Germany's AfD plans to discipline state leader after disputed speech about Holocaust Memorial

Bjoern Hoecke of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AFD) addresses supporters at the party's final elections campaign rally for the upcomming Saxony-Anhalt state elections in Magdeburg, Germany, March 11, 2016. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

BERLIN (Reuters) - The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) will discipline one of its state leaders for criticising Berlin's Holocaust Memorial but will not expel him over the episode, the party's co-leader said on Monday.

Bjoern Hoecke, AfD head in the eastern state of Thuringia, stirred anger across Germany with a comment about the memorial when he told party members in a speech in Dresden last week: "Germans are the only people in the world who plant a monument of shame in the heart of the capital."