With Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany Party (AfD) set to take more seats in European elections, cultural institutions want to counter the "extremist politics."
Even before mass protests erupted against the AfD in 2024, a cultural movement was coalescing in the struggle against the rise of the extreme right Image: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images
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As the populist, anti-immigrant AfD (Alternative for Germany) party were rising fast in the German polls in 2023, national culture collective Die Vielen (The Many) decided to act.
The alliance of some 4,500 theaters, galleries and cultural institutions had been on hiatus since the COVID-19 pandemic. But Die Vielen members saw the upcoming European elections, to be held from June 6-9 — along with local and state ballots and a 2025 federal vote — as an existential threat to the pluralist democracy that allows artistic expression to flourish.
Having initiated protests against the AfD in the run-up to the 2019 European elections, Die Vielen's new campaign, "Shield & Shine," brings grassroots art collectives and curators together with high-art orchestras, stagehands, opera houses and audiences to create culture events that double as open forums for debate.
The goal, as articulated at a campaign launch in April, is to "stretch thousands of democratic protective umbrellas over all federal states" and hence neutralize the "normalization of right-wing extremist politics in democratic parliaments."
With the AfD second in the polls, swing voters and young people, many voting for the first time, will be encouraged to join the umbrella movement — a metaphor also used by pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong.
There were huge protests against AfD party and right-wing extremism in early 2024, including in front of Germany's federal parliament, the ReichstagImage: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP/picture alliance
Many of the 5,000-odd participants were especially galvanized to sign the "Declaration of the Many" after it emerged that AfD members sat with neo-Nazis at a secret meeting in November and called for the deportation of millions of migrants from Germany — even if they held German passports.
Mass protests ensued — also in the name of "protecting democracy" — giving impetus to Die Vielen's call to fight far-right exclusion through inclusive and creative democratic platforms.
There is a fear that if the AfD become the country's second-biggest party after the 2025 federal election, there could be a purge of pro-democratic cultural voices.
In the eastern state of Saxony, where the AfD have long topped the polls, arts practitioners are already self-censoring their work in anticipation of wins in upcoming regional and state elections, noted Philine Rinnert, a Berlin-based Die Vielen board member.
One theater festival in Saxony is already under threat of losing its funding, she said. Meanwhile, curators and artistic directors are concerned they could be forced out of their jobs if their work is unaligned with the AfD's monocultural and xenophobic agenda.
Daniel Brunet, the producing artistic director of English Theater Berlin, which has been a member of Die Vielen since its inception in 2017, said AfD members in the current Berlin state parliament have been monitoring artistic institutions by requesting "itemized lists of recipients of cultural funding."
He fears potential censorship if the AfD make gains in upcoming elections. "Why precisely do they want that information, it makes us nervous," he told DW, implying a vendetta against culture organizations who promote liberal or progressive agendas.
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European elections pivotal in stopping far-right momentum
Die Vielen has planned a "Week of Action" in early June before European elections that month, where what Rinnert calls "very diverse and different art institutions" will fashion democratic umbrellas in events and performances across the country.
Brunet is anxious that far-right political factions that include the AfD, Marine Le Pen's National Rally in France and Hungarian populist president Viktor Orban's Fidesz party — who has famously made partisan appointments in state cultural institutions — could soon dominate the European Parliament.
The English Theater Berlin wants to interrupt this momentum by inspiring greater participation in elections where only about 60% of eligible voters cast their vote, noted Brunet.
He is concerned that the AfD, whose party's branches in eastern Germany including Saxony and Thuringia have been classified as "proven to be right-wing extremist" by the German intelligence agency, are running election ads featuring white people with slogans like "we'll make Germans ourselves" — as opposed to naturalizing immigrants.
AfD leaders and their most offensive remarks
Leading members of the far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party have often made provocative, if not outright offensive, remarks — targeting refugees or evoking Nazi terminology.
Image: Britta Pedersen/dpa/picture alliance
Björn Höcke
The head of the AfD in the state of Thuringia first made headlines in 2017 for referring to Berlin's Holocaust memorial as a "monument of shame" and calling on the country to stop atoning for its Nazi past. In July 2023, he echoed Nazi rhetoric by declaring that "This EU must die so that the true Europe may live." In 2019, a court ruled that it was not slanderous to describe Höcke as a fascist.
Image: picture-alliance/Arifoto Ug/Candy Welz
Alice Weidel
One of the best-known public faces of the AfD, party co-chair Alice Weidel rarely shies away from causing a row. Her belligerent rhetoric caused particular controversy in a Bundestag speech in 2018, when she declared, "burqas, headscarf girls, publicly-supported knife men, and other good-for-nothings will not secure our prosperity, economic growth, and the social state."
Image: Sebastian Kahnert/dpa/picture-alliance
Maximilian Krah
Maximilian Krah, the AfD's top candidate in the 2024 European Parliament election, has called the EU a "vassal" of the US and wants to replace it with a "confederacy of fatherlands." He also wants to end support for Ukraine, and has warned on Twitter that immigration will lead to an "Umvolkung" of the German people — a Nazi-era term similar to the far-right's "great replacement" conspiracy theory.
Image: Ronny Hartmann/AFP/Getty Images
Alexander Gauland
Former parliamentary party leader Gauland was roundly criticized for a speech he made to the AfD's youth wing in June 2018. He said Germany had a "glorious history and one that lasted a lot longer than those damned 12 years. Hitler and the Nazis are just a speck of bird shit in over 1,000 years of successful German history."
Christian Lüth
Ex-press officer Christian Lüth had already faced demotion for past contentious comments before being caught on camera talking to a right-wing YouTube video blogger. "The worse things get for Germany, the better they are for the AfD," Lüth allegedly said, before turning his focus to migrants. "We can always shoot them later, that's not an issue. Or gas them, as you wish. It doesn't matter to me."
