Last year Sonneberg was the first in Germany to elect a far-right district administrator hundreds of LGBTQ+ people and their supporters are in Sonneberg for the town's first-ever Pride march to make it clear they don't agree with AfD attitudes The AfD opposes same-sex marriage and adoption You don't have permission to access the page you requested What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker This issue is preventing our website from loading properly. Please review the following troubleshooting tips or contact us at [email protected] By submitting your email, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to receive email correspondence from us Create an FP account to save articles to read later ALREADY AN FP SUBSCRIBER? 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LOGIN the rules were outlined: no alcohol on site with hundreds congregated in the town square shouting insults at the incumbent government; cracking jokes at the expense of refugees and the media; and waving a sea of German flags “Anyone who dares call us Nazis will be reported to the police,” one of the protesters shouted from a makeshift stage propped up outside Sonneberg’s City Hall a white mansion built between the world wars beckoning the crowds to join in singing the national anthem under a rainy and symbolism associated with the Nazi Party and other terrorist groups is prohibited.) is where AfD has celebrated its biggest success to date: Last year was elected as the district administrator in a runoff with 52.8 percent of the vote making Sonneberg the first county in Germany to elect a far-right candidate since the Nazi era But Thuringia’s AfD branch—where Sonneberg is located—has already been questioning the legitimacy of state institutions and asserted that the Federal Republic of Germany is not a sovereign state The Thuringia branch of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has legally classified the AfD’s Thuringia branch as “right-wing extremist,” and the federal office is now deciding whether the party may be classified as a suspected case of right-wing extremism on the national level and 2024 is a defining year,” said Olaf Sundermeyer an editor at the Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcast (RBB) and longtime expert on right-wing extremism in Germany Sundermeyer said that since the AfD was founded in 2013 Initially starting out as a euroskeptic party that primarily criticized the European Union’s handling of the eurozone crisis, the party—and its leadership—have continuously shifted toward more nationalist and populist positions, especially since 2015, when former Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed around 1 million refugees into the country The legacy and shame of Nazi Germany continue to influence the nation’s politics German society strongly rejected far-right ideologies But the economic impact of both the 2008 financial crisis and the 2015 refugee crisis have—at least partially—resulted in shifting public perceptions “The AfD has successfully managed to alter people’s perception of right-wing extremism moving it away from its historically charged stigma of Nazism and thus effectively rendering it socially acceptable,” Sundermeyer told Foreign Policy was part of the communist German Democratic Republic until reunification in 1990 Surrounded by hills in the Thuringian Forest Sonneberg’s cobblestone main street and stately houses date back to the Wilhelminian era before the First World War The nearest major highway is about a half-hour’s drive a small district capital in Germany’s state of Thuringia. Residents say that young people here struggle with drug abuse; that there are few places for them to hang out; and that public transport isn’t adequately connecting the district’s farther making it more difficult to access educational and job opportunities the country’s east has been catching up to the former West Germany in terms of economic opportunities but in Sonneberg—and throughout former East Germany—many people continue to feel acutely disadvantaged A group of young men lingering after the demonstration echoed these complaints as they chain-smoked Marlboros and packed up whistles and flags They had opted to move into practical professions—such as construction work “People call us ‘rats,’ just because we support the AfD,” one of the men said Our country gets involved in wars we don’t want to be part of and our traditions are vanishing due to mass immigration—food and energy prices have skyrocketed It’s worse than during the German Democratic Republic and we desperately need change—we need an alternative.” He paused to take a long drag on his cigarette then added: “Germany is for Germans first—we can’t help others if we’re not helping ourselves.” “It’s a possibility that the party drifts too far to the right,” he said The party’s policy platform is unabashedly far right. For instance, AfD’s stance on immigration is that “the ideology of multiculturalism is a serious threat to peace and to the continued existence of the nation as a cultural unit.” The party advocates for a “German dominant culture” based on