+++ UPDATE +++
Reply from Mayor Dieter Spürck of 30 April 2019
“Dear Mr Tromm,
dear Dr. Adler,
first of all I should like to state clearly that I share your view that antisemitism cannot be tolerated.
Indeed, the party Die Rechte is currently campaigning in the European elections with “election slogans” that can be interpreted ambiguously. As early as spring 2016, posters of the party appeared in Saxony-Anhalt with the election advertisement: “We don’t only hang posters! We also stick stickers!” Corresponding investigations by the public prosecutor’s office on suspicion of incitement to hatred were discontinued. The extent to which the statement “Stop Zionism: Israel is our misfortune! Put an end to it”, which likewise appeared on an election poster, fulfils the offence of incitement to hatred can also not be established beyond doubt. In a decision of the Higher Administrative Court for the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia of 14 May 2018, 15 B 643/18, which concerned the slogan “Never again Israel” in connection with an assembly, the Higher Administrative Court ruled that it was not apparent that this slogan violates the criminal offence of incitement to hatred. In the same decision the court set out that this slogan also does not constitute a direct danger to public safety and order.
Even if it is not easy, exaggerated and polemical slogans must also be accepted.
The boundaries are repeatedly tested and stretched ever further, particularly by the party Die Rechte. The state under the rule of law is called upon to protect democracy. In doing so it must not permit itself the exaggerations with which it is itself confronted. Action against the posters, or their removal, would have to be justified on the basis of a criminal offence or a violation of public safety and order, since it would constitute an interference with freedom of expression or with the privileged status of political parties.
It was, however, precisely the ambiguity of the posters that prompted me, as early as 2 April 2019, to inform the police and the Staatsschutz with the request that they examine the matter and, where appropriate, take further steps.
Kind regards
Dieter Spürck”
+++ Our letter of 15 April 2019 +++
“Dear Mayor Spürck,
the Kolping town of Kerpen is rightly proud to be the twin town of Auschwitz, to commemorate the November pogrom night every year and to maintain a lively school exchange. This serves to work through and to remember the incomparable, cruel injustice and the misanthropy during the 12-year fascist dictatorship of the National Socialists in Germany.
It is all the more distressing that the party “Die Rechte”, with its election posters and information stands, not only mocks and indirectly denies the death of six million Jews in Germany in an abhorrent way, but also adopts the diction of the former National Socialists with altered phrases. Whether “Europe awake”, which is reminiscent of “Germany awake”, or “Israel is our misfortune”, a clear variation on “The Jews are our misfortune”, as well as the lie that the Shoah denier Ursula Haverbeck is in prison because of supposed “freedom of expression”. All this, and also the associated demand for vigilante justice and the death penalty on their poster with the slogan “We don’t only hang posters”, is not only unbearable for Jews, but should give every normal citizen cause for the greatest disquiet.
WerteInitiative has established itself as a civil-society Jewish voice in Germany since 2014. We work to strengthen the values of the free democratic basic order from a Jewish perspective. We do this by promoting values-based political, social and media discourse, civic Jewish engagement in Germany and the German-Israeli relationship.
We therefore urgently ask you to examine which legal measures make it possible to take these posters down and thus to banish incitement to hatred, antisemitism and Shoah denial from public space.
We point out that we will publish this letter and also any reply from you.
Yours sincerely
Aviel Tromm
Member
Dr. Elio Adler
Chairman
WerteInitiative e.V.
jüdisch-deutsche Positionen”
