Right-wing culture war: Cancel culture, but for real

With the keywords “homo propaganda” and “left-wing indoctrination,” the East German theater is becoming the target of right-wing culture warriors. The threats have long been reflected in the cultural policy of the municipalities. The most recent example is a theater production about the resistance group “White Rose”. At the Burattino Theater in the Erzgebirgskreis, young people dealt with the Scholl siblings, oppression and contradiction.

While the students in the interview with MDR-Kultur emphasize the parallels to the present and warn against the shift to the right, their peers from a 10th grade class in Stollberg describe the performance and the subsequent follow-up discussion as left-wing indoctrination. In a statement from the Cultural Education Company (KBB) of the Erzgebirgskreis and the Burattino Theater affiliated with it, it is said that students and their parents complained to a non-attached district councilor after visiting the theater.

One trigger was that the moderator Jakob Springfeld “violated his duty of neutrality” “and sometimes spoke disparagingly about certain citizens, groups and parties and unambiguously suggested ‘which parties their parents would soon have to vote for and which not’,” they say it in the press release. The anti-fascist author wrote on Instagram that the microphone was taken away from him for this reason: “Here, the memory of Nazi resistance is called ‘left-wing radical indoctrination’ – vomit.”

The demand for neutrality usually only relates to dealings with parties, but is not the same as value neutrality. Here, on the basis of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, it should be remembered that the AfD state associations in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia are certainly right-wing extremist associations with an anti-democratic orientation. Retreating to apparent neutrality under pressure from the right leaves the people who oppose anti-democrats in the lurch. “The AfD is no longer needed because the climate of ducking is already coming from conservatives,” asserts theater teacher Falko Köpp, who was involved in the production, on MDR-Kultur.

The Stollberg school class in question was not only bothered by the follow-up conversation. Her complaint about the performance also found open ears. In one scene, the image of Hitler alternated with that of Björn Höcke, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping in a classroom. In a meeting between the KBB and the theater, it was decided that this slideshow had to be deleted in order to “preserve the obligation of neutrality and to protect the personal rights of third parties.”

Not only through artistic freedom, but also through current court rulings, equating Höcke with a fascist would be more than guaranteed. The case in Stollberg shows once again that one should not rely on the state and its funding in the fight against fascism. Offers for children and young people, as well as political education in particular, are specifically attacked by the right-wingers, who thus advance their anti-democratic project.

The precarious funding situation in particular makes it difficult for democratic initiatives to continuously maintain their work, according to the Otto Brenner Foundation’s 2024 study on “the extent and causes of right-wing threats to political education in Saxony.” In addition to the demand for sustainable funding structures, private donations and… practical commitment is central to ensuring continued existence.

The more local district administrators are filled with members of the AfD or representatives of the “Free Saxony”, the more urgent independent sources of financing become. As always: Support your local Antifa and support the comrades in the province. So that anti-fascists like the Sonneberg group against Nazis, which no longer acts publicly on Instagram after too many threats of violence, can continue their work. Another instrument is a ban on the AfD.

Last year, the unveiling of the production “Lecken” from the Wildwechsel youth theater festival drew attention to the right-wing culture war in Saxony. The Chicks* collective experienced a huge backlash in response to its invitation, including from the neo-Nazi party Der III. Path that wanted to recognize “homo propaganda” in productions about queer sexuality. In the hostility documented by the collective on Instagram, queer hostility is combined with threats against the members.

After the Plauen-Zwickau Theater unexpectedly lost a source of funding, it canceled the hostile production. This produced a celebrated victory for the right. The theater now wants to remedy the situation with the “Theater Week for Tolerance,” in which diversity and queerness will be on the agenda in performances and discussion events from August 26th to September 1st.

However, there is no guest performance by the Chicks* in the program. They felt abandoned by the theater in the wake of the hostility and festival exclusion. Only after a legal dispute did the collective receive fees for the canceled performance. Further attempts at mediation with the theater have so far been unsuccessful. Institutions that support the “Declaration of the Many,” which calls for the fight against the right, have so far lacked practical strategies to protect their artists.

Responding to the demands of right-wing culture warriors does not strengthen the supposed political center, but rather the anti-democratic forces. Instead of appeasing, theater must create an anti-fascist and socially progressive space through artistic freedom. Theaters and youth clubs in the province are an important contact point, especially for young queer and left-wing people. A legal dispute with the AfD and other anti-democratic parties is also worthwhile. However, theater that is not accused of “left-wing indoctrination” or “early sexualization” is not worth it.

As always: Support your local Antifa and support the comrades in the province.

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