Hamburg prison official's AfD campaign sparks neutrality and abuse scandals
A senior civil servant in Hamburg’s prison service is facing scrutiny over his political campaign while still employed in a correctional leadership role. Tomáš Jan Gold, 61, heads a department at the Holstenglacis pretrial detention centre but is also running as the AfD’s lead candidate in Lower Saxony’s September 13 local elections. Questions have arisen about whether his candidacy breaches civil service rules on political neutrality.
Meanwhile, serious allegations of guard brutality and racial discrimination inside the same facility have prompted calls for reform.
Gold has spent decades in public service, including a stint as honorary mayor of Beckdorf and past membership in the CDU. Now, he is leading the AfD’s campaign for the Samtgemeinde Apensen and Stade district councils. The party’s Lower Saxony branch has been officially designated as 'confirmed far-right' by state intelligence, raising concerns about his role as a civil servant tasked with upholding impartiality.
As head of a department at Holstenglacis, Gold was responsible for addressing misconduct among correctional officers. Yet inmates at the centre have reported severe abuse, including racially motivated violence by guards. The extent of his intervention—or lack thereof—remains unclear. One high-profile case involved a Turkish drug lord who, under Gold’s watch, allegedly stockpiled nearly a ton of food and consumer goods while detained. The incident added to criticism of oversight failures within the facility. In response to the abuse claims, Hamburg’s red-green coalition government has promised to overhaul prison regulations. The proposed changes aim to explicitly ban discriminatory treatment rooted in racism or cultural bias. Despite this, the judicial authority has taken no disciplinary action against Gold over his political activities, leaving his status unresolved.
The upcoming elections will test Gold’s dual roles as both a prison official and an AfD candidate. Hamburg’s planned reforms seek to address systemic issues in its detention centres, but his case highlights ongoing tensions between civil service duties and political activism. No formal penalties have been imposed so far.
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