Nicole Höchst

Nicole Höchst (born 10 February 1970 in Homburg, Saarland) is a German politician of the Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD) and a member of the Bundestag for Rhineland-Palatinate. She has sat in the Bundestag since 2017 and is a city councillor in Speyer, where the parliament’s register of members also places her former post at the state’s pedagogical institute. The biography published by the Bundestag is based on members’ own disclosures; the archived text for the 20th electoral term (2021–2025) additionally records that she is a Roman Catholic and the mother of four children.

Höchst passed the Abitur in 1989 and completed the second state examination for teaching at upper secondary level, with a traineeship from 1999 to 2001 at the Liebfrauenschule in Mülhausen. From 2001 until July 2002 she was a sales manager for central and northern Germany at the clothing firm GUESS. She then taught as a Studienrätin at the vocational college for business and administration in Rheydt-Mülfort (2002–2007) and at the state Speyer-Kolleg (2007–2012). From 2009 to 2017 she was a subject specialist for foreign languages at the Pedagogical State Institute of Rhineland-Palatinate in Speyer, with the rank of Regierungsschuldirektorin and a right to return to that post.

In the Bundestag elected in 2025 she holds list place 2 of the AfD in Rhineland-Palatinate and also stood in constituency 200, Kreuznach; the federal returning officer’s list of elected members records the mandate as that state-list seat. In that constituency the AfD received 30,688 first votes (21.2 percent) and 32,452 second votes (22.3 percent). The direct seat went to Julia Klöckner of the Christian Democratic Union with 32.3 percent, ahead of Joe Weingarten of the Social Democratic Party with 26.3 percent. On the parliament’s current membership list she is a full member and the AfD Obfrau on the Committee for Research, Technology, Space and Technology Assessment, a deputy member of the Committee on Education, Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and deputy chair of the German–Japanese Parliamentary Group. The same biography names her as a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and of the German–French Parliamentary Assembly, deputy state chair of the AfD in Rhineland-Palatinate, and head of the party’s federal and state expert committees on education, science, culture and media.

Her public statements have drawn sustained reporting. On 26 November 2019 Welt reported that Höchst had compared Chancellor Angela Merkel with Adolf Hitler in an interview, that she saw many parallels in the seizure of power and in “what was brought into line”, and that she would apologise, if at all, only in fifty years. On 4 June 2025 the same paper reported that a post on her account on X, which Welt headlined as addressed “to all Muslims in Germany” and as referring to fertiliser from pig manure, showed men in front of a manure trailer with an AfD logo; the paper described the post as hostile to Islam and reported that the AfD had withdrawn what the headline called an unacceptable social-media contribution.

Early life and education

Childhood and schooling

Nicole Höchst was born on 10 February 1970 in Homburg, in the Saarland. In an interview published by the Rhein-Zeitung on 21 August 2017 she said that her grandparents came from the German–French border region and that she herself was born in Homburg. A profile by Jan Rübel in Das Parlament, the magazine of the Bundestag, published on 6 December 2024, described her as a deputy of the Alternative for Germany from Monheim am Rhein, in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The biography she supplied for the 19th Bundestag, which the parliament notes is based on members’ own statements, lists primary school at the Grundschule Sandberg from 1976 to 1980 and the Otto-Hahn-Gymnasium from 1980 until the Abitur in 1989. The Otto-Hahn-Gymnasium is the Gymnasium maintained by the city of Monheim am Rhein. The same 19th-term text, and the biography carried for the 20th electoral term, described her as Roman Catholic and as the mother of four children. The biography published for the 21st Bundestag still gives the birth date, Homburg and the 1989 Abitur, but it no longer records religion or the number of children.

The 2017 Rhein-Zeitung portrait, written by Gustl Stumpf after an interview in Bad Kreuznach, reported that Höchst had been a single parent since April of that year. She then had two daughters and two sons, aged 3, 6, 13 and 15, and her main home was in Speyer. The article also said that she trained in kickboxing and karate, and that she collected the children from a karate centre in Frankenthal. Das Parlament likewise described her as a mother of four.

Higher education and teacher qualification

Höchst told the Rhein-Zeitung that after the Abitur she studied business administration in Bielefeld, then took a teaching degree in Saarbrücken and Düsseldorf, with a period of language study in Montpellier and Brussels in between. Das Parlament described her as a teacher of English and French. The Bundestag biographies record a second state examination for teaching at upper-secondary level (Lehramt Sekundarstufe II). They place the preparatory Referendariat from February 1999 to February 2001 at the Liebfrauenschule Mülhausen; the biography for the 21st term gives the same school and the years 1999 to 2001, without the months. The Liebfrauenschule is a state-recognized private all-day Gymnasium for girls and boys in the Mülhausen district of Grefrath, at Hauptstraße 87, and its own account says that its education is oriented toward a Christian view of the person. The parliamentary biographies do not name a university and do not date the second state examination separately from the Referendariat.

