What the AfD’s Victory Means for Culture in Eastern Germany

On September 6, the far-right German party Alternative for Germany (AfD) won a state election in Saxony-Anhalt for the first time, taking 43.8% of the vote. 

Securing 39 out of 83 seats in the state parliament, it fell just three seats short of an absolute majority. The result is historic: since German reunification, no party has ever secured a larger vote share in a state election in Saxony-Anhalt.

Alongside the anti-immigrant, pro-Russian proposals AfD made during the campaign, they also promised to radically change the German cultural landscape. Its manifesto for Saxony-Anhalt calls for a ‘new, patriotic cultural policy’. Public funding, the party argues, should primarily support art that contributes to the “formation of German identity”. Recipients of public funding should also demonstrate a “minimum level of loyalty” to the democratic polity, the state of Saxony-Anhalt and the “German cultural nation”.

Such a policy would represent a significant shift in the principles governing public cultural funding in Germany, which rest on artistic quality, accessibility or the social significance of a project. 

Invoking artistic freedom, the AfD has rejected accusations of censorship. Critics, including the minister of state for culture Wolfram Weimer, however, argue that tying public funding to the content or ideological orientation of artistic work risks undermining that very freedom. 

Reflecting Historical Identity 

The implications could extend across large parts of the cultural sector. In architecture, the AfD calls for public buildings to “draw on an established architectural tradition” and “reflect historical identity”. The Bauhaus in Dessau, although a cornerstone of German 20th-century architecture, doesn’t fit the criteria. The AfD parliamentary group in Saxony-Anhalt described it as an “aberration of modernity”.

Bauhaus building in Dessau, exterior view. Photo: JensKunstfreund, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Germany’s public policy of confronting and commemorating the dark chapters of its history is also at stake. The party wants to place greater emphasis on what it calls the “positive, identity-forming periods” of German history, including the German Empire and the national and liberal movements of the nineteenth century.

Earlier this year, Deutschlandfunk Kultur reported that the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt had called for funding to the German Lost Art Foundation, which researches cultural property looted during the Nazi era, the colonial period and in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), to be withdrawn.

In June 2026, the AfD filed a motion seeking to make state cultural funding conditional on a commitment to “German national culture”. It was rejected on the basis of the freedom of the arts as guaranteed by the German constitution.

Concerns from the Culture Sector

As the AfD’s plans were made public, a broad alliance of cultural institutions in Saxony-Anhalt began speaking out.

In April, 27 foundations and cultural institutions issued a joint statement warning against subjecting art, culture and historical remembrance to nationalist ideals and prescribed notions of identity. By the end of the month, another 40 organisations had signed the appeal, bringing the total to 67.

The signatories included the Kunststiftung des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, the Memorials Foundation of Saxony-Anhalt, the Luther Memorials Foundation and the Museums Association of Saxony-Anhalt, alongside a number of theatres, museums and cultural centres.

They warned that political interference in artistic content and institutional programmes could threaten both the openness of their work and a democratic culture of remembrance.

The statewide network of cultural funding associations, representing around 680 associations and friends’ groups, also expressed its support for these concerns.

In May, organisations representing visual artists added their voices. The Federal Association of Visual Artists (BBK Bundesverband), the Deutscher Künstlerbund, the International Artists’ Committee, the IGBK (International Association of Art) and GEDOK (Association of Communities of Artists and Art Supporters) stressed the unrestricted freedom of the arts, the principle of keeping cultural funding at arm’s length from the state, and the independence of professional juries. They argue that public funding for culture must not become a mechanism for rewarding political loyalty or excluding art that a government finds objectionable.

The AfD’s victory turns Saxony-Anhalt into a political test case. The party may now have the opportunity to pursue its cultural agenda from within the government. 

Whether it will be able to implement it is another matter. Many of its proposals raise constitutional questions, particularly where the state would be expected to allocate arts funding according to political or ideological criteria.

What is at stake is a larger question on the role of culture in a democratic society. Should it serve as an instrument of political identity or should it remain a space in which different identities, histories and perspectives can be explored and made visible? Furthermore, who gets to decide what a society remembers, what it values – and what its culture is for?