A Red Line for the Blue Wave

The AfD uses symbols and rhetoric to lay claim to East Germany’s democratic revolution while borrowing governing instincts from the authoritarian state it condemned. A recent rally exposed that contradiction—and the limits of “Ostalgie” as the party pushes for power in the East.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is known for invoking the past to advance its future. Prominent members have been convicted of using Nazi slogans in speeches, and the party regularly co-opts rhetoric from the 1989 Peaceful Revolution that ended communist rule in East Germany, painting itself as the modern torchbearer against an unjust system. The AfD has been the country’s most popular party in the polls for several months, but its stronghold remains in the eastern states that comprised the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), where decades of state repression and undemocratic processes continue to impact politics. With elections next month in two of those states, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the AfD sees an opportunity to finally net a seat at the governing table. In Saxony-Anhalt, the party leads the polls, with 41%, putting an absolute majority within reach.

With the election fast-approaching on September 6, Saxony-Anhalt has been inundated with campaign events ahead of the vote. One AfD rally in the rural town of Dessau-Rosslau recently made headlines after Uwe Steimle, an actor and cabaret artist, when asked by AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla to sing the national anthem, launched into a rendition of the GDR anthem instead. As the first notes of “Risen from the Ruins” hit the crowd, Chrupalla shook his head and repeatedly voiced his disapproval. But he quickly laughed off the switch, as did Ulrich Siegmund, the party’s lead candidate in the state, and began to sing along.

The incident garnered swift criticism from government and the public, with the Federal Parliamentary Commissioner for the Victims of the SED Dictatorship in East Germany condemning the singing and all satirical glorification as a “trivialization of the GDR”. Chrupalla, despite obvious irritation in the moment, claimed that the East German anthem expressed the hope of its citizens, and the event should not be “artificially scandalized” after the fact. Steimle, who is being investigated in Saxony-Anhalt for inflammatory remarks made during the rally about chancellors Friedrich Merz and Angela Merkel, defended his choice of hymn, asserting that “everyone was singing along”. The AfD has not made an official statement on the matter.

The controversy is only the latest instance of the party’s contradictory relationship with GDR history and culture. The AfD views the firewall enacted by mainstream parties to preclude any official cooperation with the far right as an act of voter suppression, akin to East Germany’s sham elections. The AfD also frequently invokes the Peaceful Revolution’s “We are the People” chant for their campaign posters and at rallies, linking East German freedom fighters and the party’s policies. In 2024, in conjunction with the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the AfD published a statement which called the Left Party a “renamed SED”, the East German communist party. The press release went on to warn against extremist left-wing violence and terror.

These assertions come despite right-wing extremism being, by far, the greatest cause of political violence in Germany. In addition, more than half of AfD state chapters have been deemed certified rightwing extremist or are under investigation. The party nonetheless continues to rhetorically position itself as a defender of both democracy and the legacy of the East German people. In practice, however, portions of the AfD’s party platform, particularly in Saxony-Anhalt, come straight from the SED playbook: control of state media programming, dismissal of “disloyal” civil servants, restructuring the education system along ideological lines, and restriction of artistic freedom. Even if the AfD were to achieve an absolute majority in Saxony-Anhalt in September, the German constitution would prohibit large swaths of this agenda from coming to pass. But the party’s all-encompassing ideological drive to shape the state according to its worldview is a parallel of great concern in itself, particularly for those who have lived through it before.

To sing an anthem glorifying an unjust state while simultaneously invoking the legacy of those who fought against it highlights a paradox of the AfD in the East. At the same time, the sharp criticism this episode has attracted, including that from prominent eastern Germans, demonstrates that “Ostalgie”, or nostalgia for the GDR, has its limits. The rally in Dessau-Rosslau is unlikely to substantially impact voter perceptions before the election. The AfD, now enjoying a 17-point lead over its closest competitor, will still certainly win the most votes. But if the hypocrisy this incident highlights is enough to put an AfD absolute majority out of reach, the party will sing a new tune come September.

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