Ulrich Siegmund, lead candidate for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, took to the stage in the central marketplace of the town of Naumburg and declared there was a new “awakening” in eastern Germany. Ahead of a vital election in the region of Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday — in which Siegmund is within striking distance of becoming the first far-right leader to govern a German state since 1945 — that appeal to an eastern identity struck a chord. A young man beside me was hollering “Ostdeutschland!” although he was too young to have lived in the communist German Democratic Republic.
Not America-Germany like the West.” Elements of Siegmund’s new awakening sounded reminiscent of the old East, and his speech would certainly have played well in the Kremlin. He condemned the foolishness of supporting “corrupt” Ukraine and addressed the need to return to oil and gas supplies from Russia. East Germany formally dissolved in 1990, but it did not disappear.
Its struggles for identity within the sprawling German federal system, with power concentrated in Berlin, have fueled the ascent of the far right. If the AfD does secure an outright victory this weekend, it will raise profound questions about how chancellors such as Helmut Kohl, Angela Merkel and Friedrich Merz failed to manage the post-unification transition and prevent large parts of the east from veering off on a political trajectory toward the far right. In a generally upbeat line for sausages and beer in Naumburg, there were also some less cheery sorts in neo-Nazi T-shirts and regalia.
One of the crowd told me the government in Berlin “sends our tax money to the Jews in Israel and [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy instead of spending it here.” It is important to stress that the eastern political identity is not monochrome nostalgia for the GDR. Indeed, the AfD is repurposing the slogan of the 1989 demonstrations against communism — “Wir sind das Volk” – “We are the people” — for its own ends. That taps into memories of marching for freedom in the last days of the socialist state.
But he adds that the “people at the top don’t want us to do well — they keep us down on purpose.” A welter of internet conspiracy theories followed, including the notion that Merz and his predecessor Merkel “betrayed us — we risk our country collapsing the way the old East Germany collapsed.” Beyond the conviviality of the sausage line, the mood can sour fast — as I discovered when I sought to speak with Siegmund in Lützen, only to be told “mainstream” press were not welcome. I was roughly jostled aside, my arm twisted by a musclebound heavy flanking Siegmund, who sported an earpiece and a lavishly tattooed neck. We had a short, unproductive debate about the constitutionally guaranteed right to report freely in public places.
Another hard arm twist and shove ensued, ending with me stumbling over a curb and being dragged to a police car. No one seemed much bothered by this. At the next stop in Naumburg, another attentive policeman enjoined me to stay away from “Security Zone 1” — anywhere near the stage.
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