Teaching and education administration

Classroom posts

Höchst holds the second state examination for upper-secondary teaching (Lehramt Sekundarstufe II). The Bundestag biography, which the parliament states is based on the member's own account, records her preparatory service (Referendariat) from 1999 to 2001 at the Liebfrauenschule Mülhausen. That school is a state-recognized private all-day Gymnasium for girls and boys in the Mülhausen district of Grefrath, in North Rhine-Westphalia. A profile published by Die Rheinpfalz on 26 September 2017 identified English and French as the subjects of her studies.

From February 2001 to July 2002 she worked outside education, as sales manager for central and northern Germany (Vertriebsleiterin Deutschland Mitte/Nord) for the clothing company Guess, which the biography names as GUESS USA. She then became a Studienrätin at the Berufskolleg für Wirtschaft und Verwaltung Rheydt-Mülfort, a post the biography dates from 2002 to 2007. The school, which presents itself as the Berufskolleg Rheydt-Mülfort für Wirtschaft und Verwaltung, is a vocational college for business and administration in Mönchengladbach. Die Rheinpfalz summarized the same years as her time as a Studienrätin in Rheydt.

From 2007 to 2012 the Bundestag lists her as a Studienrätin at the state Speyer-Kolleg in Speyer; the newspaper called her a teacher at the Speyer-Kolleg over those years. The school opened on 19 April 1966 as the Speyer-Kolleg, when Bernhard Vogel, then state minister for education and culture, inaugurated it; Die Rheinpfalz later referred to that founding institution as the former Speyer-Kolleg. It is now the Staatliches Pfalz-Kolleg und Abendgymnasium Speyer, one of Rhineland-Palatinate's second-chance schools, at which adults with work experience can take the Abitur, and at which the school-based part of the Fachhochschulreife is also offered. The Kolleg's address is Butenschönstraße 2.

Pedagogical State Institute

From 2009, while the Speyer-Kolleg appointment continued until 2012, Höchst was a Referentin at the Pädagogisches Landesinstitut of Rhineland-Palatinate. Die Rheinpfalz dated her rank of Regierungsschuldirektorin from 2014. The institute's headquarters are at Butenschönstraße 2 in Speyer, the same address as the Kolleg. It describes itself as the state's central service organization for schools, providing in-service and further training, media and teaching materials, pedagogical and school-psychological advice, and IT services.

In the Bundestag's mandatory disclosure of employment before membership, the post appears as Regierungsschuldirektorin and Referentin für Fremdsprachen at the Pädagogisches Landesinstitut Rheinland-Pfalz in Speyer, together with a right to return to it (Rückkehrrecht). The published biography dates the institute role from 2009 to 2017 and styles her Regierungsschuldirektorin a. D. (außer Dienst). Abgeordnetenwatch republishes that disclosure and lists her professional qualification as teacher (Lehrerin). The 26 September 2017 Rheinpfalz profile described her as a civil servant in Speyer who was about to take a seat in the Bundestag.

Party roles in the CDU and the AfD

From the CDU to the AfD

Höchst was a dues-paying member of the Christian Democratic Union. In an August 2017 profile, the Rhein-Zeitung reported that she had voted for Angela Merkel and that developments around the euro and the Greek loan programmes no longer fitted her views. The same profile dates her first contact with the Alternative for Germany to 2013, when she heard co-founder Bernd Lucke at the Rheinterrasse in Düsseldorf, and quotes her as saying that he “spoke from my soul.” It does not give a year of joining. In a Rheinpfalz interview published on 26 September 2017 she said that serious problems had led her to join the AfD at the beginning of 2015: Merkel’s policy on currency and asylum was presented as without alternative but not explained, and the education system was in decline. She also cited what the paper called alleged early sexualization, including in kindergartens, and “Islamization” linked to an asylum policy she rejected. The paper’s biographical note says “in the AfD since 2015.”

That 2017 profile said that relatively soon after joining she became head of the party’s federal specialist committee for culture, media, schools and higher education, and that she had been on the federal programme commission since 2016. Her own website, which still uses those committee titles and does not list the later state-executive offices, gives different starting points: head of the Rhineland-Palatinate specialist committee from autumn 2015, head of federal specialist committee 6 from December 2015, and a member of the federal programme commission from February 2015. In the 2017 internal ballots she lost contested votes for first place on the state list and for the direct candidacy in the Neustadt–Speyer constituency, then stood in Bad Kreuznach–Birkenfeld and was placed fourth on the list.