Image: Soeren Stache/dpa/picture-alliance
Beatrix von Storch
Initially, the AfD campaigned against the euro and bailouts — but that quickly turned into anti-immigrant rhetoric. "People who won't accept STOP at our borders are attackers," the European lawmaker said in 2016. "And we have to defend ourselves against attackers," she said — even if this meant shooting at women and children.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Murat
Harald Weyel
Not all of the AfD's scandals are about racism: Sometimes they are just revealing. Bundestag member Harald Weyel was caught in a scandal in September 2022 when a microphone he clearly didn't know was on caught him expressing his hope that Germany would suffer a "dramatic winter" of high energy prices or else "things will just go on as ever."
Image: Christoph Hardt /Future Image/imago images
Andre Poggenburg
Poggenburg, former head of the AfD in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, has also raised eyebrows with extreme remarks. In February 2017, he urged other lawmakers in the state parliament to join measures against the extreme left-wing in order to "get rid of, once and for all, this rank growth on the German racial corpus" — the latter term clearly derived from Nazi terminology.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/J. Wolf
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Getting the (youth) vote out
With young people aged 16 potentially allowed to vote in future elections, the Die Vielen campaign is looking to compete with the AfD to inspire the next generation to come under the democratic umbrella of "the many."
"Real men are right-wing," Maximilian Krah, a right-wing extremist and the AfD's lead candidate in the European elections, said in one of a series of AfD posts aimed at young people on the video-sharing platform TikTok.
Could 16-year-old Germans soon be allowed to vote?
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In a bid for the youth vote — a demographic the far right have struggled to attract — Krah has cast himself as both a politician and dating expert who dolls out love advice to young men. "Real men have ideals, real men are patriots," he added in the clip. "Then you'll get a girlfriend." The video went viral.
Following complaints that Krah was also spreading conspiracy theories and racist views, TikTok restricted his channel in March 2024 and blocked some of his videos.
Still, many other clips are getting hundred thousands of views; political communication experts believe the TikTok strategy could influence the vote.
Cultural scene united against racism
For Brunet, Germany "is a beacon of hope in the EU" due to its postwar commitment to pluralism and free artistic expression, and the fact that it is a net immigrant country.
"Never again must theaters, operas and orchestras, museums, libraries, literary and cultural institutions or cinemas put their work at the service of anti-democrats and fascists," Die Vielen said in a campaign statement that referenced the Nazi era. "It is time to take a stand against contempt for humanity and the destruction of our democratic culture."
Germany: Nationwide protests against the far right
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across Germany over the weekend in support of democracy and against right-wing extremism. A demonstration in Munich had to be called off due to overcrowding.
A large crowd gathered at the Römerberg in central Frankfurt am Main Saturday to demonstrate against the AfD and right-wing extremism. Police estimated that 70,000 people showed up for the event, determined to send a signal of resistance against right-wing activities under the motto "Defend Democracy."
Image: Andreas Arnold/dpa/picture alliance
Together, not against one another
"We want togetherness!" could be read on a poster in Nuremberg, where around 15,000 demonstrators gathered in response to recent news of a meeting of right-wing circles, including representatives of the AfD, CDU and the Identitarian Movement. The meeting reportedly focused on "remigration plans" calling for the deportation asylum-seekers and German citizens of foreign origin.
Image: Pia Bayer/dpa/picture alliance
Heidelberg comes together against far right
People also took to the streets in many small and medium-sized towns. According to police, around 18,000 people marched through Heidelberg city center — more than 10% of the city's population. And in Bonn, with a population of around 340,000, 25,000 people gathered.
Image: Jason Tschepljakow/dpa/picture alliance
Demonstrations on the island of Sylt
There was also a large demonstration against the far right on the North Sea island of Sylt on Saturday. Around 1,000 islanders and guests at the popular tourist destination joined the demonstration at city hall.
Image: dpa/picture alliance
Statement against hate at Ulm Minster
Thousands of people gathered in bright sunshine at Ulm's Münsterplatz, carrying signs and shouting slogans rejecting hatred and hate speech. Police estimated the number of demonstrators at 10,000 in the southern German town.
Image: EIBNER/Duddek/picture alliance
Leipzig turns out against AfD
Protesters also took to the streets in eastern Germany where the AfD has particularly high poll ratings. According to the police, around 60,000 gathered here in Leipzig.
Image: dts-Agentur/picture alliance
Munich rally closed due to overcrowding
The response to calls to demonstrate against the far right was so overwhelming in Munich that the event had to be canceled due to overcrowding. Police had initially estimated the number of participants at 80,000. When organizers announced they were expecting around 250,000 people, police said security could no longer be guaranteed.
Image: Sven Hoppe/dpa/picture alliance
Potatoes are 'migrants,' too
This demonstrator in Munich held up a sign reading "Even the Potato Has a Migrant Background," in an ironic take on far-right "remigration plans." The word "remigration" was recently named Germany's "non-word of the year."
According to organizers, around 350,000 people gathered in Berlin over the weekend to voice their displeasure at the rise of right-wing tendencies in Germany under the motto: "Defending Democracy: Together Against the Right." Police put the number at around 100,000, including this pair of grandparents, Opa and Oma.
Image: Stefan Zeitz/Geisler-Fotopress/picture alliance
Cologne on its feet
Despite cold weather, officials in Cologne estimated that some 70,000 residents took to the streets to march against the far right on Sunday. Germany's domestic intelligence chief, Thomas Haldenwang, welcomed the demonstrations, saying that all of the country's centrist-democratic parties had recognized the seriousness of the situation.
