anti-fascist activist Johann G. (31) was arrested in Thuringia on Friday by the fugitive squad of the Saxony State Criminal Police Office, media reported. The arrest is said to have taken place on a regional train near Weimar. Johann G. had been underground for four years and was the most wanted ‘left-wing extremist’ sought by the authorities, alongside fugitive former RAF members Burkhard Garweg, Ernst-Volker Staub, and the recently captured Daniela Klette. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office recently offered up to €10,000 for information leading to his capture. Authorities consider Johann G. to be the leader of the group surrounding the already convicted Leipzig anti-fascist Lina E., his former fiancée. The group is said to have carried out several serious attacks on right-wing extremists since 2018, initially in Saxony and Thuringia. Lina E. and three other anti-fascists were arrested at the end of 2020 and sentenced to prison terms of up to five years and three months in May 2023. Johann G. had previously been convicted of politically-linked offences and had served prison time. After being released on probation in early 2020, he disappeared.

The Saxony State Criminal Police and the Federal Criminal Police had issued wanted posters and called for the public’s help on a television program. Initially, investigators suspected him to be in Thailand and other European countries, but at least at one point, he was believed to be back in Germany.

Alleged connection to Budapest case

According to media reports, his arrest on 8 November was facilitated by long-term surveillance of an activist classified as a ‘contact person’. For years, leftist groups in Thuringia and Saxony have been subjected to a multitude of extensive repression and surveillance measures, which do not even spare the families of the accused.  The arrest comes as part of a broader offensive against anti-fascist structures, which includes the arrest of anti-fascist Thomas J., also known as “Nanuk”, in Berlin on Monday 21 October and the “night and fog” deportation to Hungary on 28 June of activist Maja T. Investigators have constructed a “criminal organisation” under § 129 of the German Penal Code, allowing them to scrutinise and criminalise not only the accused but also their entire environment.  Even after Lina E.’s arrest, Johann G. is said to have participated in attacks on right-wing extremists, for example, in February 2023 in Budapest, where neo-Nazis had gathered for a large European rally. Two autonomous left activists from Berlin were arrested on-site. Ten other German anti-fascists subsequently went underground, and the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and Hungarian authorities have been searching for them since then. In December 2023, one of the wanted individuals, Maja T., was captured in Berlin. The non-binary anti-fascist has since been extradited to Budapest. In May, police arrested Hanna S. from Nuremberg, who is also accused of participating in the attacks in Budapest. However, she had not gone underground and is now facing charges in Munich.