AfD's Attack on Bauhaus Revives Nazi-Era Cultural Repression and Threatens Cultural Freedom in Saxony-Anhalt
Source: Alexander Görlach. "Germany’s Far Right Is Attacking Bauhaus Again." October 10, 2026. jacobin.com
The Gist
The author argues that the AfD's plan to cut Bauhaus funding and require cultural groups to pledge loyalty to 'German culture' mirrors what the Nazis did in the 1930s. Because almost all culture in Saxony-Anhalt is publicly funded, the AfD could control what gets shown. He suggests this must be resisted so history doesn't repeat itself.
Conclusion
The AfD's plan to defund the Bauhaus and impose 'German culture' loyalty requirements on cultural institutions in Saxony-Anhalt is a repetition of Nazi-era cultural repression that threatens artistic freedom and must be actively resisted.
Premises
- The AfD, as the winner of the Saxony-Anhalt election with 44 percent, intends to shut down the Bauhaus Foundation and describes the Bauhaus as a 'misguided path of modernism' and un-German.
- The AfD's rhetoric about Bauhaus (e.g., Tillschneider's statement that it 'raped the human need for security and comfort') closely echoes the Nazi vocabulary of 'degenerate' art used against the Bauhaus in the 1930s.
- The Nazis closed the Dessau Bauhaus in 1932 by winning a local majority and cutting off municipal subsidies, which is the same tactic of withdrawing public funding that the AfD now proposes to apply statewide.
- The AfD proposes that all theaters and cultural institutions receiving state funding must sign a declaration of commitment to 'German culture,' and because cultural institutions in Saxony-Anhalt are almost entirely publicly funded, this would give the AfD effective control over what is exhibited and staged.
- The region was an early Nazi stronghold and the AfD's early success there suggests an ideological continuity, and the Bauhaus is singled out in order to appeal to the party's far-right voters.
Assumptions
- Similarity in rhetoric and funding tactics between the AfD and the Nazis indicates similar underlying aims and likely similar outcomes.
- Conditioning public funding on vague loyalty declarations amounts to censorship and not a legitimate exercise of democratic cultural policy.
- The AfD's stated intentions (during campaigns and in motions) will be carried out if it forms a government.
- Historical regional voting patterns indicate ideological continuity rather than coincidence.
- Because earlier protests failed in 1932, a united civil-society front is necessary to prevent a repeat.