State and federal offices

The Bundestag biography, drawn from her own disclosures, lists her as deputy state chair of the AfD in Rhineland-Palatinate; head of federal specialist committee 6 for education, science, culture and media; a member of the federal programme commission; head of the state specialist committee in the same fields; and deputy chair of the Speyer district association. The committee title there is broader than the 2017 wording limited to culture, media, schools and higher education. Her website still describes her as treasurer of the Speyer association.

At the federal congress in Braunschweig on 30 November 2019 she stood for the co-chair held by Jörg Meuthen, against him and Wolfgang Gedeon. Der Spiegel reported Meuthen re-elected with 69.18 percent, Höchst with 24.8 percent and Gedeon with 3.8 percent; Welt gave Meuthen 69.2 percent. Tagesschau had written on 29 November that she would decide only at the congress whether to run. The same congress elected Tino Chrupalla to the other spokesperson’s post.

On 23 November 2024 in Bingen, with no opponent, she was elected to second place on the state list for the Bundestag election, with more than 95 percent of the votes cast. The dpa report described her, like list leader Sebastian Münzenmaier, who received about 98 percent for first place, as a member of the state executive. On 27 June 2026, again in Bingen, Münzenmaier succeeded Jan Bollinger as state chair. Welt, citing the party, reported 89.5 percent and no opponent; the Rheinpfalz counted 411 of 466 votes, or 88.19 percent, and noted that the party reached 89.54 percent by setting aside seven abstentions. Bollinger, Bernd Schattner and Höchst were elected deputy state chairs, and the congress created a general-secretary post, taken by Damian Lohr. About 500 of roughly 5,000 members of the state party attended.

Bundestag elections

Nicole Höchst has been the Alternative for Germany (AfD) candidate in the Kreuznach constituency of Rhineland-Palatinate at each Bundestag election since 2017, and has stood on the party’s state list at the same time. The constituency covers the districts of Bad Kreuznach and Birkenfeld. It was numbered 201 in 2017 and 2021 and 200 in 2025. She has not won the direct mandate; each seat has come from the state list.

2017 federal election

At the 2017 German federal election on 24 September 2017, Höchst was the AfD direct candidate in constituency 201 and fourth on the Rhineland-Palatinate list. She received 14,914 first votes (10.8 percent). Antje Lezius of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) won the constituency with 50,975 votes (37.0 percent). The Social Democratic Party (SPD) candidate, Joe Weingarten, was second with 43,373 votes (31.5 percent). AfD second votes in the constituency were 16,198 (11.7 percent).

Statewide, the AfD received 265,688 second votes (11.2 percent). The Federal Returning Officer’s final allocation gave the party four seats in Rhineland-Palatinate, with no constituency pluralities, so all four were state-list seats. Fourth place on the list was therefore sufficient, and Höchst entered by that route rather than by the direct mandate. Elected members took office only when the 19th Bundestag held its constituent sitting; that sitting was on 24 October 2017.

2021 federal election

At the 2021 German federal election on 26 September 2021, Höchst again stood in constituency 201, and the AfD placed her second on its state list. Her first-vote total fell to 12,972 (9.5 percent), 1.3 percentage points below 2017. AfD second votes in the constituency were 13,510 (9.9 percent, down 1.8 points). Weingarten won the direct mandate for the SPD with 44,976 votes (33.0 percent), ahead of Julia Klöckner of the CDU with 39,589 (29.1 percent).

In Rhineland-Palatinate the AfD received 215,205 second votes (9.2 percent). The final seat calculation, including the partial rerun in Berlin, assigned the party four seats in the state. The Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate reported that all four came through the state list, the same number of list seats as in 2017. Höchst was re-elected on list place two, not in the constituency. The Bundestag’s archived biography for the 20th electoral term dates her membership from 26 October 2021 and associates her with constituency 201 Kreuznach, while recording that she was elected on the state list.

2025 federal election

For the 2025 German federal election on 23 February 2025 the same two districts formed constituency 200. At the AfD state congress in Bingen on 23 November 2024, delegates again put Sebastian Münzenmaier first on the state list and Höchst second; Andreas Bleck was third.

Höchst received 30,688 first votes (21.2 percent), 11.6 percentage points more than in 2021, and finished third. Klöckner won the constituency with 46,768 votes (32.3 percent); Weingarten, for the SPD, had 38,082 (26.3 percent). AfD second votes in the constituency were 32,452 (22.3 percent, up 12.4 points). Across Rhineland-Palatinate the party received 498,695 second votes (20.1 percent).

The seat calculation gave the AfD seven seats in the state and no constituency plurality there, so the seven seats were all state-list seats. The Federal Returning Officer’s list of those elected names Münzenmaier, Höchst, Bleck, Bernd Hans Schattner, Thomas Stephan, Iris Nieland and Jörg Zirwes, in list positions 1 to 7. Höchst is recorded as elected from Rhineland-Palatinate list position 2, with a parallel candidacy in constituency 200. The Bundestag biography states the same: election via the Rhineland-Palatinate list, and a constituency candidacy in Wahlkreis 200 Kreuznach. Klöckner, not Höchst, holds the direct mandate, which the seat calculation marks as covered by the CDU’s second votes.

