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Students and teachers in the classroom (symbolic image)
Photo: picture alliance
On Monday, fresh graffiti was emblazoned in orange letters on the wall of a Ravensburg high school: “AfD lessons, no thanks.”
As the “Schwäbische Zeitung” reported, the message is intended for the teacher Andreas P.
The 58-year-old AfD official teaches social studies at the school - and appeared at a demonstration against a refugee home in nearby Salem in December.
An anonymous letter that is available to the “Schwäbische Zeitung” and is said to have come from students establishes a connection between the current protest and the recently announced alleged meeting between AfD politicians and right-wing extremists: “Last week, research by › Correctiv has announced that important representatives of the AfD are meeting with other right-wingers and people with a lot of money to plan their racist utopia.
We find that frightening and don’t want this idea at our school!”
Teachers taught “not according to the party book, but according to the educational plan”
According to the newspaper, the writers also mentioned a demonstration against a refugee home in Salem, which was organized by the AfD Bodenseekreis district association, of which Andreas P. is a member of the board.
He is also said to have spoken there at the lectern.
The flyer for the event on December 9th talked about an alleged “population exchange” in Germany, which, according to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, was a narrative from the New Right, according to which the “native” population was supposedly being replaced by immigrants.
The 58-year-old left a query from SPIEGEL unanswered.
The deputy headmaster, Bernd Vogt, told the “Schwäbische Zeitung” that teachers taught “not according to the party book, but according to the educational plan.”
As usual in such cases, he filed a complaint for damage to property.
For reasons of privacy, he could not provide any information about whether there had been complaints about the teacher's work in the past.
Teachers are obliged to “inform, but not agitate”
A spokesman for the Tübingen regional council explained in response to SPIEGEL's query: "We currently don't know where the graffiti and the anonymous email come from.
Authors may also be people from outside the school community who want to get involved.«
Teachers are obliged “to inform, but not to agitate.
So it's okay to say: 'Climate policy is an important issue for the Green Party', but not to say: 'If you're interested in climate policy, you have to vote Green'."
Outside of class, a civil servant has the opportunity to get involved politically.
»You can also be a member of parties, but you are obliged to exercise a certain degree of moderation.
Because they are civil servants, they are not allowed to represent extremist positions or positions that are directed against the free-democratic basic order.
“At the moment” membership in the AfD is not prohibited.
»Anyone who gets involved in the AfD without making extremist statements is allowed to do so.
This is the private area.”
As the “Schwäbische Zeitung” reports, school principal Vogt announced that he would use the graffiti “as an opportunity for an exchange.”
The idea of implementing a democracy week at the school arose in initial discussions.
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