It was April 17, and three days had passed since the annual commemoration of the liberation of Buchenwald. The wreaths laid during the public ceremony still lay in what was once the “Appellplatz,” the place where this concentration camp’s inmates were forced to stand twice a day for counting, and also the site of many public hangings. Between 1937 and 1945, around fifty-six thousand prisoners died at Buchenwald, from political prisoners to Jews, Sinti and Roma, gay people, and — mostly Soviet — prisoners of war.

Among the wreaths in the “Appellplatz,” it was possible to see those presented by all the parties with representation in the regional Thuringian parliament. All parties but one, that is: the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). It has been forbidden from attending public events at Buchenwald since 2017, although members can visit the site in a personal capacity.

Faced with this ban, the radical-right party has presented itself as a victim of undemocratic exclusion. However, a quick appraisal of the public statements of the AfD’s leader in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, should suffice to understand why the party is not welcome here. In a speech in Dresden in 2017, Höcke, who is also a powerbroker within the AfD’s national leadership, referred to Berlin’s monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe, claiming that “Germans are the only people in the world who plant a monument of shame in the heart of the capital.” He called for a 180-degree turn in Germany’s remembrance culture.