Postcard from Germany’s Anti-Fascist Rallies

Over the weekend, the German people — or at least huge numbers of them — pushed back loudly, visibly and in great numbers against right-wing extremism. And as I happen to be in Germany right now on assignment for The Tyee, I took advantage to join in. If you need a dose of hope amid your doomscrolling, surf away from the New York Times and google the German news reports.

Almost 200,000 citizens in 100-plus cities filled the cobblestoned streets and town squares, marching forcefully and chanting loudly. In the compact city of Freiburg, 25,000 people flooded the streets, and my local friends confirmed that it was the city’s biggest demonstration in decades.

The countrywide demonstrations — last weekend’s, and more in the coming weeks — are a response to the rising popularity of the AfD, or the Alternative für Deutschland party — in particular, the leaked discussion of its proposal for mass deportation of citizens of foreign origin.

The AfD does not hold power in Germany — yet. But its popularity is spiking so quickly that mainstream politicians and pundits are wringing their hands about whether and how its upward trajectory can be stopped.

I’m heartened that the popular response appears to be visceral, well-co-ordinated, peaceful, demographically and racially variegated, and massive. And as the protesters’ signs make clear, they do not want their country’s history to repeat itself. “Nie Wieder ist Jetzt” (Never Again Is Now) and “Nazis wahlen ist so 1933.” (Nazi voting is so 1933.) Other signs, in shorthand: “FCK the AfD” and “FCK NZS.”

They concluded the march at Freiburg’s wide-open plaza known as the Platz der Alten Synagoge, where the city’s main synagogue was destroyed in the Nazi-led Kristallnacht in 1938.

Human rights can require a precarious balancing act. A smattering of signs bore the Star of David. Elsewhere, a contingent of demonstrators held up Palestinian flags and emblems. The lead banner read: “Antifaschismus heiß auch Solidarität mit Palästina,” or “Anti-fascism also means solidarity with Palestine.” Next to it, a protester held up a sign that read, in English: “I’ll see you nice white people at the next pro-Palestine march, right?”

I suppose it’s a rhetorical question, but my answer would be: probably not. But I’ll be proud to march in the next pro-ceasefire or pro-peace demonstration.

In some ways my favourite sign simply read: “Work Hard and Be Nice To People,” a slogan first made famous by British graphic designer Anthony Burrill. The slogan bearer turned out to be British-born, Nigerian-raised Freiburg resident who left Britain after Brexit and now might be expelled from his current country of residence — if the AfD keep gaining ground.

“It just means work hard in whatever you can do,” he clarified to me, asking that his name not be published. “Work hard for peace, work hard for the economy, work hard as a volunteer.” As he himself seems to be doing.

We don’t have an AfD-equivalent party on Canada’s West Coast — at least, not yet. But come the next federal election, we could be in for a shock. Here in our smug, ostensibly progressive corner of the world, we might want to keep an eye on what’s happening in Germany, and maybe we should all be taking notes.