the values of Christianity instead of multiculturalism. Africa, the party’s website states is a “house of poverty,” arguing that migration from the continent needs to be capped The group of young men in Sonneberg who spoke with Foreign Policy talked about the need for the “remigration” of immigrants they headed to dinner at the only restaurant still open: a kebab house owned by an Iraqi Kurd Their waiter was a Syrian man who arrived in Germany three years ago A coffin bearing a sign that reads “Three signs of skills shortage” in German and displays the faces of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (middle) and Economy and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck is on display during a protest in Sonneberg on Feb The desire for strong leadership is also on the rise in Germany as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues. Several of the AfD’s members have called for a separation from NATO and even the EU; many have turned to Russia arguing that Germany needs to work with its neighbors Sundermeyer told Foreign Policy that “the AfD is deeply anti-American but pro- Russian; anti-NATO and -EU but in favor of turning toward alternative government structures such as authoritarianism.” Meanwhile, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser continuously calls right-wing extremism the “greatest extremist threat to Germany’s democracy.” for all the Sonneberg residents who voted for the AfD’s candidate Sesselmann—who did not respond to interview requests by Foreign Policy—there are almost as many people who did not And unless it’s during the weekly Monday demonstrations people don’t usually flaunt their political opinions at a food stall selling bratwursts during the lunch hour and even Germany’s reunification—“before it everything was better,” several people agreed while others don’t take an interest in politics but cast their votes for the AfD regardless,” said Regina Müller a 61-year-old Green Party voter who owns an organic store decorated with anti-war slogans “what many here don’t see is that [the AfD] are wolves in sheep’s clothing.” Stefanie Glinski is a journalist based in Istanbul. She covers conflicts and crises with a focus on the wider Middle East. X: @stephglinski Commenting on this and other recent articles is just one benefit of a Foreign Policy subscription Join the conversation on this and other recent Foreign Policy articles when you subscribe now Please follow our comment guidelines The default username below has been generated using the first name and last initial on your FP subscriber account Usernames may be updated at any time and must not contain inappropriate or offensive language FP’s flagship evening newsletter guiding you through the most important world stories of the day Specialty rates for students and faculty. Lock in your rates for longer. Unlock powerful intelligence for your team. the candidate of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as Sonneberg district administrator in the federal state of Thuringia casts a spotlight on the growing fascist danger in Germany a representative of a party that trivialises the Third Reich and is made up of open fascists is taking on executive government responsibility for the first time since 1945 Sesselmann won with 52.8 percent of the vote against Christian Democratic Union (CDU) candidate Robert Köppel who received 47.2 percent and was also supported by the Social Democrats (SPD) The scenario could repeat itself in other district council and mayoral elections in the coming weeks and months the far right is now the strongest force in eastern Germany (excluding Berlin) and is the second strongest in Germany as a whole Clearly whipped up by the election success Thuringia fascist leader Björn Höcke has already put himself in play as his party’s possible candidate for chancellor in a future federal election the establishment parties reacted with a mixture of warnings mutual recriminations and covering their own tracks Thuringia’s state Interior Minister and SPD leader Georg Maier called the result a “dam breach” and an “alarm signal for all democratic forces.” The Green Party leader called the result “dismaying” and also “a warning to all democratic forces.” While Thuringia state Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (Left Party) played down Sesselmann’s success as a “democratic election,” Left Party leader Martin Schirdewan wrote on Twitter: “Uncertainty is growing & the extreme right is cooking its brown [fascist] soup on it,” but the federal coalition government had “no courage to mess with the rich” and was “giving in to the culture war.” Above all the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and Liberal Democrats (FDP) would “roll out the red carpet” for the AfD “by adopting their slogans & policies.” Schirdewan thus reveals more about the right-wing character of his own party and the role it itself plays in the rise of the AfD than he might like supported the right-wing CDU candidate Köppel in the run-off election and thus—to use the words of the Left Party leader—helped to “roll out the red carpet” for the