“Why doesn’t anyone tell Nazis what they think?”

How do you deal with it?

It’s pure coincidence that the minister’s long-planned visit to Themar should coincide with the nationwide discussion surrounding the right-wing demonstrations and riots in Chemnitz. But the journalists who traveled from Berlin also benefited from the opportunity to meet the committed citizens of Themar and the surrounding area from the “Alliance for Democracy and Openness at Kloster Veßra.” After all, they can report firsthand what it’s like when thousands of right-wing extremists descend on the city every year, and how difficult it is to cope with them.

Of course, there are also local residents who say that the right-wing extremists left everything tidy after their concerts. What bothers them more is that all this back and forth isn’t putting their town in a good light in public, and that some people might even unfairly label them as Nazis. “You have to talk to the people,” says Mayor Böse. He himself hasn’t been attacked by the people of his town for participating in the protests.

“Not accepted”

Interior Minister Maier says: “The poison of the right has certainly seeped in.” This is evident, for example, in the votes for a right-wing extremist candidate in this year’s district election. “What we haven’t succeeded in doing so far is mobilizing civil society,” Maier says. This is especially important in light of the events in Chemnitz. With a tough stance, in which concertgoers arriving in Chemnitz are sometimes even checked for worn tires, the state is trying to take a “clear stance” and send the signal “that right-wing extremists are not accepted here,” Maier says.

Offsetting is not possible

What makes matters worse, says Barbara Morgenroth of the Alliance for Democracy and Openness, is that people are quick to downplay the situation and claim: “The left is much worse.” When the alliance confronted the far-right with 193 white wooden crosses, symbolizing the officially counted victims of right-wing violence since 1990, the question immediately arose: “And where do you have the cross for Susanna?” (This refers to a 14-year-old girl from Mainz who was killed at the end of May; an Iraqi asylum seeker confessed to the crime.) Such things can never be balanced against each other, says Mayor Böse: “It’s always about a human life.”

But converting right-wing extremists – that hope has probably been abandoned long ago. Even Hildburghausen’s district administrator, Thomas Müller (CDU), expressed his surprise in Themar: “Among the concertgoers are people from here. Why doesn’t their neighbor from their village tell them what they think ? If the apple tree extends too far over the garden fence, they’ll end up in court!”

A lot of bureaucracy

Maier points out that right-wingers these days often come across as very bourgeois and very “normal.” It’s not for nothing that there’s a pub run by a neo-Nazi in the neighboring town – at a time when many businesses elsewhere have closed.

Thomas Jakob from the alliance adds: “If we don’t take care of the young people, the right-wing will.” These committed citizens also know that they’re dealing with a scene on the other side that has access to a healthy financial budget – something that can’t necessarily be said of the democracy projects. Federal Minister Giffey and State Minister Holter also noted in Themar: “They do their projects, we do our projects, but too little is being done in terms of practical work on the ground.” Above all, Sabine Jakob reports, however, it’s necessary to be able to react more quickly. The campaign with the white crosses, for example, was preceded by months of applications. “We don’t know when they’ll come back.”