Right-wing activities in Germany Mayor in Brandenburg sends out a call for help - now she is being insulted
The so-called Third Way is active in various places in Brandenburg.
Image: dpa
At a small demonstration on the market square, demands for the mayor's resignation are voiced.
Image: dpa
The group of demonstrators is small.
Image: dpa
Right-wing stickers can be found in many places in Spremberg.
Image: dpa
Spremberg is also known as the "Pearl of Lusatia".
Image: dpa
Spremberg's mayor Christine Herntier has published an incendiary letter on the rise of right-wing extremism. (archive picture)
Image: dpa
The so-called Third Way is active in various places in Brandenburg.
Image: dpa
At a small demonstration on the market square, demands for the mayor's resignation are voiced.
Image: dpa
The group of demonstrators is small.
Image: dpa
Right-wing stickers can be found in many places in Spremberg.
Image: dpa
Spremberg is also known as the "Pearl of Lusatia".
Image: dpa
Spremberg's mayor Christine Herntier has published an incendiary letter on the rise of right-wing extremism. (archive picture)
Image: dpa
The mayor of Spremberg has shaken many people up with an incendiary letter against increasing right-wing extremism. Her critics, however, believe the small town has been unfairly pilloried.
23.07.2025, 21:47
23.07.2025, 21:48
dpa
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- The mayor of the town of Spremberg in Brandenburg has publicly lamented the rise of the far-right scene.
- Now Christine Herntier is facing protests and calls for her resignation from the public.
The lamppost near the school is emblazoned with a sticker from the small right-wing extremist party "Third Way": "Deutschland den Deutschen" (Germany to the Germans). Not far from there, stickers from the "National Revolutionary Youth" on a traffic sign. Everyone in Spremberg notices how this has increased, says Mayor Christine Herntier. People are sitting in her office hours full of fear and anger about the right-wing activities in their town, some in tears. You can't just let that happen, says Herntier. And we can no longer remain silent about it.
The independent businesswoman, who has been mayor of the small town of 22,000 people in south-east Brandenburg since 2014, has been causing a stir nationwide for days with her incendiary letter on the rise of right-wing extremism. Now she has asked the town council to discuss the issue. The majority of citizens believe Herntier has their backing. But at the meeting of the 27 city councillors, she also receives some rebuttals.
From the ranks of the AfD came the accusation that the mayor was damaging the city's image. In general, the phenomenon described by Herntier is a "marginal phenomenon", says AfD MP Michael Hanko. "I think they were just some stupid guys." He takes sharp aim at the mayor: during the summer break, he says, it will be examined whether a deselection procedure should be sought.
Calls for the mayor to resign
Criticism of Herntier can already be heard in the morning on the market square, where a small group of protesters has gathered. Some are calling for Herntier's resignation. Here, too, it is said that the mayor has damaged the town's reputation. "As a citizen of the town of Spremberg, I feel pushed into the right-wing extremist lane by her appearances."
This does not reflect well on the town, says one participant. She was not afraid of right-wing extremists here, but of men who had arrived. The problem at schools is not right-wing extremists, but foreign youths. Another woman says that the city is being dragged into the mud. She had never heard that there was a right-wing extremist scene here.
Herntier puts up a fight
Herntier puts up a fight in the town council meeting. "Will the problem go away if we don't name it?" asks the mayor at the meeting. Crimes such as anti-constitutional symbols and incitement to hatred are unacceptable and we have to take joint action against them. She shows pictures of right-wing graffiti and posters. "Who likes it when we greet guests at the station like this?" asks Herntier, who was last re-elected in 2021 with more than 60 percent of the vote.
Many in the town council have signaled their support. Once the right-wing youth culture has taken root, the town will have right-wing violent criminals in three, four or five years, says town councillor and social worker Benny Stobinski (voter group "Die Spremberger"). "Then we'll have these baseball bat years." It was right to make the development public, says Stobinski.
"Right-wing extremist land grab"
Time and again, constitutional watchdogs point to a right-wing extremist scene, especially in southern Brandenburg. Attacks by right-wing extremists were reported in Spremberg more than ten years ago.
Lorenz Blumenthaler from the Amadeu Antonio Foundation - whose aim is to strengthen civil society and curb right-wing extremism, racism and anti-Semitism - sees "right-wing extremist land grabs from the right-wing extremist playbook" in the region. This refers to the occupation of spaces: cheap real estate in the region affected by the coal phase-out is being bought up, public spaces are being marked as territory with posters and stickers, for example, and young people without many leisure options are being targeted.
"Talks with the German youth"
The "Third Way" communicates this quite openly on its homepage. "Talks with local German youth have reinforced our actions," writes the right-wing extremist group according to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. There is increased interest among young people.
Blumenthaler says it is "a militant, strictly hierarchically organized neo-Nazi formation" with a leader principle and Nazi ideology. It offers young people ideology, martial arts, but also "culturally ethnic events" such as midsummer celebrations. The group has established itself in an environment in which the AfD is also strong. In the federal election in February, the AfD achieved 45.5 percent of the second votes in Spremberg.
The town is not an isolated case
It is clear to the expert that Spremberg is not an isolated case. The Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution also sees this. According to their findings, the number of right-wing extremists in Brandenburg reached an all-time high last year. A total of 3,650 people were recorded - almost a fifth more than in the previous year. Four out of ten right-wing extremists are considered to be violence-oriented.
Blumenthaler sees the coronavirus pandemic as an accelerator of developments over the past five years: It is an existential crisis experience that has seemingly legitimized the self-declared resistance against "those up there". Young people had experienced powerlessness during the lockdown and at the same time had plenty of time for Tiktok and co, where the AfD and other right-wing groups were strong.
In search of a recipe
But what can stop the trend? "I'm happy to admit that we haven't found the right recipe yet," says Mayor Herntier recently on ZDF. "But it's certainly wrong to pretend that none of this is happening." She is hoping for insights and new starting points from constitutional protection officers, who have announced their intention to meet on Friday.
