The secret meeting in Potsdam with the deportation fantasies of right-wing extremists sparked outrage across the country.
Numerous people have already taken to the streets for democracy, and further demonstrations have been announced.
Celebrities are also horrified and getting involved.
There had already been widespread protests against right-wing extremism in the 1990s.
There were many reasons: the right-wing extremist attacks in Hoyerswerda in September 1991 on a refugee dormitory, and in Rostock-Lichtenhagen in August 1992 on a dormitory for Vietnamese contract workers.
The arson attacks on the houses of Turkish families in Mölln in November 1992 and in Solingen in May 1993, when a total of eight people died.
more on the subject
Arson attack in Solingen: Memory as hard work by Wolfgang Schreiber
Murder attack in Solingen 30 years ago: Racism did not come from the East to the WestA guest article by Franka Maubach
Discussion about party ban: What we can learn from the Weimar Republic for dealing with the AfDAn analysis by Felix Bohr
During the riots in Hoyerswerda and Rostock-Lichtenhagen, the police temporarily stood idly next to the shouting mob, and politicians hardly found a word.
Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl justified his absence from the memorial service for the victims of the arson attack in Solingen by saying that he did not want to engage in “condolence tourism.”
Politically active people and artists made clearer statements: the protest concert “Arsch huh, Zäng ussenander” took place on November 9, 1992 at Cologne’s Chlodwigplatz, and the festival “Heute die!
Tomorrow you!” a few days later in Frankfurt am Main.
And in January 1993, athletes competed “with hand and foot against xenophobia” in the Frankfurt Festival Hall.
SPIEGEL asked those involved in the protests how they remembered their commitment to the right-wing back then and how society can now, three decades later, publicly resist right-wing extremism.
“You don’t need a leader” – the song was written 40 years ago.
But even today we are still wide awake and defending ourselves against the right-wing misanthropes of yesterday.
The spawn from yesterday's brown sewer can no longer hide their fascist face.
We stand up and speak out for our democracy, our constitution, for our colorful republic.
The string of lights came at a time when attacks on asylum seekers' homes, on refugees and attacks on former concentration camps had reached a terrible level.
For me and my fellow campaigners, the image of Germany as a model democracy was beginning to waver.
Society reacted helplessly, if not apathetically.
With the campaign we wanted to see whether those who shouted in front of the homes were really the vanguard of the silent majority or rather a small group.
The campaign was given the motto “Munich.
A city says no” and targeted people who had never been to a demonstration before.
The candle and the silence were intended to be a counterpoint to the cries of those who spread fear and terror at the time.
The meeting in Brandenburg now awakens the worst associations.
Not only because the possibility of deportations was apparently discussed in a linguistically disguised manner, but also because, in addition to well-known right-wing extremists, there were also people present who would previously have been considered to be part of the bourgeois camp.
With the protests now, just like with the fairy lights back then, you have to be clear that they are symbolic actions.
They alone will not push back or even bring down right-wing populism.
But the fairy lights brought about a short-term mood change.
Because the people who had previously rushed to citizens' meetings suddenly realized that the vast majority thought differently.
I believe that political action is the right thing to do now, in fact at least a new string of lights is due.
But something else has to be added to this, namely critical self-reflection: How can it be that in parts of Germany more than a third of citizens would be willing to vote for the AfD?
Could it also have something to do with blind spots in our environment?
We will only be able to keep right-wing populism in check if we win back its voters, at least in part.
Unfortunately, in the 1990s, many of the terrible things that happened were downplayed.
Many racist or right-wing extremist attacks were dismissed as “fights between young people”.
At the time, Kurt Biedenkopf said that people in Saxony were “immune to right-wing extremism.”
This proverbial blindness in the right eye has allowed structures to develop over the last 30 years, the result of which is today an extremely well-networked right-wing radical scene.
It is commendable that this danger from the right is now slowly being perceived by a broad public.
But a lot more has to happen before the European elections in the summer and especially until the state elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg in September.
