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The trip to the resistance will be comfortable, promises a certain Steffen in a crown denial chat on the Telegram messaging service. “We traveled from Dresden in large coaches,” he writes, “with air conditioning and a bathroom on board!” There are more than ten buses, including those from Pirna and the Metallic Mountains, “peeing and smoking breaks” are planned on the way to Berlin. They want to be in the capital at 9 am “They are from the AfD,” Steffen writes, “but they also take other patriots with them.”
He is not the only one of the Telegram group that exchanges travel options to Berlin. Many others offer or seek carpooling from Saxony, many other chat members are from Stuttgart, Heidenheim, Aalen and Schwäbisch Gmünd.
Protest against tourists from the Saxon mountains and the Stuttgart area
On Wednesday, the Bundestag and the Bundesrat decided to review the Infection Protection Act. Opponents of the crown’s measures had been announced across the country. On social networks, via Telegram and at events of the “lateral thinking” initiative, blockades were sworn in the government district. The police expected several thousand participants in advance. The central event at the Brandenburg Gate in the immediate vicinity of the Reichstag building was already closed at noon and hardly anyone had adhered to the hygiene requirements. The police used water cannons. Protesters stoned officers according to police information with bottles, stones and firecrackers.
“Reluctance and protest have matured in Erzgebirge and Stuttgart for years.”
Political scientist Michael Lühmann
It is not a coincidence that the protest tourists came mainly from the Saxon Mountains and the Stuttgart area. The two regions are the “Bible belts” of the Federal Republic of Germany, says Göttingen historian and political scientist Michael Lühmann – “Reluctance and protest have matured here for years”.
In the US, the term “Bible Belt” refers to those biblical regions in which evangelicals have an impact far beyond their congregations in political and social life. The Dresden area and the Ore Mountains in Saxony, as well as the Stuttgart area in Baden-Württemberg had similar structures, says Lühmann.
Resistance of the “Pietkong”
Although the old GDR had razed everything ecclesiastical, a very active, conservative-Protestant community life was preserved, especially in eastern Saxony and the Ore Mountains, according to Lühmann. “The churches here are still very full and they are an important social actor.” Like its Saxon counterpart, Stuttgart is also embedded in a historically developed pietism. There is even talk of the Swabians – analogous to the communist Viet-Kong – of the »Pietkong«.
Both regions are united by resistance to modernity and a defense against everything outside. A study by the Bertelsmann Foundation says that recognition of diversity and social cohesion has been much less pronounced in Saxony for years than the national average. In a regional assessment for Baden-Württemberg, the values for social cohesion in Stuttgart and East Alb are also lower than in the rest of the state.
Evangelical traditionalism alone does not explain the desire to mobilize for protests against crown policy. It also includes years of experience in rebellions, especially with the protests of »Stuttgart 21« and the Islamophobic marches of »Pegida«: the people of the regions have created a special form of resistance identity. In Erzgebirge there is even a separate word for it: “fischelant”. It means: stay alert, keep suspicious.
Stuttgart and Saxony are united by the attitude of principal against
The Christian joins the insurgent, says Lühmann: “The movements in Saxony and Stuttgart meet through constructions of common enemy images.” What the protesters like to denigrate as the “mainstream green left” is concerned.
A wide variety of issues have fueled discontent in recent years, be it equality between women and men, acceptance of same-sex marriage, handling the climate crisis, or gender issues. Dealing with the corona pandemic is just the latest version. It is an attitude of principal against.
In the end, it’s not really about the issue at all, says Lühmann, it’s about criticizing the elite. “The resistance is completely unrelated to the current issue, the protesters just need a vehicle against statehood.”
Nazi comparisons and deliberate false reports
Much of this mistrust of the state could also be seen at rallies in Berlin on Wednesday. Already in the run-up to the planned infection protection law it was raised about “lateral thinking” channels and right-wing extremists.
In fact, there are criticisms of the law. The opposition criticizes the fact that it is implemented too quickly and fears that the government will find it even easier to pass parliamentary decisions. In the orbit of the protesters, however, the law was quickly reinterpreted as the “Enabling Law” simply because the legal term “Empowerment” appears 13 times in the legal text. It is thus placed on a par with the Enabling Act of 1933, with which the Nazis abolished the republic.
The false report also deliberately spreads that Health Minister Jens Spahn is planning mandatory vaccinations with the law. Much of the protest against Corona’s measures has to do with alleged child protection. Rumors are circulating that schoolchildren have already suffocated under the mask, an eleven-year-old girl had to read a statement at a demonstration that she had “felt like Anne Frank” at the secret children’s birthday party.
The focus on children is not accidental. It is about defending a set of conservative Christian values, women raise their children at home, the little ones must be protected from all external influences. In the past, the alleged “precocious sexualization” in school lessons was the red rag, now forced vaccination is alleged.
Prayer meeting against “Satan’s plans”
One of the groups that is promoting this is the “Christians in the Resistance”. According to his own statements, his prayer meetings for “spirit-filled Christians” take place mainly in Swabia, in the Ore Mountains, along the Rhine and around Berlin. In online sermons, the group describes the anti-crown measures as “Satan’s plans” and fables about people who would be enslaved.
Christian network with AfD branch
Citizens across Germany are suffering from Corona’s measures. But especially in Dresden and Stuttgart, the unease turns to anger. And that’s also due to the AfD. Officially, the party is nondenominational, in fact, especially in its early days, it sought to join forces with evangelical congregations and advocates of German “Bible belts.” For years, right-wing populists have been raising doubts about the state and democracy in countries.
“It’s about doubting democracy and tearing it to pieces.”
Political scientist Michael Lühmann
The AfD was embedded from the beginning in a network of conservative Christians and the new right-wing media. Above all, Sven von Storch played a key role here. Bundestag member Beatrix von Storch’s husband created an ultra-conservative world of ideas through the Stuttgart “Demonstration for All” that closely connects Christianity with party politics. Not surprisingly, the AfD had early strongholds in the 2013 federal elections in the electoral districts of Swabia.
In the end, it’s about creating a movement to the right of the center that is working on the overthrow of the state in the streets and in parliaments, says Lühmann. The actors of the movement are “always looking for new crises”, Corona is only the latest version. “It is about questioning democracy and smashing it,” says the political scientist.
“Stand firm”
A look at their Telegram chats shows that the protagonists of the anti-corona rallies in Berlin on Wednesday had exactly that in mind. On Wednesday the spirits were stirred there. One writes about the demonstrations that this “is not a game”, it is absolutely necessary to get to the closed Bundestag. “Stand firm,” motivates another.
A member of the chat says, compared to what will still happen, “August was a child’s birthday.” At that time, participants in an anti-crown demonstration briefly managed to storm the stairs in front of the Reichstag building. Only they hadn’t reached the parliament building.
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