The week in review: Göttingen is burning, Magdeburg is ruling on the right, Berlin is bleeding

TL;DR

Göttingen: After swastikas, an almost fatal knife attack and now the burned-out stage of the left-wing bar “Dots”, it is clear that the “red stronghold” is being attacked by an organized right-wing scene – while the state looks the other way.
Saxony-Anhalt: The AfD parliamentary group in the new state parliament shows its true face - investigations into banned neo-Nazi associations, HDJ connections, an ex-Stasi man. No slip-ups, but the staff of the right-wing shift.
150,000 took to the streets nationwide against the AfD. Important - but posters do not change the distribution of seats in Magdeburg.
Berlin: Six anti-queer attacks in ten days are not an anomaly, but a line that has continued since the CSD attack in July.
Bielefeld: “Project M1llion” announced 10,000, 500 came – while the counter-rally mobilized. Proof that right-wing online hype and right-wing street power are two different things.

This week shows clearly how closely local and national developments are connected. What is burning in Göttingen is the same shift to the right that reigns in Magdeburg and strikes on the streets in Berlin.

Göttingen: The bastion is crumbling because it is being attacked

Fact: On Friday night, the stage of the left-wing bar, which has been self-managed since 2015, burned down in the inner courtyard of the Börnerviertel“Dots” completely. No one was injured, the cause of the fire is officially unknown, but a surveillance camera shows a masked person at the scene. This was preceded by 13 swastikas in October 2025 and a near-fatal knife attack on an anti-fascist in June 2026.

Our classification: This is not an isolated case and not a coincidence. Like usin our comment on Göttingenwrote: This city was an anti-fascist stronghold fought for, not a gift. This is exactly what is now being systematically attacked - by a right-wing youth clique that has been active for years - while the state prefers to deal with left-wing structures rather than right-wing violence. This is not negligence. This is a political decision. Solidarity with the Dots collective.

Saxony-Anhalt: The staff behind the shift to the right

Fact: Four days after the AfD's election victory with 43.8 percent, top candidate Ulrich Siegmund presented the new 39-member faction. Among them: two MPs suspected of having continued the banned neo-Nazi “Artgemeinschaft”, an ex-Stasi officer with a direct mandate, and, according to ZDF research, several future ministers with connections to the banned “Heimattreuen Deutschen Jugend”. Siegmund jokingly called those affected “the bad guys”. Details inour analysis of the new faction.

Our opinion: Anyone who thinks this is a bourgeois-conservative accessory hasn't looked. These are the personnel that the shift to the right is now bringing into parliament - without disguise, without shame.

150,000 on the street – and the question afterwards

Fact: On September 12th, around 150,000 people demonstrated against the AfD in around 20 German cities - 25,000 in Hamburg, 12,000 in Munich, thousands in Berlin and Düsseldorf. It was the largest anti-right mobilization since the mass demonstrations at the beginning of 2024. More on this inour text about the demos.

Our opinion: This mobilization is not nothing. But the question that civil society does not ask itself after each of these marches: What will 150,000 posters change in the distribution of seats in Magdeburg, where the AfD is only three mandates short of sole government? Demonstrating is necessary. It does not replace strategy.

Berlin: Anti-queer violence is a trend, not a coincidence

Fact: Between September 2nd and 10th, six people were attacked in Berlin because they were perceived as queer or trans - from a trans woman beaten on the ground on Sonnenallee to a 17-year-old who had to be hospitalized. In Dresden, three men broke a trans woman's nose and cheekbone. Source: Perspective Online citing queer.de. In detail inour text on the six attacks.

Our opinion: This is part of the CSD attack on July 25th. Anyone who treats this as a series of isolated incidents is refusing to recognize: This is a trend line, not an outlier.

Bielefeld: Online hype is not street power

Fact: “Project M1llion” announced 10,000 participants in Bielefeld on September 12th; according to WDR, around 500 came. A union-supported counter-rally “Bielefeld is colorful and cosmopolitan” attracted several hundred more. More inour analysis of Project M1llion.

Our opinion: The gap between announcement and reality is history. A Facebook group with tens of thousands of followers is not a movement with legs on the street. But you shouldn't underestimate such projects - they build infrastructure for later.

What connects this week: The shift to the right is not abstract. He burns in Göttingen courtyards, sits in the Magdeburg state parliament, strikes in Berlin and practices in Bielefeld for the next mobilization. Waiting doesn't help.

We won't budge a meter.

Sources (Faultline)