Above all, it is counterproductive that some politicians from democratic parties adopt far-right narratives in the hope of slowing down the AfD.
The opposite is the case.
Which is why I think that civil society resistance against this burgeoning neo-fascist spirit is the only thing that can save us from this dark disaster.
With a lot of luck you might be able to ban a party with legal sophistication.
Yesterday's ethnic ideas, racism, and anti-Semitism, which is now almost socially acceptable again, have to be dealt with differently: on the street, in the schoolyard, in the subway, in the office, in the family, in the Bundeswehr, the police, in the Media and of course in town halls and parliaments.
I'm so happy that this right-wing breed met in Potsdam to hatch their criminal plans... and grateful that journalism still works in Germany.
Finally tens of thousands are taking to the streets!
When we took a stand against right-wing violence and xenophobic attacks in the 1990s, I never dreamed that fascists would sit with their legs apart in the Bundestag again.
I draw a glimmer of hope from the current demonstrations and Uli Hoeneß's statement that protest voters will reconsider their vote.
Hope dies last.
That was at a time when the asylum seekers' homes were burning and right-wing violence had taken on forms that were no longer considered possible in post-war Germany.
Today we have reached a tipping point because the Nazis are about to hijack our democracy.
One should urgently examine the possibility of enforcing a party ban for the AfD.
But you should only apply for it if there is a real chance of it.
If it fails, it would mean even more support for the AfD.
No blind activism, stay cool!
A really pleasing difference from the 90s is that a lot of people from so-called civil society are currently taking to the streets and calling a spade a spade.
Because it's about racism.
The people who called out the racism of reunified Germany in the 1990s were seen as spoilers.
When there were these fairy-light demonstrations in Rostock, Solingen and Mölln, they were euphemistically called “silence against hatred.”
As far as the current outrage of Markus Söder and Friedrich Merzen over the term remigration is concerned, they are at least reliable in their hypocrisy.
How do the racist stereotypes that you regularly spread differ from statements by the AFD with its population exchange fantasies, for example when the CDU leader talks about rejected asylum seekers who take away appointments from "us" in the dentist's office or when Jens Spahn jumps on the British deportation train to Rwanda want?
Even if it is not called remigration, it has been common practice for years in all federal and state governments to deport people who have been socialized or integrated in Germany to so-called home countries with which they only have a passport in common.
In African countries, the Balkans, Turkey, etc. Just on Thursday, the Bundestag decided on further restrictions on basic rights that people threatened with deportation are entitled to.
And millions of Germans whose appearance does not correspond to the Central European ideal can still sing a song about what it feels like to be ethnicized and harassed by German police officers.
It's good that a large part of the population is outraged by what happened in Potsdam and is taking to the streets to express their opinion.
It is important to note that many people are vigilant on this point.
There is a big difference today compared to the 1990s: Back then, the Nazis were stupid, loud and aggressive.
Today they still come across as stupid but more subtle and try to navigate their way through the institutions.
The same applies then as now: They are a danger to our democracy that should not be underestimated.
In 1992, around 100,000 people came to Chlodwigplatz in Cologne for the “Arsch Huh Zäng ussenander” (butt up, teeth apart) event.
Everyone was overwhelmed by the enormous rush that no one expected.
It was the first time for me that I was allowed to speak in front of so many people.
I still come across my original text “Postman” from time to time on the Internet.
The concert was of considerable importance for Cologne city society.
The fact that well-known bands and personalities came together for the first time, from Wolfgang Niedecken to Willy Millowitsch, was crucial in sending the signal that racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic riots had no place in Cologne.
They swore that anyone who expressed anti-foreigner sentiments would have to deal with our backlash.
We get our asses up and our mouths open.
The initial spark for this was the racist attacks in Rostock Lichtenhagen and elsewhere.
A similar initial spark is the meeting of AfD members, Nazis and right-wing extremist entrepreneurs and speakers in Potsdam in November and the associated term “remigration,” which evokes many associations with the Wannsee Conference.
The migrants should not be murdered, but at least they should be deported.
