Beatrix von Storch

Beatrix von Storch
Deputy Leader of the Alternative for Germany
Assumed office
5 July 2015
Serving with Alexander Gauland and Albrecht Glaser
Leader Jörg Meuthen
Member of the Bundestag
Assumed office
24 September 2017
Member of the European Parliament
In office
1 July 2014 – 27 October 2017
Constituency Germany
Personal details
Born Beatrix Amelie Ehrengard Eilika
(1971-05-27) 27 May 1971
Lübeck, West Germany
Political party Alternative for Germany
Spouse(s) Sven von Storch (m. 2004)

Beatrix Amelie Ehrengard Eilika von Storch (born Beatrix Amelie Ehrengard Eilika Herzogin von Oldenburg [Duchess of Oldenburg]; 27 May 1971) is a German politician who has served as Deputy Leader of the Alternative for Germany since July 2015 and Member of the Bundestag since September 2017. She previously served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Germany.[1] She is a member of the royal House of Oldenburg.

Early life

Family background

She was born Beatrix Amelie Ehrengard Eilika, Duchess of Oldenburg, and by tradition holds the style of "Her Highness." She is the elder daughter of Huno, Duke of Oldenburg, and Felicitas-Anita, Countess Schwerin von Krosigk. Her father is a younger son of Nikolaus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Oldenburg (1897–1970), erstwhile head of the former ruling family of Oldenburg. She belongs to the same male-line family as the royal houses of Denmark and Norway, the deposed royal house of Greece, the deposed imperial Russian family Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov, and Charles, Prince of Wales, heir to the thrones of the Commonwealth realms. Her immediate family is itself a branch of the Danish line of the family; she is a male-line descendant of King Frederick I of Denmark and Norway, while her more recent male-line ancestors ruled the Duchy of Holstein-Gottorp and the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg. She is also a descendant of Frederick William III of Prussia, Paul I of Russia, the Empress Catherine the Great, William IV, Prince of Orange, and King George II of Great Britain, and is distantly in the line of succession to the British throne in accordance with the Act of Settlement 1701.

Her grandfather on her mother's side was Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, who served as finance minister under Adolf Hitler and was the last head of government (as Leading Minister) of the Third Reich.[2]

Her cousin Eilika von Oldenburg is married to Georg von Habsburg, a son of Otto von Habsburg, the last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary.

Education and early career

Von Storch was a banker before she studied law in Heidelberg and Lausanne. She worked as a lawyer in Berlin when she began her political career.

Political career

Since 2014, Beatrix von Storch has been a Member of European Parliament representing Alternative for Germany. Initially a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists group, she left the group in April 2016, forestalling her imminent expulsion, and immediately joined the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) group.[3]

Storch is a known opponent of same-sex marriage.[4] She has accused school gay youth networks of using "forced sexualization" on their students.

Controversies

In November 2015, a leading Berlin theatre, the Schaubühne, was brought into legal conflict with Beatrix von Storch over a play, Falk Richter's FEAR, that parodied AfD leaders as zombies and mass murderers.[5] Beatrix von Storch is depicted facing retribution for her grandfather's role as a minister in Hitler's government.[6] AfD Spokesperson Christian Lüth responded by interrupting a performance and filming it. Beatrix von Storch, and the Conservative spokesperson Hedwig von Beverfoerde, then requested and obtained a preliminary injunction against the theatre, prohibiting it from using images of them in the production. They charged that the use of the images violated their human dignity protected under the Constitution.[7] On 15 December 2015, the court ruled against the complainants in favour of the theatre's freedom of expression and lifted the injunctions against using the images. The judges commented that 'any audience member can recognize that this is just a play'.[8]

Remarks about the use of deadly force against refugees

In late February 2016, von Storch was "pied" by members of the German left-wing group Peng Collective at a party meeting in Kassel. The activists, dressed as clowns, protested against her assertion that German border control personnel had the right to shoot at incoming illegal immigrants. A YouTube video of the assault gained wide attention in social media.[9][10]

"Rapist Hordes" tweet

Von Storch's Twitter account was blocked for twelve hours after she posted a criticism of the Cologne Police Department for publishing a New Years greeting in Arabic as well as in German, French and English. She had written: "What the hell is wrong with this country? Why is the official page of the police in NRW tweeting in Arabic? Are they seeking to appease the barbaric, Muslim, rapist hordes of men?" Cologne was the location of multiple sexual assaults and robbery on New Year's Eve, December 2015. (see New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Germany) Other prominent members of the AfD quickly sprang to von Storch's defense, including Alice Weidel.[11]

Personal life

In 2010 she married the businessman Sven von Storch (born 1970).[12][13]

Ancestry

Von Storch is the daughter of Duke Huno of Oldenburg, by his marriage to Felicitas-Anita Gräfin von Schwerin-Krosigk. As well as her mostly German descent, she also has some distant Scottish blood. The ducal family of Oldenburg is a cadet branch of the royal family of Holstein-Gottorp, different branches of which have held the crowns of Denmark, Sweden, and the Russian Empire.

On her father's side, von Storch is a great-grandniece of Queen Emma of the Netherlands. She is descended in three lines from the House of Hanover and is thus in the extended line of succession to the British throne. Her maternal great-great-grandmother Lisette von Krosigk, a granddaughter of the German-Scottish Ludwig von Westphalen, was a niece-in-law of Karl Marx.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Beatrix von STORCH - Home - MEPs - European Parliament". www.europarl.europa.eu.
  2. ↑ "Person Page". www.thepeerage.com.
  3. ↑ Martin Banks (11 April 2016). "ECR reject joins EFDD group". The Parliament Magazine. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  4. ↑ Philip Oltermann. "Liberals quit Alternative for Germany party as it embraces a domestic agenda". The Guardian.
  5. ↑ Joseph Pearson, Fear and the German Far Right: Conversations with Falk Richter in Schaubühne Pearson's Preview, schaubuehne.de
  6. ↑ "Aufregung Um Theaterstueck. AfD Populisten wollen deine Zombies Sein". Süddeutsche Zeitung.
  7. ↑ "Fear siegt ueber die Angst von AfD und Pegida". Tagespiele.
  8. ↑ "AfD Unterliegt im Zombie Streit". Handelsblatt.
  9. ↑ 'Tart War with AfD politician attacked in meeting', huffingtonpost.de video
  10. ↑ Tart attack (removed) at YouTube
  11. ↑ New York Times, 2 January 2018
  12. ↑ Amann, Melanie; Bartsch, Matthias; Friedmann, Jan; Minkmar, Nils; Sauga, Michael; Winter, Steffen (10 February 2016). "The Hate Preachers: Inside Germany's Dangerous New Populist Party". Spiegel. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  13. ↑ "Beatrix von Storch". 6 October 2017 – via Wikipedia.
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