federal Executive of the CDU-Business Association cited this as the reason for founding the "Election Alternative 2013" together with Alexander Gauland, Konrad Adam and Bernd Lucke.

In February 2014 Gauland received about 80 percent of the vote during an Extraordinary National Congress in Diedersdorf, becoming chairman of the Brandenburg County Association of the anti-immigration right-wing Alternative for Germany.

The AfD earned a voting share of 12.2 percent in the Brandenburg state election, 2014 for the first time. On Tuesday, 10/07/2014 Gauland opened the inaugural session of the Landtag of Brandenburg: