A plaque made of golden letters hangs in the town hall foyer of the district town of Luckenwalde in Brandenburg. “In honorable memory of the victims of war and tyranny – the citizens of the city of Luckenwalde,” it can be read there. This takes place in front of this board every year on January 27th Commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust instead, which is also anchored in federal law. A member of the city council (SVV) in Luckenwalde gives a speech in this regard. A rotation principle regulates which faction takes its turn.
This time it is the turn of the voters’ association GfL (Together for Luckenwalde), founded in 2023, to provide a speaker. The GfL has been commissioned to do this for the first time, says Jochen Neumann, the city’s mayor. “The group proposed Manuel Hurtig, who is an elected city councilor.”
The problem: Manuel Hurtig posted right-wing content on his now deleted TikTok account “germanio81”. Including a post from December 2024 in which he writes: “My bad word of the year is democracy.” In another post he used the hashtag “Remigration“. He also supported the election campaign of AfD politicians. For the 2024 state elections, Hurtig published numerous YouTube videos in which he offered Arne Raue and Birgit Bessin a platform to share their ideas. Raue and Bessin now sit in the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag.
The GfL only announced the decision for Hurtig as speaker a week ago, says Neumann. Four days later, organizations sent an open letter to the mayor and city council. The senders include the Association of Those Persecuted by the Nazi Regime – Association of Antifascists and the Center against Anti-Semitism as well as Racism and Xenophobia in the State of Brandenburg. The German Federation of Trade Unions Teltow-Fläming also joined the letter.
Protest from outside
It says: “We lack any understanding that a well-known right-wing extremist and supporter of an anti-constitutional party would give the city’s official commemorative speech Luckenwalde on Holocaust Remembrance Day.” The mayor is asked to “ensure a worthy commemoration without Mr. Hurtig or similar speakers.”
And what does the mayor say about that? “There’s nothing I can do about that. The most I could do is call the GfL and ask them to reconsider their choice of speakers,” says Neumann. When the taz asked whether he would call her, all he got was “Phew, I can try.” Personally, he thinks: “Hurtig spreads crude things. I wouldn’t put up a Nazi who commemorated the victims of the Holocaust in a speech.”
The spokeswoman for the Green Youth Brandenburg, Anna Hilsenbeck, also commented on the choice of speaker. She told the taz: “Another member who did not have a right-wing extremist background could have given the speech.” A press statement from the Green Youth states: “The promise of ‘Never again’ loses all credibility if right-wing extremists are tolerated at memorial events,” and further: “‘Never again’ means showing a clear edge – even and especially when it is uncomfortable.”