Wilhelm von Gottberg

Wilhelm von Gottberg (born 30 March 1940) is a German far-right politician of the Alternative for Germany party who served as a member of the Bundestag from 2017 to 2021, representing Lower Saxony. Gottberg is a Holocaust denier and former president of the Landsmannschaft Ostpreußen, and has advocated for the resettlement of Kaliningrad Oblast with Germans.

Biography Wilhelm von Gottberg was born on 30 March 1940 in Woopen, then in East Prussia (now , Russia). He is the son of Hans Heinrich von Gottberg (1900–1973) and his wife Gertrud, née Freiin von der Goltz (1908–1997). He was descended of two noble families, the Gottberg family and the Von der Goltz family. Gottberg's family was expelled from East Prussia following the end of World War II. He subsequently lived in Swinemünde (now Świnoujście, in Poland) and later in West Germany. After completing mandatory military service, he served in the Bundesgrenzschutz from 1960 to 1968. In 1969, he joined the Christian Democratic Union due to the party's rejection of the Oder–Neisse line.

Gottberg is president of the Landsmannschaft Ostpreußen (since 1992) and Vice President of the Federation of Expellees (since 1992) in Germany. He is also a member of the board of the Ostpreußische Kulturstiftung, and was mayor of Schnega in Lower Saxony. Gottberg used to be a member of the Christian Democratic Union, but left the party in 2011 amidst a dispute over his position on the CDU's electoral list in Schnega's municipal election. He joined Alternative for Germany (, AfD) in 2013, supporting the party's position on the Euro area crisis.

Political positions German newspaper Die Zeit has described Gottberg as far-right, and part of the AfD's furthest right faction, associated with the Identitarian movement. He is known for his Holocaust denial, referring to the Holocaust as "a myth". American magazine The Atlantic, Gottberg supported the presidency of Boris Yeltsin after Yeltsin refused to prevent the return of 200,000 ethnic Germans to Kaliningrad in late 1991, and, like other members of the Landsmannschaft Ostpreußen, favoured the establishment of a German republic of Russia in Kaliningrad Oblast.

Literature Jens Mecklenburg (Hrsg.): Handbuch deutscher Rechtsextremismus. Elefanten-Press, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-88520-585-8, S. 462–463.