Committees and parliamentary offices

Bundestag committees

In the 19th Bundestag (2017–2021), the archived biography lists Nicole Höchst as an ordinary member of the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment and of the Committee on Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, and also as a substitute member of the family committee and of the board of trustees of the Federal Agency for Civic Education. She was an ordinary member of the Subcommittee on Civic Engagement. On the inquiry commission “Vocational Education in the Digital World of Work” (Berufliche Bildung in der digitalen Arbeitswelt), the same record lists her as an ordinary member, as the Alternative for Germany (AfD) group’s Obfrau—its lead member on that body—and as a member of project groups 1 and 5. She chaired project group 5, whose subject was the attractiveness of vocational education and the equivalence and permeability of educational pathways.

From the constituent sitting of the 20th Bundestag on 26 October 2021 until 25 March 2025, she was an ordinary member and the AfD Obfrau of the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment, and a substitute member of the Committee on Digital Affairs and of the Committee on Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.

Since the 21st Bundestag was constituted on 25 March 2025, she has been an ordinary member and Obfrau of the Committee on Research, Technology, Spaceflight and Technology Assessment, and a substitute member of the Committee on Education, Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Those are the seats in the page’s membership list; the page’s structured data were last modified on 29 September 2026. A biographical note on the same page, which the Bundestag says is supplied by the member, still describes her as Obfrau of the former Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment.

Spokesperson roles inside the AfD group

An AfD account of its working group on education, research and technology assessment in the 19th term names Götz Frömming as the group’s head and as Obmann on the education committee, and describes Höchst as working alongside him. Her 20th-term Bundestag biography, again drawn from her own information, calls her head of that working group. A faction press release of 28 June 2022 identified her as the group’s education-policy spokesperson. On 23 November 2022 the AfD Bundestag group elected her its church-policy spokesperson (kirchenpolitische Sprecherin). On 20 May 2025 the group elected its policy spokespersons, whom the announcement described as heads of the corresponding working groups (Arbeitskreisleiter), and named Höchst research-policy spokesperson.

Council of Europe and bilateral assemblies

On 13 January 2022 the Bundestag elected, without debate, Höchst and Norbert Kleinwächter as the AfD’s full members of Germany’s delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe; Harald Weyel and Petr Bystron were elected substitutes. The Assembly’s member record lists her as a representative from 24 January 2022 to 22 June 2025. Within the political groups she was a member of the European Conservatives Group and Democratic Alliance from 24 January 2022 to 22 January 2023, an auditor of that group from 23 January 2023 to 3 February 2025, and an auditor of the European Conservatives, Patriots & Affiliates from 3 February 2025 to 22 June 2025.

Throughout that mandate she was a full member of the Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media and an alternate for Max Lucks on the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy. She was a member of the Monitoring Committee from 23 January 2023 to 22 June 2025, a full member of the Sub-Committee on Education, Youth and Sport from 25 January 2022 to 22 January 2023, and a full member of the Sub-Committee on Youth and the Society of the Future from 23 January 2024 to 22 June 2025.

On 5 June 2025 the 21st Bundestag approved a new delegation. Höchst was not among the AfD members in the proposal that was adopted, and she does not appear on the delegation list published by the Bundestag. Her self-supplied biography nevertheless still describes her as a member of the Assembly and of the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly. For the 20th term the official list did record her as an ordinary member of the Franco-German assembly. The 21st-term list of other bodies does not, and the assembly’s current membership directory on the Bundestag website does not name her.

In the 20th term she was one of the deputy chairs of the German–Japanese Parliamentary Group; the chair was Michael Müller of the Social Democratic Party. The 21st-term list of other offices again records her as holding the deputy chair of that group.

Education, research and technology policy

In the 21st Bundestag, Nicole Höchst is an ordinary member and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) spokesperson (Obfrau) on the Committee on Research, Technology, Space and Technology Assessment, and a deputy member of the Committee on Education, Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. The committee was constituted on 21 May 2025, with Karl Lauterbach (Social Democratic Party of Germany, SPD) as chair.

Schools, language and teacher supply

On 5 July 2022 the AfD, with Höchst as first signatory, tabled “Lehrermangel konsequent bekämpfen” (printed paper 20/2599). Citing a Verband Bildung und Erziehung estimate of 81,000 missing teachers by 2030, it asked for a federal–state “Qualitätspakt Schule”, more mathematics and science training places, and less of what it called “Radikalinklusion” and all-day duty. On 29 September 2022 Höchst said “fehlgeleitete Reformen” and “ideological projects” had brought schools “an den Abgrund”. Peter Heidt of the Free Democratic Party called this a confusion of federal and state powers; the SPD blamed Länder planning and put the official gap near 30,000 teachers by 2030, while the CDU/CSU said the text mixed competences. The Bundestag rejected the motion with every vote except the AfD’s.

