Wagenknecht: Singing the GDR anthem is no scandal

BSW founder Sahra Wagenknecht considers the debate over singing the GDR anthem at an AfD event to be completely overblown. “Anyone who wants to sing the GDR anthem should sing it. Once again, people are making a scandal out of nothing,” she told the German Press Agency in Dresden. “East Germans shouldn’t let anyone take away their memory of their anthem.”

The GDR anthem was sung on Tuesday at an AfD campaign rally in Saxony-Anhalt—led by cabaret artist Uwe Steimle. AfD federal spokesperson Tino Chrupalla and the party’s top candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund, also sang at least parts of the anthem at the event in Dessau-Roßlau. Afterward, the anthem of the Federal Republic of Germany was also sung. 

Critics say this trivializes the GDR

The incident drew criticism. Evelyn Zupke, the commissioner for victims of the SED, criticized what she called a “trivialization of the GDR.” For those who fell victim to the system, such a disregard for history is unbearable. Saxony-Anhalt’s Commissioner for Coming to Terms with the Past, Johannes Beleites, spoke of a lack of respect for the people who risked their lives or accepted long prison sentences for the sake of freedom and democracy.

Wagenknecht Considers the AfD’s “Eastern Profile” Uncredible

“The fact that, given today’s media and public opinion climate, more and more people are forced to think back to GDR conditions is the real scandal—not that people are singing an anthem,” Wagenknecht countered. The AfD’s internal divisions on this issue show that its “Eastern” image is hardly credible. “Weaving through traffic on a Simson,” she added, referring to the AfD’s exploitation of the GDR moped.