AfD and fuel its far-right agitation and politics in Thuringia it is becoming clear that the Left Party in particular is also pushing through the interests of the “rich” and thus creating the despair and frustration that the right-wing extremists are exploiting Since its predecessor organisation reintroduced capitalism into East Germany 32 years ago the Left Party has repeatedly been involved in right-wing capitalist governments it leads a minority state government in Thuringia with the SPD and the Greens which decides and implements its social attacks with the support of the CDU Thuringia is one of the poorest federal states almost one in four children and one in three young adults is at risk of poverty that amounted to 76,770 children (23.7 percent) and 42,853 young adults aged 18 to 25 (34.1 percent) The district of Sonneberg is particularly affected by this According to data that Zeit Online “exclusively obtained and analysed from the Federal Employment Agency,” Sonneberg is ranked 621 out of all 636 medium-sized towns in nationwide salary rankings The current wages of people living in Sonneberg who are employed full-time and subject to social security contributions are 795 euros below the average German salary the gap between top and low earners has continued to widen over the last two decades the electoral successes of the AfD are not the result of a fascist mass movement According to current Deutschlandtrend polling by broadcaster ARD only just under a third of potential AfD voters were “convinced” by the party; 67 percent of those surveyed voted for the AfD “because they are disappointed by the other parties.” It speaks volumes about the right-wing character of the establishment parties that the AfD even receives antiwar votes because it criticises the NATO war against Russia The fact that the AfD won the election in Sonneberg mainly on the basis of protest votes does not lessen the perils of the situation Besides the differences with the 1930s—when the ruling class brought Hitler to power to prepare for world war and brutally suppress the workers’ movement—dangerous parallels also exist The book shows in detail how all the establishment parties ideological and political conditions for the rise of the AfD in recent years integrated the far-right party into the political system and adopted large parts of its programme themselves And it explains that the revival of German militarism and fascism ultimately has the same objective causes as in the last century “Global capitalism has not solved any of the problems that led to catastrophe in the 1930s economic and geopolitical contradictions are breaking out again with force,” wrote Vandreier With the formation of the first state government with the participation of Hitler’s NSDAP (Nazi Party) Thuringia played a central role in the rise of the Nazis as early as 1930 the state is once again a centre of right-wing conspiracy inside the state apparatus Here are just some of the most important facts On February 5, 2020, the CDU and FDP elected Thomas Kemmerich as Thuringia state prime minister with the votes of the far-right AfD As a result of an international wave of outrage Kemmerich was forced to resign and Ramelow was reelected But the deliberate strengthening of the AfD continued under the SPD-Left Party-Green minority government Only a few days after his reelection, Ramelow himself joined forces with the right-wing extremists He helped AfD candidate Michael Kaufmann into the office of vice president of the Thuringia state parliament with his own vote and boasted publicly about it He had “very fundamentally decided to clear the way for parliamentary participation which must be granted to every parliamentary group and FDP have been cooperating closely with the fascists as a glance at the parliamentary committees shows Science and Digital Society is headed by Dieter Laudenbach of the AfD (his deputy is Kemmerich) Other bodies led by the AfD are the committees for Migration Justice and Consumer Protection and for Environment The respective committee deputy chairs are recruited from the SPD and the Greens the AfD provides the deputy chair in the Prison Commission (a sub-committee of the Petitions Committee) led by the Left Party The run-off election in Sonneberg that made Sesselmann district administrator was itself part of this right-wing conspiracy hardly differed in content from that of the AfD representative Köppel was also supported by the far-right former head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (as Germany’s secret service is called) who himself was the CDU candidate for the Thuringia district associations of Schmalkalden-Meiningen Suhl and Sonneberg (!) in the last federal elections imperialism and militarism” and campaigns for a “democratic The election of the AfD will further accelerate the collaboration of the establishment parties with the extreme right The reaction of the SPD mayor of the neighbouring district town of Coburg He was “of the opinion” that it was “not his place to comment negatively on the majority decision of the sovereign citizens of the Sonneberg district or even to