The town council in Heidenau, located near Dresden in the eastern German state of Saxony, voted to reject the future installation of “Stolpersteine” or stumbling stones on public streets and pavements, according to DW.com. The cross-party motion was approved by council members from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), as reported by Reuters.
Heidenau Town Council Approves Ban on Future Stolpersteine
Stolpersteine are small, concrete cubes topped with a brass plate bearing the name and life data of a victim of Nazi persecution. Initiated by German artist Gunter Demnig in the early 1990s, they are typically installed in pavements outside the last known residence of targeted individuals. The stones form the largest decentralized monument in the world, with approximately 128,000 paving stones placed across Germany and 30 other countries, as detailed by DW.com. Heidenau currently has five such stones, including one dedicated to Paul Gröger, who served as mayor until 1933, according to Yenetnews.
Arguments Surrounding the Ban and Alternative Memorial Site
Supporters of the proposal argued that many residents and relatives consider the cobblestone-shaped memorials inappropriate because they are embedded in the ground and can be walked on, covered by leaves, dirt, or rainwater, according to Reuters and Yenetnews. The measure stipulates that future commemorations should instead be concentrated at a memorial site located at the Nordfriedhof cemetery on the town’s northern outskirts, as noted by Reuters and Avpress.
The city administration opposed the measure prior to the vote, stating that a blanket ban was neither necessary for a central memorial nor justified by the proposal itself, as reported by Reuters. Gunter Demnig also rejected the alternative, stating that remembrance must remain visible where people lived to make history tangible for young people, according to DW.com. Yekaterina Kulakova, chairwoman of the Association of Jewish Communities in Saxony, warned that moving the stones to the cemetery would turn the initiative from a project of remembrance into a project of forgetting, as reported by Yenetnews.
National Outrage and Political Repercussions
The cooperation between the CDU and the AfD in passing the motion sparked widespread criticism and fueled debate over the “Brandmauer,” an informal firewall maintained by Germany’s mainstream political parties to exclude the far right from formal cooperation, according to Reuters and DW.com. Israeli Ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor wrote on X that he was ashamed by the decision and emphasized that Germany needs a clear firewall against anti-Semitism, as cited by Avpress.
German Education Minister Karin Prien, a CDU member, criticized her own party’s role in the decision, describing the ban as a scandal and stating that relegating memorials to cemeteries renders Jewish people invisible, according to BBC and Avpress. Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Jewish Community in Munich, told the Funke Media Group that she was appalled that a democratic party supported the maneuver, according to Reuters and BBC. Christoph Heubner, executive vice president of the International Auschwitz Committee, also condemned the CDU’s support as a transparent attempt to drive Nazi victims out of the city, as reported by DW.com.
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