The town of Heidenau, near Dresden in Saxony, has decided to ban 'stumbling stone' memorials, which commemorate Jews and other victims of the Holocaust. This decision has sparked criticism across Germany. Education Minister Karin Prien stated in an interview with newspaper Bild that the ban is a 'scandal.'
Since the 1990s, many towns in Europe, including Germany and Austria, have installed small brass plaques, known as Stolpersteine, in memory of Holocaust victims, often placed outside their former residences or workplaces and funded by donations.
The ban was voted on by councillors from the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party and the conservative CDU in Heidenau. The AfD has been classified as extreme-right by German intelligence, a designation the party disputes. The town council's motion indicated that many citizens felt this form of commemoration was inappropriate.
The council proposed that memorials should instead be located at the city's Nordfriedhof cemetery to prevent direct access to the memorial elements.
Minister Prien criticized this decision, stating, 'Anyone who banishes Stolpersteine and memorial sites commemorating Jewish life from public spaces to the cemetery is prioritising death over life and rendering Jewish people invisible once again.' She also noted that her own CDU party in Saxony shares responsibility for the decision.
Charlotte Knobloch, a Holocaust survivor and president of the Jewish Community in Munich, expressed her disapproval of the ban, stating that removing memorials from public spaces is 'completely the wrong approach.' Although she does not support the stumbling stones, she emphasized the importance of decentralized remembrance in shaping a genuine culture of remembrance.
In Munich, there are no Stolpersteine on municipal land, but the city permits memorial plaques on public buildings. Gunter Demnig, the artist behind the Stolperstein project, remarked that the recent electoral successes of the AfD made this decision somewhat predictable. The AfD has recently achieved significant victories in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, with some branches classified as right-wing extremist by domestic intelligence, a label the party rejects. Their anti-immigration and pro-Russian agenda has gained traction in the former communist eastern regions of Germany.