scold the voters,” he wrote on Facebook When it came to the joint issues of the city of Coburg and the district of Sonneberg he said he would “take Mr Sesselmann to task in a very concrete way in his responsibility for the citizens of the region.” Workers and young people who are repulsed by the rise of the AfD and the cowardly and servile collaboration of the ruling elite with the fascists must draw the necessary political conclusions from the experiences of recent years The only party that consistently fights against the growth of the extreme right and the return of fascism and militarism in Germany and internationally is the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (SGP The building of the SGP and the International Committee of the Fourth International as a new revolutionary mass party of the international working class is the order of the day The most important lesson from history is that the struggle against fascism and war requires the struggle against their cause and against all parties defending this bankrupt system It requires the independent mobilisation of the working class on the basis of a socialist programme Central Council of Jews says it is devastated by populist party’s first victory in eastern town of Sonneberg The far-right Alternative für Deutschland has won a district council election in Germany for the first time in what is being referred to as a watershed moment in the country’s politics elected Robert Sesselmann to the post of district administrator ousting the Christian Democrats’ (CDU) Jurgen Köpper on 47.2% The Thuringia branch of the anti-immigrant party has been classed as rightwing extremist by intelligence services who is considered to be part of the AfD’s far right or völkisch wing which was officially disbanded but is still widely believed to exist which AfD’s leadership said would give the party a much-needed boost in its efforts to expand its influence across Germany State parliament elections are taking place next year in Saxony Established parties from the Social Democrats to the CDU as well as civil society organisations called the result a turning point to which defenders of democracy would be forced to find a way of responding The Central Council of Jews in Germany said it was devastated by the result not everyone who voted for the AfD has a rightwing extremist mindset,” its president “But the party whose candidate they have elected is according to the regional intelligence service rightwing extremist … This is the bursting of a dam which the political powers in this country cannot simply take on the chin.” the executive vice-president of the International Auschwitz Committee “A majority of voters have turned their backs on democracy and deliberately decided in favour of a rightwing extremist Nazi-dominated party of destruction,” he said is one of Germany’s smallest administrative regions and voter participation was low at just 58% the result’s significance goes far beyond the town itself and this was being recognised across the country on Monday Political scientists called it a warning to the established parties along with other organisations such as trade unions urged voters to abandon any existing party loyalties and back Köpper in an effort to squeeze Sesselmann out of the running The AfD’s procurement of the most important political office in Sonneberg coincides with some of its strongest nationwide polling results recently Its rise in support has been at least in part put down to disgruntlement over infighting within the centre-left federal coalition government led by the Social Democrats with the Greens and the pro-business Free Democratic party as it tackles big restructuring projects in key areas from energy procurement to military strength more than double what its support was a year ago with the Greens on 13% and the opposition CDU on 26% Free weekly newsletterThe most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment The AfD was founded in 2013 by a group of Eurosceptic academics and bankers It later campaigned on an anti-immigration ticket entering the national parliament for the first time in 2017 Its focus became what it called the over-Islamification of Germany it turned its attention towards the government’s building energy law that is making its way through parliament comparing the attempts to outlaw the installation of new gas heaters to the strictures of a dictatorship It has also been critical of the government’s support for Ukraine Sesselmann called for the government of Olaf Scholz to strive for a peace agreement with Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine and opposed Germany’s military support to Kyiv While locals voiced concerns on these issues they more often cited dissatisfaction over living standards and low pay and pensions compared with their western German counterparts as well as a feeling that their backgrounds the state leader of Thuringia from the far-left Die Linke called Sonneberg’s election result “a signal of dissatisfaction” He called for a debate to “redefine the spirit of German unity in which we take east Germans with us rather than triggering the