Höchst was again first signatory of “Kinder mit und ohne Deutschkenntnisse für den gemeinsamen Erfolg getrennt unterrichten” (20/7575, 4 July 2023). It asked for an Article 91b Basic Law agreement so that Volkshochschulen would teach German compulsorily to children in grades 1 to 4 below level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages before mainstream school, and it also demanded deportation of people without a valid residence title. On 23 February 2024 the House rejected it by a broad majority (recommendation 20/9766).

She was first signatory of “Akademische und berufliche Bildung gleichstellen – Unser Land braucht Meister” (20/6611, 27 April 2023), which asked that Aufstiegsfortbildungsförderungsgesetz support become fee-free master-craftsman training, plus a Lower Saxony-style Meisterprämie, so the dual education system would keep instructors. On 11 May 2023 Wiebke Esdar (SPD) and Nicole Gohlke (Die Linke) rejected setting the tracks against each other, and Stephan Albani (CDU/CSU) called the two subsidies contradictory. The education committee on 13 March 2024 recommended rejection by the SPD, CDU/CSU, Greens, FDP, Die Linke and BSW against the AfD (20/11054). She later co-signed 21/6655 (23 June 2026), on restoring the state examination via the Kultusministerkonferenz, and 21/8120 (22 September 2026), which tied OECD PISA results to immigration and demanded German classes before ordinary primary enrolment.

Curricula, gender and sexuality education

Höchst was second signatory of “Genderideologie – Gefahren von Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur abwenden” (20/8862, 17 October 2023). It asked that school sex education rest on “biologische Zweigeschlechtlichkeit”, not question traditional gender roles, respect parents, stay age-appropriate, and treat intersex and transsexuality as rare exceptions “ohne Stigmatisierung”. Through the Kultusministerkonferenz it sought to drop a binding gender perspective in curricula and teacher training, exclude outside activists from sex education, end gender-mainstreaming conditions on research grants, and align the Federal Centre for Health Education with a biological binary. Debated on 18 October 2023, with Götz Frömming for the AfD, the text was referred to committee without a final vote. Carolin Wagner (SPD) called it hostile to science; Alexander Föhr (CDU/CSU) said its sources did not show that sex differences were denied; Greens and FDP speakers dismissed the attack on gender studies.

On 15 January 2026 she co-signed written question 21/3673 on federal sexual-education grants, age standards and the body-based concept “Original Play”. The question recorded earlier government replies that nothing was funded whose primary aim was sex education of kindergarten-age children, and that there was no evidence the Bundesstiftung Magnus Hirschfeld had shaped Länder curricula.

Research, technology and space

On 15 May 2025, answering Research, Technology and Space Minister Dorothee Bär, Höchst said the coalition passage on education and research read like an artificial-intelligence product and that splitting ministries had hidden the school crisis. She welcomed a BAföG adjustment but called 3 percent of output for research, technology and space small beside Ukraine aid and Bürgergeld, opposed recruiting researchers she described as “links-bunte Wokista und Antisemiten” displaced by Donald Trump, and asked for “Entpolitisierung” of the Fraunhofer Society and the Max Planck Society plus new nuclear-research centres. CDU/CSU and Green members called the speech off the subject. Esdar answered that freedom of science under Article 5(3) was threatened above all by the far right, and Holger Mann (SPD) said it would be defended against attacks “wie von Ihnen, Frau Höchst”.

She co-sponsored “Nationales Raumfahrtgesetz für Deutschland” (21/2899, 24 November 2025). It said the 1990 Raumfahrtaufgabenübertragungsgesetz only assigned civil tasks to the German Aerospace Center, and demanded a bill by 12 April 2026 on licensing, liability, space resources, an offshore launch site in the German exclusive economic zone, and space in education. The research committee rejected it on 28 January 2026, CDU/CSU, SPD, Greens and Die Linke against the AfD (21/4038). CDU/CSU called the date unrealistic beside an EU Space Act; the SPD said the draft was too national and thin on jobs and education; the Greens foresaw extra bureaucracy; the government said earlier drafts were being checked against European law.

As first signatory of “Risiken der Wettermanipulationen ernst nehmen” (21/3832), she asked for a ban on large-scale geoengineering in Germany, except monitored research, citing the Bundestag technology-assessment report on climate engineering (printed paper 18/2121). Debated on 29 January 2026 and referred to her committee, the motion was rejected there on 25 February 2026 by every group except the AfD (21/5131). CDU/CSU saw no legislative gap; the SPD said hail suppression was being conflated with geoengineering; Die Linke said it promoted conspiracy myths.

