Far-right firebrand Hoecke draws crowds in eastern Germany

Hoecke was greeted with rapturous applause as he appeared at a rally to drum up support for the far-right AfD in the town this month ahead of a key regional election. Hoecke, 52, a former history teacher, is the head of the AfD in Thuringia, one of three former East German states going to the polls in September. The location of the rally was calculated -- the AfD caused a sensation in Sonneberg last year when it secured its first district administrator position there in all of Germany. Now, the...