For One Far-Right Politician, Forgetting Germany’s Past Just Got Harder
For Mr. Ruch and his fellow artists, the answer is clear: People like Mr. Höcke deserve “not one millimeter.”
“He broke the mother of all taboos, he challenged the founding narrative of modern Germany
and he got away with it,” said Mr. Ruch, who was born in Dresden and now lives in Berlin.
“We wanted to remind Mr. Höcke that he can turn German history however much he likes, it doesn’t change,” said Philipp Ruch, co-founder
of a Berlin-based artist collective known as the Center for Political Beauty and, at least on paper, Mr. Höcke’s new neighbor.
Mr. Höcke, a history teacher turned local chief of the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has called the village his “refuge” and “locus of inspiration.”
But behind its idyllic facade, Bornhagen reflects the new, confusing reality of a Germany where polite political consensus and demographic homogeneity are breaking down, and where the intimate and ideological live side by side.
BORNHAGEN, Germany — No one in the village saw it coming, least of all Björn Höcke, a quiet
and well-liked local father of four who also happens to be Germany’s most notorious far-right politician.
Overnight, said Silvia Rinke, who has voted for the left-leaning Greens all her life, “we have become the Nazi village.”
Ms. Rinke, who offers guided tours in medieval garb, says tourists are asking less about the region’s rich history, and more about Mr. Höcke.