René Stadtkewitz

René Stadtkewitz (born 9 January 1965) is a German political activist and politician. He has also been chairman of the Citizens' Movement Pax Europa. From 1986 to 1991 Stadtkewitz worked in industrial robot construction. In the year the Wall fell, he fled with his family via Hungary from the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany. After reunification he returned to Berlin.

Political career and arson attack Stadtkewitz became a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in 1995, and represented the party locally in the state parliament of Berlin from 2001 to 2011.

Stadtkewitz had campaigned against the construction of the Khadija Mosque of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat in Berlin-Heinersdorf. He supported a citizens' initiative and took part in several demonstrations against the construction of the mosque. At the closing rally of the demonstration on 11 July 2007, he gave a speech in which he described Islam as a "political religion" that "cannot be integrated into Europe".

German Freedom Party Stadtkewitz was expelled from the CDU in 2010 after inviting Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders to hold a speech. while claiming that public debate about the Islamic faith had been "too timid" in Germany, and that the debate should focus on "the defense of freedom and of Christian values", including concerns about "countless young women, who are forced into arranged marriages, enslaved and who sometimes become victims of so-called honor killings". He then founded the German Freedom Party together with former CDU politician Marc Doll and former Pirate Party Germany politician Aaron Koenig. Later the same year, he was part of an initiative with international politicians Heinz-Christian Strache, Kent Ekeroth and Filip Dewinter in Jerusalem that declared their support for Israel against Islamic terrorism. He also attended an event at Ground Zero in New York City by the invitation of Pamela Geller and Stop Islamization of America, and an international counter-jihad conference in Paris.

Stadtkewitz stepped down as leader of the party in 2013, and instead called on his supporters to vote for the new Alternative for Germany (AfD), After several hundred new members from the party joined AfD, the AfD's then-leader Bernd Lucke, considering the party "Islamophobic", however declared a ban on new admissions from the party.

Stadtkewitz eventually joined the AfD in 2024, became a member of the Zehdenick city council, and declared his candidacy for the mayoral election in Zehdenick in 2025. He reached the run-off to be held on 16 March after narrowly receiving the second most votes in the first round on 23 February with 38.5%. Stadtkewitz lost the run-off election with 37% of the vote, against Alexander Kretzschmar.

During the 2026 Mayoral Election in Zehdenick, Stadtkewitz received an absolute majority on the first round, making him the first directly-elected AfD mayor in Brandenburg. He received 58.4% of the votes.