So, yesterday evening I went to pick up my daughter from her evening class at the Weimarer Mal- und Zeichenschule (Weimar Painting and Drawing School, founded by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Anne Amalia, and Duke Carl August in the late 1700s) and she says
“Daddy, there's a demo, let’s go!”
She learned of the demo from her instructor, an artist on the faculty who comes from the Middle-east, I don’t know from where, but his name is Arabic and he was also going to the demonstration.
And I say, “Really? OK, then!” (even though it’s a school night) I didn’t really know that it was planned.
If you don’t know what this is about, check out my detailed diary of the incident from when this first broke:
Also check out PQuincy2014’s first diary ever on the backlash happening here in Germany:
So, … we’re walking and we see students from the Bauhaus University with placards and we decide to follow them. We end up on the Wielandplatz (named after the poet Christoph Martin Wieland) and wow, there is a shit-load of people here.
It’s personal for my daughter. Her best friend is a beautiful little girl, born in Germany, whose parents are from Nigeria. Her deskmate and very good friend at school is Muslim. My daughter always brings Gummi bears, going out of her way to purchase the ones without gelatine to share while also respecting her friend’s religious dietary requirements. So many of her peers are what here is termed “multi-kulti” and she doesn't want to lose any of them.
Unfortunately, these current events have sparked questions about Hitler and the National Socialists that I am not qualified to speak about. That is because there is a specific, pedagogical method of introducing children to the horrors of the Shoah and it starts in 5th grade, next school year for her.
Nevertheless, she has questions, especially since Buchenwald is six kilometres up the road and she is realising that it isn't just a nice forest on a low mountain in which to let our brown lab run. We had a look at some of the pictures and she was horrified but even more determined. But maybe I should have waited for the professionals to introduce the subject, I don’t know.
Of course, being out late on a school night turns out to be OK when one finds oneself accidentally standing right beside the headmaster of one’s school. He was happy to see us and when I mentioned that we would be out late on a school night, he replied directly to my daughter: “You’re going to learn more here than we could ever teach you.”
The speakers were on fire. Lot’s of students speaking from both the Bauhaus University and the world-renown Franz Liszt Higher School of Music where many quality musicians, conductors, and composers study from all over the world. One of the speakers made the point (paraphrasing):
We have some of the best musicians studying here. From all over the world. When they graduate they go home and take a bit of Weimar with them. We export our culture through these wonderful musicians world-wide. And those assholes want to take that all away!
OK, Now This is Important!
You may or may not know that we’ve been having strikes and demonstrations from German farmers country -wide. With their tractors, they’ve been blocking streets in Berlin, blocking autobahn off-ramps and exits, and here, driving through the streets blowing their horns. They are protesting the taking away of diesel subsidies, which is part of the climate program and has to happen eventually, but it was done ham-fisted and too much of an economical shock. The farmers just could not afford to grow food without the subsidies. The government reinstated the subsidies but we still have protests.
The AfD is trying to co-op the demonstrations, just as they did with the anti-vaxxers during COVID. They took their cue from the US President (when America sneezes, Europe catches the flu). Now they are really trying to grow their base in agriculture. However we saw this last night.
OK, now the bad guys
We left early, after the speakers were finished — we had to take our lab out and it was getting late but my daughter got a taste of demonstrating and demonstrating for all her friends (and probably us as well, once they get through their lists of deportation). But as we walked home through the Theaterplatz, there was a larger Polizei presence and I first thought, why all of the German flags? Until I saw AfD banners.
My daughter wanted to go quickly and didn’t want me to take pictures but I got a few.
The crowd was considerably smaller, maybe a couple of hundred
All in All it was a Win
There were so many more people on our side than theirs — and this is eastern Germany where the AfD is expected to take the state government in September.
Now I have a bit of hope, however faint (or as Gandalf would say, only a fool’s hope) that people are finally waking up to the threat and perhaps, just maybe if enough people vote, we can stave off an AfD victory in September.
So, as a dual citizen, I have two civic duties come September
1. Vote in our German State elections
2. Vote absentee for Joe Biden and down-ticket Dems.
I hope this diary inspires you and encourages you to
GET OUT THE VOTE: THE WORLD DEPENDS ON IT!