feeling that they are being laughed at or merely being talked about” We will convince the majority with our politics of showing an interest in the people This is how we will turn the tide for the better.” This is the latest installment of Public Streets, an urban observation series created by Ellis Avery and curated by Abigail Struhl And yet, this desire to know what resides inside these inanimate companions—as well as where they come from—plagued Victorians, who visited manufacturing towns and read production histories about their toys.2 Today doll-lovers still travel all over the world to uncover the origins of the doll-making industry Nowhere in Europe were more dolls born in the 19th and 20th centuries than in Sonneberg the former center of Europe’s toy-making industry like a child lost without breadcrumbs to follow lies hidden in the heart of the Thuringian forest The surrounding forest initially supported a successful wood-carving toy trade But it was the introduction of papier-mâché in the early 19th century—a technique that uses molds rather than individual wood carvings—that spurred mass production Sonneberg was well known for crafting and distributing toys of all kinds but it was particularly famed for its doll-making industry This booming production drew vendors and tourists from near and far who came to witness the origins of children’s playthings What struck Hardie as a “grim and ghastly funeral cortège” would later come to life.5 Once the subjects were given porcelain heads and (in some cases) wigs made of human hair they would be sent across the continent and into the homes (and imaginations) of children As a PhD candidate who is completing a dissertation on 19th-century dolls I wanted to see this former capital of toy and doll production While it is difficult to imagine the bustling streets and pervasive smell of glue that Hardie describes there are still traces of this long-distant production in the red-roofed town of Sonneberg: severed doll limbs lie in windowsills curling black-and-white photographs of women bent over infant-sized hands and faces molder in forgotten corners of crowded shelves and professed “doll doctors,” who tend to “sick” and broken toys In a small toy store off of Sonneberg’s main street a grainy black-and-white photograph sits on a backroom shelf What he holds is hidden behind the woman’s head while her hands are cut off by the edge of the frame What can be made out in this photograph are stacks of doll faces and torsos that surround the couple which—I suppose—the couple is hard at work putting together I am not alone in my curiosity about this place Vans filled with collectors who stayed at the toy-themed hotel by the Sonneberg train station make their way up German Toy Road This thematic “road” connects the major contemporary and historical toy production and manufacturing towns and cities from Nuremberg to Erfurt It’s a strange mix at the breakfast buffet: men in suits on business calls older couples who help themselves to cheese and rolls But we are all drawn together by a shared fascination with where and how dolls are made Many of the hotel’s guests spend a day at the Deutsches Spielzeugmuseum they seek out collector’s items at toy shops or travel to neighboring towns and villages to find more information on the history of the toy industry and its particular companies The persistent interest in the ways in which dolls are made—as well as in the place where they are “born”—is as intriguing as the place itself to animate it in the same way that children have brought their dolls to life throughout so many years and carefully preserved buildings and red rooftops that evoke accounts from visitors over a hundred years ago are all reminders of what once was guests reconvene and head to their rooms to dream of childhood and other things long gone When staying in one of the doll rooms—as I did—on the third floor dolls in glass boxes stare at you from their places along the walls This may partly be why dolls were later made to “sleep,” with eyes that close when put to bed I didn’t sleep well my last night at the toy hotel but not because of the dolls: a wild thunderstorm raged all night I thought of how—before the toy industry fully took off—Mary Shelley wrote of Frankenstein’s creature being brought to life not far from here Shelley never explicitly mentioned that Frankenstein—the young scientist who was supposedly a student—used electricity to bring his creature to life but this has been so long assumed that it’s hard not to link them together As streaks of light reached through the clouds it felt like Sonneberg was once again the center of animation that it used to be as if each flash down into the dollhouse town was a spark that could bring an object to life.  