This can and must now result in a wave of public resistance again.
The 30,000 people who demonstrated in Cologne on Tuesday give hope that this will be successful again this time.
There will be another demonstration at Heumarkt on Sunday at 12 p.m.
I will be there too.
But this time the fight will be harder.
My impression is that racism has now seeped deeper into the middle of society than was the case in 1992.
Hatred against those who think differently is omnipresent.
Not only do we have to get our asses up, we also have to keep them up for a damn long time.
We need staying power.
Even before the European elections on June 9th, large demonstrations must once again show that the majority has recognized that our democracy is in mortal danger.
The slogan could be: “Pass op!” – “Watch out!”
When the concert “Today die, tomorrow you” was organized in 1992, we were just at the beginning with “Die da!”.
Our record company is based in Frankfurt, where the concert also took place, so they didn't have to ask us long.
We also liked taking part in things like that because we were shocked ourselves.
We grew up with grandparents who had memories of the war and saw the footage that the Allies shot after the liberation of the concentration camps.
We had the picture: Something like that can no longer happen in Germany.
And then in the 1990s there were suddenly right-wing extremist parties like The Republicans and the NPD and the attacks in Rostock-Lichtenhagen and Mölln.
The attack in Solingen only took place after the concert.
As I remember it, the consensus at the time was: If there are Nazis somewhere, then we go there and are against them.
This violence in Rostock, the evil face of the violence on the streets - of course you as citizens oppose it and say: We want peace and respectful coexistence.
But the mood back then seemed different, not as upbeat as it is now.
We had the feeling that in Rostock-Lichtenhagen these were the drunks doing the Hitler salute in front of the asylum seekers' home.
Now we have a situation in which three federal states could vote for the AfD and even in the middle of society it seems to be okay to vote for the AfD as a warning shot.
We see that the right is gaining strength across Europe.
I support the petition “Stop Höcke”: the idea of submitting an application to the Federal Constitutional Court for the forfeiture of fundamental rights in accordance with Article 18 of the Basic Law.
The post-war German government devised this measure as a response to the Nazi dictatorship.
So far, almost 1.5 million people have signed the call.
It is not important whether the application is made.
The signal is clear: at least 1.5 million people want to stop Höcke.
Just like the secret meeting in Potsdam is a signal.
The optimist in me sees that the outrage is now finally making the topic really broad.
I have been involved against the right for a long time as part of the Hamburg initiative “According to Nazis eV” and for years the problem was always: There was never enough money.
Now the issue is so big that we can no longer keep quiet about the problem and have to deal with it.
The topic is fermenting now, I think.
And that's good!
I grew up with the sentence “Fascism is not an opinion, but a crime.”
I will never forget how my mom said to me when we demonstrated together in Munich against old and new Nazis: “Look, Konstantin, there was the brown pack in the town hall, but let me tell you, the neo-Nazis still have to be much stupider than the Nazis back then, because they know how it ended." And the resistance fighter Peter Gingold said on the 20th anniversary of the Oktoberfest attack: "When I say that my parents' generation didn't prevent it, they are there for it there was only one excuse for them: they could not have the experience of what fascism means.
This apology no longer applies to current and future generations.
That’s why: Never again!”
It is high time to act together for a world without racism and fascism.
To do this, we have to come together everywhere and en masse on the streets.
We must not abandon our society to the inhumane gravediggers of democracy who are spreading in the streets and parliaments on the backs of the world's weakest people.
How could it come to this that racists and fascists are sitting in our parliaments again?
We all have to work together to keep democracy alive.
That's why, for me, there is no compromise on the so-called "refugee question", which is actually a racism problem: We have to help where and how we can!
I am an ardent supporter of the welcoming culture.
We have brought so many wars into the world that we have a responsibility to help all those who are forced to flee because of our weapons, because of our financial speculation, and because of our exploitation of the earth on which they live.
We need perseverance for our protests.
The current demonstrations can only be the beginning of our commitment to a fairer world without racism.