AfD threatens to cut funding for 'modern-thinking' culture
The far-right party could win an absolute majority in Saxony-Anhalt's state election in September. Their cultural program denigrates Bauhaus, Holocaust remembrance culture and diversity in
The far-right party could win an absolute majority in Saxony-Anhalt's state election in September. Their cultural program denigrates Bauhaus, Holocaust remembrance culture and diversity in theater. In upcoming state elections to be held on September 6, polls suggest the Alternative for Germany (AfD) could win an absolute majority in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Based on the far-right's cultural policy program, museums, theaters and cultural institutions in the region say that artistic freedom is one of the far-right party's targets. The AfD has announced that artists and institutions would be required to sign a declaration pledging "not to hold in contempt Germany and its culture" if they want to obtain state funding. Many of these organizations and individuals heavily rely on these subsidies. The AfD's interpretation of disrespect to German culture also ambiguously includes what the party calls "anti-German art." Hans-Thomas Tillschneider is the cultural policy spokesperson for the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt Image: Heiko Rebsch/dpa/picture alliance "We declared in our government program that we no longer intend to spend public funds on promoting anti-German art," said Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, cultural policy spokesperson for the AfD parliamentary group in the state legislature, in a speech held in Saxony-Anhalt's parliament in late June. Asked by other members of parliament to specify what that meant exactly, Tillschneider said, "Anti-German art is German art that doesn't want to be German." He mentioned as an example an opera production he had seen some years ago; the classical German composer's work was revisited through a "feminist deconstructivist" lens that didn't please him and corresponds to what he sees as "anti-German art." "This anti-German aversion is still considered de rigueur in large parts of the theater world," he said.
"We will no longer support this attitude — let me state that quite clearly." Bauhaus, a direct target — like in the 1930s Bauhaus, Germany's iconic architecture, art and design school founded in 1919, was forced to close under the Nazis, who considered their avant-garde ideas and their open-minded attitude to be "un-German." Bauhaus nevertheless went on to become one of design's most important movements of the 20th century; its influence is still felt worldwide. Today, the AfD once again sees Bauhaus as too modernist and globalist for the "patriotic cultural policy" the party envisions. 100 years of this iconic German design school To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video "The AfD's criticism of Bauhaus picks up on criticism from 100 years ago; their wording is similar," Barbara Steiner, director of the Bauhaus Foundation, told DW. The AfD Saxony-Anhalt's program describes Bauhaus as "a controversial school of architecture" and criticizes the current state government for putting too much emphasis on this landmark attraction in their current image campaign, titled "moderndenken" (thinking modern). The AfD aims to adopt instead a campaign called "deutschdenken" (thinking German), which would downplay the role of Bauhaus and instead "highlight the state's significant contributions to the development of the German nation — from Henry I and Otto I to Luther, Bismarck and Nietzsche." Historically loaded language The Alternative for Germany (AfD) strongly rejects comparisons to the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler, often dismissing them as trivializations of Nazi crimes. Yet in its cultural policy program, the far-right party regularly adopts the language used in Hitler's propaganda, downplays Nazi-era atrocities, challenges Germany's culture of remembrance and uses historically loaded language.
The BriefWire