“Something has changed since the elections in Thuringia”
“The artist Gunter Demnig has been laying stumbling blocks in memory of the victims of the Nazi era for 21 years. Following the elections in East Germany, he and his team have noticed a change.”
Björn Göttlicher, a photo-journalist/author, wrote this article for online arts magazine RiffReporter. In October 2024, he asked Gunter Demnig : “Are you afraid that the situation with right-wing radicalism will get worse in Germany?”
Demnig replied: “Something extreme has happened. The outcome of the elections in Thuringia is well known. Since the elections, we’ve had so many requests for stumbling blocks that we can hardly keep up. So things have turned around. People want stumbling blocks. And it has already happened that stones are torn out. But it’s in the per mille range. Out of 113,000 stones, around 950 have been torn out or damaged. And when something like that happens, we replace them as quickly as possible.”
*****
The 2024-2025 elections in Thuringia
In the state election in Thuringia in September 2024, 32% of Thuringian citizens voted for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, whose aim is to preserve Germany’s “Christian Western culture” by removing people of other religions and cultures.
In the federal election on 23 February 2025, the result was even clearer: in the federal state of Thuringia, where Themar is located, 38.7% of citizens voted for the AfD, and the highest number of votes (almost 47%) were cast in the district of Hildburghausen, which includes Themar.
It was the votes from the eastern states of Thuringia and Saxony that enabled the AfD to achieve almost 20% of the vote across Germany. Both are former communist-ruled states that have struggled to achieve socio-economic stability since the reunification of Germany.
The results in Themar and the surrounding area are alarming: in September 2024, 42% of Themar residents voted for the AfD. The result of the federal election on 23 February 2025 was even clearer: in Themar itself, almost half of the inhabitants (48.7%) voted for the AfD. The rest of the votes were spread across 10 parties. In the surrounding villages that are important to Jewish families, the figures were: Berkach, 36.8%; Bibra, 40.2%; Marisfeld, 58%. “Since 2017,” writes a colleague, “our society seems to be moving in a direction reminiscent of the end of the ‘Weimar Republic.’ If we don’t succeed in shaking people awake in the next four years, we will repeat this unspeakable history.”
How can we help to shake people awake?
In Themar, the association “Themar trifft Europa/Themar meets Europe” will continue its activities to commemorate the former Jewish inhabitants of Themar with the annual memorial events on January 27 (liberation of Auschwitz) and November 9 (Kristallnacht).
And the laying of Stolpersteine/Stumbling Stones will continue when Gunter Demnig’s workshop makes it possible! In November 2024, when I met Gunter in Muschenheim in Hesse, we promised to meet again in Themar—that will probably be in March 2026! and I will be there with family members.
A change in this website
This website will support all activities that the association, “Themar trifft Europa/Themar meets Europe,” undertakes to “wake people up.” We will continue to highlight the voices of former Jewish families and current residents in Themar. And we will start to include pages such as this that will provide an overview of current events in Themar, the surrounding villages and the state of Thuringia.
In the 15 years of its existence, thousands of people have visited this website. Significantly, most of the visitors come from German towns. Many contact me with questions and comments because they would like to learn more and/or contribute additional information and materials. I often receive emails that begin with the words “Hello, my name is…” Family members have met one another for first time through the website and then in real time in Themar.
And as always, there is an open invitation to the descendants of the Jewish families of Themar to come to Themar. Groups of descendants have been coming to Themar every year since 2008.
We welcome questions and comments. Please contact:
Sharon Meen, Website curator at [email protected]
and
Sabine Müller, President, Themar trifft Europa, at [email protected]