AfD lawmaker seeks to reshape Germany's postwar identity

• AfD lawmaker Hans-Thomas Tillschneider advocates for a shift in Germany's postwar identity and remembrance culture.
• Tillschneider argues that the focus on the Nazi past has created a 'guilt cult' and weakened German identity.
• He proposes revising school curricula to emphasize figures like Bismarck over Hitler and to 'celebrate the fact that you're German.'
• The AfD's governing blueprint for Saxony-Anhalt includes plans to change history lessons and redirect cultural funding.
• The party aims to honor soldiers' sacrifices in both world wars, not eradicate memorials to Nazi crimes.
• The AfD is currently leading in polls for the Saxony-Anhalt state election.

Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, a lawmaker for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Saxony-Anhalt, is emerging as a key figure in the party's efforts to reshape Germany's postwar identity and its approach to historical remembrance.

Tillschneider has described Germany's culture of remembrance, or Erinnerungskultur, as a 'zombie' and a 'guilt cult' that instills self-loathing and weakens the German Volk. He argues that the continuous reckoning with Nazi crimes has damaged national identity, leaving Germans vulnerable to 'globalist' forces like the EU and the U.S.

Ahead of the Sept. 6 election in Saxony-Anhalt, where the AfD is leading in polls, Tillschneider is the main author of the party's governing program. This program aims to 'stabilize' German identity by revising school curricula and redirecting cultural funding. Tillschneider has indicated a desire to shift history lessons to focus 'more Bismarck, less Hitler,' and to 'spread the joy of being German.' While not intending to erase lessons on Nazi crimes, the emphasis would change, diminishing the past's contemporary urgency.

The AfD's program also proposes cutting funding for 'anti-German art' and developing 'patriotic tourism.' The party states it will fund and restore monuments that 'honor the sacrifices of soldiers' in both world wars, emphasizing that recognizing this sacrifice is a sign of a 'patriotic turnaround.'

Tillschneider, a former university lecturer with a background in Islamic studies and a past association with the AfD's now-dissolved Der Flügel faction, believes that eastern Germans are more open to this shift in identity due to their experience with political system changes after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He suggests that western Germans have been 'stewing in the same soup for 80 years.'