German town bans new Holocaust memorial stones after CDU-AfD vote

The German town of Heidenau, near Dresden, has banned the installation of new Stolpersteine memorial plaques on public streets after the centre-right CDU and far-right AfD voted together to approve the measure. The small plaques bear the names of people persecuted and killed by the Nazi regime. They are usually installed in pavements outside the homes where victims lived.

Artist Gunter Demnig began the project in the early 1990s, and about 128,000 stones have since been placed in Germany and 30 other countries. Supporters of the Heidenau ban said the memorials risk being walked on. They proposed commemorating Holocaust victims at one of the town’s cemeteries instead.

Demnig rejected that argument, saying remembrance should remain visible at the places where victims once lived. He said the stones make history tangible for young people and predicted that the ban followed recent electoral gains by the AfD. The decision has prompted criticism beyond Heidenau.

Green Party co-leader Felix Banaszak called the CDU’s cooperation with the AfD a scandal and said memories of people persecuted and killed must be kept alive. The International Auschwitz Committee also condemned the decision. Its executive vice-president, Christoph Heubner, described the motion as an attempt to remove the memory of Nazi victims from the town.

The vote has revived questions about Germany’s political firewall against the AfD. Demnig criticised the CDU, saying it had abandoned values associated with its name, while expressing hope that Heidenau’s decision would remain an exception.