Family, gender and religion

Family and equality

Höchst has opposed equal family law for same-sex couples. On 17 January 2018 she asked Family Minister Katarina Barley in the Bundestag about Elterngeld Plus, grouping it with marriage for same-sex couples as the grand coalition’s “Befriedigung von Kleinstinteressengruppen”. Very few such couples had married, she said, and a 27 percent take-up did not justify “Nischenpolitik” in what she called the “fatalen Gesamtsituation eines sich nicht reproduzierenden Deutschlands”. Barley answered that marriage for all “tut keinem weh” and deprived no one else.

On 1 March 2018 she said equality policy forced women into paid work. Structural disadvantage of women, she said, was like a yeti: “Jeder spricht darüber, aber noch niemand hat ihn ernsthaft gesehen.”

At a pupil-run forum at the Göttenbach-Gymnasium in Idar-Oberstein in the 2017 campaign, the Rhein-Zeitung reported her opposition to marriage equality and to adoption by homosexual couples; coverage carried “Studien belegen, dass es unter homosexuellen Männern mehr Pädophile gibt.” Männer quoted that line and the reply of Jörg Litwinschuh, then executive director of the Federal Foundation Magnus Hirschfeld: the claim was “schlicht und einfach falsch”. On 25 January 2018 Axel Hochrein and Gabriela Lünsmann of the Lesben- und Schwulenverband called her Alternative for Germany nomination to that board a provocation, citing her “Feldzug” against opening marriage, against “Pädagogik der Vielfalt” in schools and against joint adoption. The Bundestag rejected it on 8 November and again on 13 December 2018.

On 17 May 2019 she said consensual relationships between adults were free and called homosexuality and transsexuality an “Ausnahmeerscheinung” already inside normality. When Melanie Bernstein (CDU/CSU) called marriage equality a milestone, Höchst interjected: “Und ohne Zukunft!” In November 2024 she and the AfD group tabled Drucksache 20/13902 for a memorial day for unborn life, covering miscarriage, stillbirth and abortion, citing 3,248 stillbirths and 103,927 abortions in 2022.

Religion, churches and Islam

At the same Idar-Oberstein forum she said she loved German songs, food, cities and writers, and Europe, “Aber: ‚Der Islam gehört nicht zu Deutschland.‘” On 1 March 2018 she called Islam a “zutiefst totalitäre Ideologie” to which women’s-rights politics was delivering Germany, spoke of disadvantage “strukturell in dieser sogenannten Religion angelegt”, and named female genital cutting, child marriage, polygamy and “Ehrenmorde” as already present. An absolute reading of Article 4 of the Basic Law, she said, subordinated “die Würde der Frau” to religious dogma.

On 23 November 2022 the AfD group elected her church-policy spokeswoman, vacant since Volker Münz left parliament in 2021. She said she would serve “im Interesse der Christen in Deutschland”, that faith mattered to her as a Catholic and mother of four, and that protection of the family and of life was a particular concern. She rejected fitting Christian teaching to the “Zeitgeist” of the Synodal Way.

Disability statistics inquiry

On 12 March 2018 Höchst, Franziska Gminder, Jürgen Pohl, Verena Hartmann and the AfD group filed “Schwerbehinderte in Deutschland”, signed by Alice Weidel and Alexander Gauland and printed on 22 March as Drucksache 19/1444. It cited 7,615,560 severe-disability cards in 2015, 67,000 more than in 2013, said 2 percent (“also 152 000”) were children and adolescents, and stated that disabilities arise “u. a. durch Heiraten innerhalb der Familie”. Via taz and Tagesspiegel it cited a British study as concluding that 60 percent of those children’s deaths and illnesses could have been avoided “wenn die Inzucht beendet würde”. It asked for the trend and causes since 2012, how many cases came from marriage within the family, how many of those had a migration background, and how many severely disabled residents were not German.

Drucksache 19/1623 of 12 April 2018, from the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, put the 2015 figure under 18 at 173,950, not 152,000. From 2011 to 2015, “allgemeine Krankheit” rose from 83.4 to 86.4 percent of causes and congenital disabilities fell from 4.1 to 3.8 percent. On disability from intra-family marriage, and on a migration background in those cases, it said parental marital status “werden in der Statistik der Schwerbehinderten nicht erhoben”. Of the 7,615,560 card-holders in 2015, 7,193,115 were recorded as German and 422,445 as not.

