The activities of the AfD donor in Switzerland

Henning Conle has earned the call to be a phantom. He is one of the richest entrepreneurs in Switzerland, but there is no public picture of him. Ten years ago, the then AfD boss Frauke Petry picked up at Leipzig Airport and didn't know who she should look for. From Conles' office, she therefore received a profile of the searched by SMS: « Dark horn glasses, leather jacket, short beard, little hair ». This reported ZDF and «Correctiv».

« The AfD is finally a party that you can give your money, » Conle is supposed to According to the public prosecutor's investigation once said. He wanted to stay anonymous, but Petry didn't want to accept hidden party donations. These are prohibited in Germany. Your successor, on the other hand, is said to have searched for solutions to enable transactions.

In 2017, Conle transferred CHF 150,000 to the party – then through a Zurich drugstore. In February the « Mirror » and the « Standard »that the AfD's real estate billionaire is said to have again transferred a donation via an Austrian straw mannut. This time it is about 2.4 million euros. Both times he supported the election campaign by top candidate Alice Weidel, who lives in Einsiedeln SZ and Überlingen (D).

Now research shows that the 81-year-old is more present in Switzerland than previously known. Land register entries document its real estate portfolio. Deleted archive items report on its naturalization. His flight data suggest his center of life in Zurich. Commercial register documents show that he has invested CHF 15 million in top research in Zurich. And the statement of a Federal Council confirms that it is also networked in the Zurich SVP.

The Swiss real estate

Conle comes from Duisburg and has residence in London and Zurich. He uses this specifically to lay confusing traces. He inherited a real estate empire of social housing from his father, which he continuously expanded.

In Switzerland he comes to around 2500 rental properties that he manages through his real estate company MIWO. This includes many gray apartment blocks in which he invests little. According to the Google reviews The administration does not react if tenants complain about a defective stove or rats in the basement. Conle gives the appearance as if he is only the administrator. But land register entries show that he personally has the real estate. He usually specifies his address in England.

Henning Conle, Kensington, London – the land register entries sound as if the owner were far away. He lives next door. His main residence is in Zurich. In the 1990s he settled on the gold coast and later bought two neighboring villas on the Zurichberg; One for himself and one for his son's same name, Henning Conle Junior.

The purchased Swiss passport

Conle is considered a German citizen. He has long since been naturalized in Switzerland. This information is forgotten because it has disappeared from the Swiss media database.

For the Swiss Pass, he paid a naturalization fee of CHF 49,000. This reported the “balance” ten years ago and estimated his assets at CHF 1.25 billion. The magazine therefore led him in the ranking of the richest Swiss for years. But then he suddenly no longer appeared in the list, and the « balance sheet » deleted the archive entries – presumably after an intervention Conles.

At that time he could still argue that his wealth was a private matter. That is why he also wanted to stay in the background in politics as a string puller. At the latest his controversial roles in the donation affairs made him a person in contemporary history.

The trace of his private jet

Henning Conle wants to stay under the radar. He therefore stationed his private jet at a mini airport in the German Bremgarten, 40 kilometers north of Basel. Here he can take off undetected, but only end up with a good view. Because the airport does not have a precision alcohol.

Conle holds a Dassault Falcon 900LX through its own airline, which is always a service. Switzerland has a similar model as a Federal Council Jet, but in a simpler variant.

An evaluation of the flight data results in a movement profile. Accordingly, Conles has been heading for Zurich most frequently in recent years. Here the plane is most common for a long time. The Jet regularly commutes to Klagenfurt in Austria, where the family has a weapon smithy for hunting weapons and a hunting area including a huge forest. However, the jet rarely flies to England.

Millions for a surgeon

Conle does many business on Zurichberg. He visits the drugstore in the neighborhood, where he once won the owner as a straw man for his first AfD donation.

In the event of health problems, the couple turns to the Zurich University Clinic Balgrist, which is also located in walking distance of the villa. The Conles found their miracle doctor here.

The Mazda Farshad orthopedic surgeon develops a solution for patients who hang forward at the age of the age. He stabilizes the spine with donor tendons. So it remains movable while stiffening during conventional interventions.

The couple Conle benefited from this procedure himself and received an increased backbone – a life -changing event. The two of them should have come up with the idea of ​​promoting revolutionary technology and making other patients accessible.

In May 2024, the Conles invested CHF 15 million in Moving Spine. This is a spin-off of the Zurich University Clinic and the experiment field of surgeon Farshad. The Conles hold half of the shares after a capital increase. Henning Conle sits on the Medtech company's board of directors. His wife Dorit leads the company that invested the money. The founding capital, in turn, came from an offshore company on the British Virgin Islands.

SVP dinner in the boathouse

Henning Conle Senior and Junior are also involved in local politics. They invited top politicians from the Zurich SVP and the mother party several times to dinner in a boathouse in Stäfa on Lake Zurich. In this exclusive framework, the Conles brought their ideas into politics and networked.

At one of these meetings, Albert Rösti was there as President of SVP Switzerland eight years ago. Today's Federal Council confirms this on request and says: “According to my memory, around twenty people were present. It was a sociable get -together among party friends. » After that, as far as he knew, he no longer met Conle personally.

Henning Conle sponsored the 100th anniversary of the SVP Zurich in 2017, for which the party in the Party newspaper thanked. However, the entry in the donor list also shows that the party officials do not really understand the new financialist. He is not looking for public recognition. On the contrary: he would have loved to have been most, his name would never have appeared.

He is a counter -design to René Benko

For two years, however, Conle has been performing more in the commercial register under his own name, while he used to draw deputies. However, he prefers to do his business anonymously.

A large number of companies in Germany, England, Austria and Switzerland are part of its empire. A company structure is not recognizable, but a number of different institutions in Liechtenstein, which are managed by a trust office. For example the Thalassoleon institution. It pursues the declared goal of making selected companies independently of banks. The supported companies are supposed to become faster and more powerful on the real estate market.

Conle is the counter -design of insolvent René Benko. Where he worked with maximum external financing, Conle relies on his own money with his banking skepticism. Where he created a labyrinth anonymous stock corporations, Conle built a construct with limited partnership and collective societies. While Benko also bought speculatively sophisticated business properties, Conles wealth – in the tradition of the family – is based on rent barracks.

The biggest difference, however,: where Benko was looking for the spotlight, Conle stays behind the scenes. A phone call is greeted in his villa. There was no response to his lawyer.

Working: Ruben Schönenberger