Germany’s far right taps nostalgia for communist East to propel election surge
The AfD is appropriating cult mopeds from the former East Germany to capitalize on a strong sense of longing for the past ahead of key eastern elections.
In Quedlinburg, a picturesque town in eastern Germany, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is leveraging nostalgia for life behind the Iron Curtain, known as Ostalgie, to propel their electoral surge. The charismatic Ulrich Siegmund, the party's regional representative, rode a blue Simson moped, a car once manufactured in the former East Germany, accompanied by hundreds of like-minded riders clad in AfD gear.
Siegmund and his supporters believe this wave of Ostalgie taps into a robust regional identity that has remained intact since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The AfD's message revolves around restoring the perceived simplicity and unity of the past, even if it means returning to the era of a communist dictatorship. Party leader Siegmund emphasized that while not everything was perfect under communist rule, the culture of the Simson moped symbolized individual freedom and unity.
The surge in popularity of the AfD party, despite its classification as an extremist organization, is evident in the polls from the upcoming September 6 election in Saxony-Anhalt. With a large rural population of two million people, the party is leading in polls and may gain real governing power for the first time since its founding in 2013.
Surveys reveal a strong regional identity in eastern Germany, with 43% of people seeing more differences than similarities between eastern and western Germans, and only 11% believing the similarities outweigh the differences. The demographic divide is also stark, with the eastern population shrinking by 16% since 1990, while the western population grew by 10%.
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