Maximilian Krah (born January 28, 1977) is a German lawyer and self-described right-wing politician.^[3][4] He is serving as a member of the European Parliament for the far-right Alternative for Germany.^[5]

In April 2024 Krah gained international attention when the German Prosecutor General arrested his assistant Jian Guo, suspected of spying for China by passing on information about negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament to China's intelligence service.^[6][7][8][9]

Krah grew up in Upper Lusatia as the youngest of three children. His mother was a teacher and his father Peter Krah was an engineer, an executive for the local chapter of the Christian Democratic Union and later an advisor to the Ministry for Interior and Sports of Lower Saxony.^[10] After high school, Krah studied law at the Technical University of Dresden followed by an MBA at the London Business School and the Columbia Business School in New York. In 2004 he completed state examinations to practice as a lawyer and was called to the bar in 2005. He also ran a law firm in Dresden with two colleagues.^[11][12]

Krah lives in Dresden. He is a practicing Catholic, is widowed and has eight children by three women.^{[10][13][14][15]}

Krah rejects the term "conservative" for himself and the AfD; he clearly describes his political affiliation as "right-wing".^[16] Within the party, Krah is considered a follower of Der Flügel within the AfD under the informal leadership of the Thuringian party leader Björn Höcke.^[17] Höcke also supported Krah's candidacy as the AfD's top candidate for the 2024 European elections.^[18]

Krah has given several lectures at Götz Kubitschek's "Institute for State Policy (IfS)", which the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified as "certainly right-wing extremist".^[18] In 2023, Krah also had his book Politics from the Right published by Verlag Antaios; according to AfD Bundestag member Norbert Kleinwächter, it is a manifesto that is explicitly "anti-rule of law, anti-international law, anti-ethical".^[19]

Krah joined the Junge Union in 1991, the youth wing of the CDU. During his studies he was also active in the Association of Christian Democratic Students. Krah left the CDU in 2016.^[26] In that same year, Krah joined Alternative for Germany and was elected deputy chairman of the AfD Saxony in February 2018.^[27][28]

In 2019, Krah was elected as an MEP for the AfD.^[29] In the European Parliament he sits as a member of the Identity and Democracy group and is a member of the committees for Relations with the United States, International Trade (INTA) and Deputy Member of the Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly. He also served as the spokesman for the AfD in the European Parliament until 2022.^[30]

Krah ran for the election on June 12, 2022 as Mayor of Dresden. He received 14.2 percent of the votes and came in 4th place behind Mayor Dirk Hilbert, Eva Jähnigen and Albrecht Pallas. In the second round of voting, Krah lost again with 12.2 percent, coming in third place behind Dirk Hilbert and Eva Jähnigen.^[31]

In July 2023 he was named as the AFD top candidate in the 2024 European Parliament election.^[32]

Krahs is very active on TikTok and tries to reach 16-year-old first-time voters. Krah's social media strategy is carefully orchestrated with the help of another right-wing political activist.^[33][34][35]

In February 2023, Krah was suspended from the "Identity and Democracy" (ID) parliamentary group, to which the AfD belongs in the EU Parliament, due to allegations of fraud. Krah's office had received strikingly similar bid documents from three companies for an advertising contract – the documents even had the same typos. The tender process was stopped. After an anonymous letter to the EU anti-corruption authority OLAF, that office got involved. The fraud investigation concluded without further action.^[36]

Krah is closely linked to the AfD candidate Arno Bausemer. During the election campaign, the media revealed that Bausemer had invented parts of his CV. In the summer, Krah tried to influence Bausemer's ex-girlfriend, the AfD politician Bianca Wolter. He wanted to ensure that Wolter did not comment negatively on Bausemer. He promised her financial benefits for her and her child if Bausemer was elected to the EU Parliament.^[37]

At the end of April 2024, the German Public Prosecutor General had Maximilan Krah's parliamentary employee Jian Guo arrested by the German police and searched it home. Jian Guo is said to work for the Chinese secret service MSS; German public prosecutor’s office said about Jian G.: "the accused repeatedly passed on information about negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament to his intelligence service client." He is also said to have been in Chinese dissident circles and to have spied on the Chinese democratic opposition in Germany.^[38] Krah brought Guo into his team in Brussels as an assistant in 2019 after he was elected to the European Parliament.^[39]

The EU Parliament has suspended the accused employee from duty. "Following the decision of the German judicial authorities to arrest a person currently working as an accredited assistant (APA) in the European Parliament, and given the seriousness of the revelations, Parliament has suspended the person in question with immediate effect," the parliament said.^[40]