Heidenau bans new Holocaust memorial 'stumbling stones'

The town of Heidenau, near Dresden, has banned new Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) on public streets, with the center-right CDU and the far-right AfD voting together to stop the installation of new memorial plaques bearing the names of Holocaust victims.

The Stolpersteine are comprised of a concrete cube with a metal plaque on top that bears the victim's name. They are often seen in German streets, installed just slightly higher than the surrounding walking surface, often near the houses of people targeted by the Nazi regime.

German artist Gunter Demnig started the project in the early 1990s. While most of the 128,000 such paving stones were installed in Germany, they have also been placed in 30 other countries affected by the Nazi regime, making them the largest decentralized monument in the world.

The initiators of the Heidenau ban argue that, while remembering Holocaust victims is an essential task, the placement of stones leads to "passersby walking over or even stepping onto the names of the victims." They suggested honoring Holocaust victims at one of the city's cemeteries instead.

Demnig, now 78, has rejected this argument. The artist said that remembrance must be visible where people used to live, and that stumbling stones make history tangible for local young people. At the same time, he said he saw the ban coming due to the outcome of recent state elections in Germany.

"After the electoral successes of the AfD, something like this was completely expected," Demnig was quoted as saying by the DPA news agency. He expressed hope that the Heidenau ban would remain an exception and pledged to "push on now more than ever" with his work.

Demnig also accused the center-right CDU (Christian Democratic Union) of abandoning Christian values. He said the party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz "should maybe drop the C" from their acronym "because they have dropped Christianity already."

Many others also responded with outrage to the CDU's decision to join forces with the AfD to pass the motion. The move comes with Chancellor Merz already facing a political crisis over his party's poor electoral performance, and raises questions about the political "firewall" against the far right which mainstream political parties in Germany have maintained to keep the AfD out of power.

On Friday, one of the top two leaders of Germany's Green Party, Felix Banaszak, described the move as "a scandal."

Banaszak pointed to the current debate on right-wing extremism and the rise of the AfD, saying that everything must be done "to keep alive the memories of those who were persecuted and killed."

The International Auschwitz Committee also slammed the CDU support to the motion as scandalous.

"This is a transparent and despicable attempt to drive Nazi victims in Heidenau out of the city once again and dispose of them where, according to the AfD, their memory has belonged a long time ago — at the cemetery," said Christoph Heubner, the organization's executive vice president.