Frohnmaier married Daria Tsoy, a Russian journalist who wrote the pro-Kremlin Izvestiya story about him and his AfD colleague, less than a year after the April 2017 Russian strategy document and campaign support letter, which described securing him as "our own absolutely controlled MP," were drafted. On allegations: Petr Bystron faces money-laundering prosecution over alleged payments tied to a Kremlin-linked propaganda outlet and leaked documents show Russian officials deliberately cultivated AfD's Frohnmaier as a Bundestag candidate as early as 2017. These are prosecutorial and documentary matters, distinct from ordinary policy disagreement, and most remain pre-trial or under investigation.
This pattern of German-Russia entanglement predates the AfD. Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder who was recently spotted in Moscow, built a close personal friendship with Vladimir Putin during his chancellorship, then moved into senior roles at Russian state energy firms, including chairman of Rosneft's board and chairman of the Nord Stream AG shareholder committee, keeping those posts even after 2022. The Nord Stream pipelines, the flagship of that cooperation, were bombed in September 2022; the identity and motive behind the attack remain formally unresolved despite years of investigation, and it's often cited by critics of Western Ukraine policy as evidence that outside powers had an interest in permanently severing German-Russian energy ties. Matthias Warnig, who led Nord Stream AG before Schröder's committee and later became Nord Stream 2's CEO, is a former officer of East Germany's Stasi secret police who served at roughly the same time Putin worked there for the KGB, giving the pipeline project a direct personal link between Cold War-era East German intelligence and the Kremlin. Schröder's case shows elite German-Russia entanglement cuts across party lines and predates the AfD, rooted in Germany's older Ostpolitik tradition of change through trade, separate from any AfD-specific criminal allegations. To keep Germany and Russia separated it is being reported that "Germany is preparing for war" as well as the British.
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Germany's Factories Are Preparing for War
September 9, 2026 | By Martin Armstrong
Germany’s industrial empire is dying before our eyes. Volkswagen's Osnabrück auto plant may be converted into a defense-production hub, with Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems serving as the anchor partner. A factory that once manufactured vehicles for the civilian economy may soon produce components for air-defense systems as Germany abandons commercial prosperity for a war economy.
The Osnabrück plant employs roughly 1,800 people. The proposed arrangement involving Aurelius Capital and the state of Lower Saxony may preserve approximately 1,400 jobs, but the plans have not yet been finalized. The politicians will celebrate this as a victory because they measure success by whether a worker remains attached to a payroll. They ignore the far more ominous transformation taking place. Germany can no longer compete effectively in the auto market, so it will borrow money to manufacture weapons for wars its people never demanded.
Volkswagen possesses enough excess capacity in Europe to produce approximately 500,000 more vehicles annually than it can sell. The company has approved another 50,000 job reductions, on top of roughly 50,000 already underway, bringing total planned cuts to around 100,000. That is nearly 15% of its global workforce of approximately 650,000 people. VW also intends to cut its model lineup in half and is considering alternatives for four German factories as production programs expire.
The Osnabrück conversion is therefore not some isolated modernization project. It is a potential blueprint for recycling the remains of Germany's automobile industry into the machinery of war. Volkswagen is shrinking because demand is weak, costs are excessive, and Chinese manufacturers are taking market share. Berlin will now redirect idle factories and skilled workers toward defense because military demand can be manufactured politically and financed without regard to profit.
VW’s after-tax earnings reportedly fell 30% during the first half of 2026. First-quarter net profit declined 28% to €1.56 billion, while revenue slipped 2% to €75.7 billion. Sales in China dropped around 20% during the first quarter as companies such as BYD continued taking market share from the German manufacturers that once dominated the Chinese market.
Germany surrendered that advantage through arrogance and political interference. The country built its postwar prosperity upon affordable energy, engineering, chemicals, machinery, automobiles, and exports. Berlin destroyed access to dependable Russian energy, closed its nuclear plants, imposed Net Zero costs, and allowed Brussels to suffocate industry beneath environmental regulations. The same politicians then expressed shock when production moved abroad and German goods became uncompetitive.
The numbers show a structural decline that can no longer be concealed. Energy-intensive industrial production fell 15.2% between February 2022 and March 2026. Total industrial output declined 9.5% over the same period. German industrial production in July 2026 fell another 1.1% from June and stood 1.6% below the level recorded one year earlier. Automotive production collapsed 9.2% in a single month, while capital-goods production declined 3.4%.
Germany suffered two consecutive years of recession, with GDP contracting in 2023 and 2024. The economy managed growth of only 0.2% in 2025, supported partly by household consumption and government spending rather than a genuine industrial revival. Germany may post stronger numbers in 2026, but even that recovery is increasingly dependent upon massive government expenditure.
The private economy is being replaced by the state. Berlin plans to spend approximately €649 billion on defense over five years. Military expenditure is expected to rise toward 3.5% of GDP for core defense, while the government has also established a €500 billion infrastructure fund and relaxed constitutional borrowing restraints. Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil now argues that Germany cannot defend itself without new debt. The government is preparing to borrow hundreds of billions because its productive base can no longer finance the ambitions of its political class.
Please go to Armstrong Economics to continue reading.
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The great ocean power faces off with the great land power:
The German AfD sovereigntist Weidel faces off against the German globalist foot soldier Merz who looks weak, nervous and lackey programmed:
So be it:
Lavrov Says 'Start Of Real War' Emerging As Russia Deepens Diplomatic Freeze With Germany
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