Peter Dabrock, chair of the German Ethics Council, called it “erschütternd und völlig inakzeptabel” that the question treated more disability as “ein gesellschaftliches Übel”, said the authors stood “an der Grenze rechtsextremistischen Vokabulars”, and criticised the migration link. Karl Jüsten, for the German bishops, called it “menschenverachtend”; disabled people, he said, were equal in the Catholic Church in Germany however a disability arose. On 22 April 2018 eighteen welfare organisations advertised in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, “Es geht uns alle an: Wachsam für die Menschlichkeit”, accusing the group of suggesting “in bösartiger Weise einen abwegigen Zusammenhang von Inzucht, behinderten Kindern und Migrantinnen und Migranten” and recalling the National Socialist murder of disabled people. Höchst wrote on Facebook, dpa reported, that she wanted facts on whether support should be improved and that “linke Eliten” reached for “Euthanasie”; the post said she has a disabled son. She told the Sonntagszeitung that the associations lobbied for the governing parties rather than for “die Interessen der Behinderten”, and that federal funding should be reviewed. The Paritätischer said the advertisement was not publicly funded.

Controversies and public reactions

Comparison of Merkel with Hitler

Early in 2019 Nicole Höchst, an Alternative for Germany member of the Bundestag from Rhineland-Palatinate, said: "Meiner Meinung nach hat die Machtergreifung schon stattgefunden. Der Schnauzer trägt jetzt Raute." Die Welt reported the sentence as a comparison of Chancellor Angela Merkel with Adolf Hitler.

In a ZDF interview published by the paper on 26 November 2019, days before an AfD congress in Braunschweig at which she might stand for the national executive, she elaborated on the remark. She said a civil society that went after political opponents was being "gepampert" rather than sanctioned, and that spending "gegen rechts" had been turned around so that it "betrifft ja gar nicht mehr Rechtsradikale, sondern betrifft ganz klar die AfD." Judging by her "Geschichtskenntnissen" of how Hitler came to power and of what had then been subject to Gleichschaltung, she said she saw "sehr viele Parallelen."

The ZDF reporter noted that Hitler was responsible, among other things, for the murder of six million Jews and asked whether the comparison was appropriate. Höchst answered, "Wir haben im Moment eine Phase, wo wir den Ausgang noch nicht kennen," and said it was not yet known where "die totalitaristische Tendenz unserer herrschenden Politik" would end. Should the comparison be retrieved in 50 years, and should she still be alive with her "kassandrischen Fähigkeiten" having failed her, "dann entschuldige ich mich sehr gerne dafür," she said. Die Welt called the interview a provocation and reported that she would not apologise sooner than in 50 years, if at all.

Social-media posts

On 3 June 2025 Höchst published a post on X: "An alle Moslems in Deutschland. Was immer du auch isst … Es ist mit Schweinescheiße gedüngt," over a picture of two men in Arab dress beside a fertiliser tank, with the AfD logo and her portrait. The Rheinpfalz wrote that the line alluded to the Islamic ban on pork. An AfD Bundestag-group spokesman told Bild, as reported by the Berliner Morgenpost and Die Welt: "Der Post ist völlig inakzeptabel und wurde auf Verlangen der Fraktionsvorsitzenden gelöscht." The chairs Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla had required the removal; Höchst did not answer Bild about her motive.

On 5 June she told the Rheinpfalz she would not comment on that demand and that the reaction was, in her view, unjustified: "Ich weise zurück, dass ich Muslime beleidige oder verhöhne, und das gibt dieser Post auch nicht her." She called the post a pointed political comment. The Rheinpfalz reported that critics accused her of tastelessness and hostility to Islam; Die Welt called the post tasteless and said it mocked Muslims in Germany. The same reporting recalled a 2018 parliamentary question from Höchst on disability, treated separately from these posts.

On 16 August 2025 she wrote on X, "Ja, die Hitlerjugend kämpfte gegen Rechts," and argued that anyone who still thought National Socialism had simply been "rechts" should note that the Nazis fought the bourgeoisie, the conservative establishment and the liberal order, "also das, was heute unter ‚rechts‘ läuft." She attached a 1934 Deutsche Reichs-Zeitung front page headlined "der Feind steht rechts," which she presented as a Hitler Youth action. Katja Thorwarth, in the Frankfurter Rundschau, set the post beside Weidel's January 2025 claim on RTL/ntv that Hitler had been a leftist, and wrote that conservative enemies did not make the Nazis leftists.

On 22 March 2018 the Rhein-Zeitung reported that Höchst was or had been in the closed Facebook group "Unser Deutschland patriotisch und frei." Citing BuzzFeed, it said the group had about 22,000 members, including 23 AfD Bundestag members, and that racism and agitation were evidently acceptable there, with posts glorifying swastikas, sympathising with the Reichsbürger movement, and imagining Merkel's murder. The paper headlined that Höchst distanced herself and wanted nothing to do with the group.

