A video from the district of Sonneberg caused indignation one day after the success of the AfD in the district election. The clip shows a man with clear characteristics of the right-wing extremist scene giving away balloons in the colors of the AfD to children in a kindergarten. The video was shared by the Left Party, Katharina König-Preuss, member of the Thuringian state parliament.
The video is said to have been recorded on Monday in the Föritztal in the district of Sonneberg. The man seen in it wears a black T-shirt that reads “Wehrmacht – wieder mit” along with red and white pants. The color combination of black, white and red is also that of the German Reich flag – a sign of recognition for the right-wing scene. In addition, the car seen in the video, from which the man takes the balloons, bears the inscription “voluntary deportation helper”.
The Thuringia police thanked Twitter for the information and stated that they wanted to initiate proceedings against the Administrative Offenses Act. As “Bild” reports, the man in the video could have violated paragraph 118 (nuisance to the general public) with the imprints on his T-shirt and on the car window.
According to the German Press Agency, the kindergarten did not want to comment on the incident. The man who gave the balloons later explained in a Facebook post that it “isn’t funny anymore what’s going on around here.” He was wearing the wrong clothes, but only meant well with the children. He wanted to apologize for the clothes.
In the past few weeks, Sonneberg has become known beyond the borders of Thuringia through the election of candidate Robert Stuhlmann as the first AfD district administrator in Germany. As the anti-fascist “Rechercheportal Jena-SHK” reports, the right-wing extremist scene has been rooted in the city for a long time. For example, the local football club “SC Oberlind 06” was sponsored in 2021 by a local tattoo studio from Sonneberg, which is run by a former “Blood and Honour” squad.
Sources: image, research portal Jena-SHK, with material from DPA