Subscribe to RSS Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information celebrates at the AfD party headquarters in Thuringia handing the party a victory in an eastern stronghold as its national support surges Essential digital access to quality FT journalism on any device Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders Complete digital access to quality analysis and expert insights complemented with our award-winning Weekend Print edition Terms & Conditions apply Discover all the plans currently available in your country See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times 3rd from left and Tino Chrupalla are photographed at the AfD election party Alternative for Germany hope to win the political party’s first-ever governing post Sesselmann has received the most votes in the first round of the run off elections BERLIN (AP) — The far-right Alternative for Germany party saw its first head of a county administration elected Sunday in a rural eastern region a win that comes as national polls show its support at record levels A runoff election in Sonneberg county pitted Alternative for Germany’s candidate who had been well ahead in the first round two weeks ago Sonneberg has a relatively small population of 56,800 but the win is a symbolic milestone for Alternative for Germany The 10-year-old party has been polling between 18% and 20% in national surveys lately Köpper’s center-right opposition Union bloc leads national polls with lackluster support ratings of just under 30% AfD first entered the national parliament in 2017 after campaigning strongly against migration following an influx of refugees to Europe during the preceding years Lately it has come out against German support for Ukraine Despite being largely shunned by mainstream parties it has established itself as a durable force particularly in the formerly communist and less prosperous east An AfD candidate made it into last week’s runoff mayoral election in Schwerin the capital of the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania one of three eastern regions that holds state elections next year Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) for the first time won a district council election as it overtook Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats in national polls sparking concerns over a broader rise of the populist party in upcoming elections AfD candidate Robert Sesselmann on Sunday won a runoff election in Sonneberg against incumbent district administrator Jürgen Köpper from the center-right Christian Democrat Party (CDU) — despite other parties like the Social Democrats (SPD) Greens and Free Democrats endorsing the CDU candidate “I’m dismayed by the result in Sonneberg,” said Green lawmaker Katrin Göring-Eckardt who is also one of the vice chairs of the Bundestag “Thank you to all who continue to fight for this county to remain democratic that she thinks Sonneberg — which is one of Germany’s smallest districts with only around 48,000 eligible voters — could not be compared to the rest of Thuringia The far right is particularly strong in the states of former East Germany which continue to experience lower employment and economic development rates The AfD currently leads in polls in the eastern states of Brandenburg all of which will hold elections next year the party has been successful in attracting voters by railing against rising migrant numbers as well as the government’s plans to boost green energy most notably by a new law that bans gas and oil heating in new buildings the President of the Jewish Community in Munich and Upper Bavaria reacted to the far-right victory in Sonneberg by saying that “the danger to the Jewish community and other minorities has long been real.” The AfD has also promoted anti-Semitic clichés, as laid out for example in a study by the American Jewish Committee Confronted by the widespread criticism that the controversy around the German government’s heating law contributed to the far-right rise Scholz’s spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit rebutted that the government has “a clear concept” for the green transition and is “on a good path Hebestreit also warned that “pitting groups against each other and perhaps also making migrants responsible for something for which they are not responsible at all is certainly not a recipe that would lead this country into a good future.” Scholz admitted in a speech last week that the green transition “will not be easy” and stressed that the government must “provide convincing answers” to citizens who are concerned about potentially costly steps in weaning Germany off of fossil fuels those who play politics with public fear and in bad temper will become even more popular,” the chancellor said For more polling data from across Europe visit POLITICO Poll of Polls Just days before his debut visit to Warsaw Chancellor-designate Friedrich Merz already hit a diplomatic snag Paris and Berlin have been at loggerheads for years Germany’s chancellor-designate is planning a European tour that could take him to Paris Zelenskyy would like to meet leaders from the so-called coalition of the willing Der Landratswahlkampf in Sonneberg beschäftigt nun auch die Polizei der AfD-Kandidat Sesselmann könnte verbal ausfällig geworden sein Sesselmann soll dem Mann damit gedroht haben ihm eine andere Person „auf den Hals zu hetzen“ Außerdem soll Sesselmann ihm gedroht haben der Mann werde in Zukunft für seine Firma keine Aufträge mehr erhalten