Full Breakdown
Heidenau Council Bans New Stolpersteine Memorial Plaques
By Drooid · · How we work
Core Decision
On September 25, the city council of Heidenau in Saxony voted to reject any future applications for Stolpersteine—small brass “stumbling stones” that mark the last residence or workplace of Nazi-era victims. The motion, submitted jointly by members of the right-wing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) together with the “Oberelbe Alliance for More Democracy,” passed in a secret ballot with 13 votes in favor, six opposed, and one abstention. Under the resolution, new plaques may only be placed at a designated memorial site in the town’s northern cemetery, rather than embedded in public streets or sidewalks.
Background & Context
The Stolpersteine project was created in the 1990s by German artist Gunter Demnig and has become one of the world’s largest decentralized Holocaust-remembrance initiatives. Each brass plaque bears the name and fate of an individual victim and is set into the pavement at a location linked to that person. Heidenau currently hosts five installed stones, the first of which was placed in 2021 outside the town hall to commemorate Paul Gröger, the city’s first mayor who was removed by the Nazis, imprisoned in 1933 and died by suicide on August 27 1933.
Criticism & Opposition
The International Auschwitz Committee condemned the motion as an effort to push Holocaust victims out of the city centre and criticized the cooperation between CDU and AfD representatives.. Charlotte Knobloch, head of a Bavarian Jewish regional association, also expressed dismay at the democratic party’s support for the AfD-backed measure.
Verbatim Quotes
- “I am appalled that a democratic party has chosen to support such a transparent manoeuvre by the extremist AfD,” — Charlotte Knobloch — Charlotte Knobloch, head of a Jewish regional association in Bavaria.