Other public incidents

On 26 September 2018 the youth council of Speyer, with the initiative "Speyer ohne Rassismus – Speyer mit Courage," held a poetry slam under that motto. Höchst's then 14-year-old daughter, whom the BBC named as Ida Marie Müller, performed. Der Spiegel quoted "Multikulti tralala, die ganze Welt ist da," "Deutschland, heilig Aufnahmeland," "Der Neger ist kein Neger mehr. Zigeuner darf man auch nicht sagen," and the close "Nun steckt das Messer dir im Bauch, denn so ist's im Orient der Brauch." The BBC reported a reference to a stabbing by an immigrant, the loudest applause from about 100 people, disqualification and exclusion from the awards, and jeers when another participant won.

Mayor Monika Kabs of the Christian Democratic Union called it an "öffentliche Provokation durch die AfD"; the city's former deputy press spokeswoman said, "Geistige Brandstifter schüren Ängste." Höchst posted support online and photographs of anti-AfD graffiti on the family house, writing, in the BBC's rendering, "Modern Nazis smear other people's houses."

The daughter sought an injunction against repetition of the two phrases. The administrative court in Neustadt an der Weinstraße refused emergency relief, and on 30 January 2019 the Higher Administrative Court in Koblenz dismissed the complaint (10 B 11552/18.OVG). It held that the remarks were permissible official value judgements, not a breach of party neutrality: the poem, which the court said referred to refugees and disparaged them wholesale, itself invoked the AfD, and the AfD district chairman had called on people to attend an event at which "patriotische Beiträge" would appear.

On the afternoon of 2 September 2026 a man poured a liquid from a window onto an AfD information stand in central Bad Kreuznach. Police told Südwestrundfunk that nine people had slight skin irritation, two of them briefly hospitalised, and would not confirm that the liquid was disinfectant; a suspect was identified and no motive was given. Höchst, who was there, told SWR the umbrella had kept off some of the liquid and: "Wir haben in Bad Kreuznach vielleicht mit einer Demo gerechnet, aber mit so etwas nicht."

Local office and affiliated organizations

Speyer city council

Höchst has been a member of the city council of Speyer since the municipal election of 26 May 2019. That poll was the first in which Alternative für Deutschland stood for the 44-seat council. In the final results of the state returning officer of Rhineland-Palatinate, the party won 8.7 percent and four seats, on a turnout of 57.1 percent. Höchst was third on the list, after district chair Benjamin Haupt and Frank Hasenöhrl. Personal votes moved her to second place, and Die Rheinpfalz reported that she was the only woman among the four AfD councillors.

She was re-elected on 9 June 2024. The municipal election committee, meeting on 19 June 2024, recorded a turnout of 58.3 percent among 37,884 eligible voters and assigned the AfD 16.2 percent of the vote (146,127 votes) and seven of the 44 seats. Listed third again, Höchst received 7,608 personal votes, ahead of Thomas Schuh (7,413), who was second on the list, and behind only Haupt (8,202). The city's council overview dated 14 April 2026 still names her in the seven-member AfD group. The Bundestag register of outside positions lists the Speyer council seat. The narrative biography on that page, drawn from her own statements, also calls her deputy chair of the AfD Kreisverband Speyer, as Die Rheinpfalz did in May 2024.

Desiderius Erasmus Foundation

The Desiderius Erasmus Foundation (Desiderius-Erasmus-Stiftung), named for the scholar Desiderius Erasmus, is the political foundation aligned with the AfD. On 4 March 2018 its board elected Erika Steinbach, a former Christian Democratic Union member of the Bundestag who was not then in the AfD, as chair, succeeding Peter Boehringer. At the AfD federal congress in Augsburg on 30 June 2018, 323 delegates voted to recognize the foundation as the party's affiliated foundation and 171 voted against. The motion adopted there called equal access to the public grants already paid to other parties' foundations a present objective, and abolition of the party-foundation system a longer-term aim.

In the Bundestag's disclosures for the 20th electoral term, Höchst was recorded as unpaid deputy chair of the foundation's board of trustees (Kuratorium), for the association in Berlin, until 28 September 2024. The narrative biography still published for the 21st term continues to list that deputy chairmanship, but the mandatory disclosure for the current term records the Speyer council seat and does not list the foundation. Public money for the foundation was litigated by the AfD in an Organstreit. On 22 February 2023 the Federal Constitutional Court held, in 2 BvE 3/19, that the 2019 federal budget law violated the party's right to equal opportunity under Article 21(1) of the Basic Law insofar as it allowed global grants for political foundations' civic-education work without a separate statute of Parliament, while this foundation, unlike those aligned with the other Bundestag parties, received none. Parliament then passed the Political Foundations Financing Act of 19 December 2023, in force from 23 December 2023. A federal grant under that act requires, among other conditions, that the aligned party has entered the Bundestag at caucus strength in at least three consecutive terms and that the foundation is found to guarantee active support for the free democratic basic order and international understanding.