Warnings at the school principals’ conference: “Grandmas against the right” not welcome in schools

After an anonymous call, the local group of “Grandmas Against the Right” in Bad Hersfeld has stopped working at primary and secondary schools in the city. The schools, in collaboration with the Bebra school authority, kicked the group out after a project day on democracy.

The members previously led reading groups in primary schools in the city under the motto “Reading aloud for tolerance and diversity”. Finally, at the end of March 2026, they organized the project day for the ninth graders of a comprehensive school, where they provided information about right-wing extremism. This was also reported in the press - with far-reaching consequences for the “grandmas against the right,” as Petra Gromann, co-founder of the group, tells taz. After the report, the school district received a complaint. According to Gromann, they reacted immediately and drastically: There should be no more project days for the citizens' initiative.

According to the co-founder, the next ban came a month later. After a school principal's conference warned against working with the “grandmas against the right,” the reading groups were ultimately banned. To date, the grandmothers have not been given a reason for their exclusion. The request from all political representatives in the district as well as the Ministry of Culture did not produce any answers. Therefore, months later, the organization decided to address the incident to the local press and thus to the public.

Dirk Beulshausen, an employee of the school authority, told the taz that there had been no order to exclude the group. Both after the project day and after the school principals' conference, only the obligation to remain neutral was pointed out. A balanced treatment of political perspectives is necessary in schools; there is no right to access to schools for action alliances, according to Beulshausen. “The school itself must not become an uncommented stage for political mobilization,” it continues.

Party-politically neutral, yes – but not value-neutral

In response to a request from the Green Party's parliamentary group, the Minister of Education has now made it clear that "civil society actors such as the 'Grandmas Against the Right' can in principle be involved in lessons - as long as they appear in a role as teaching guests," as the group said in a statement. Party political neutrality is important, but not a value-neutral attitude towards liberal democracy. The group is calling on the Ministry of Culture to prevent the obligation of neutrality from being interpreted too narrowly and to grant access to “Grandmas Against the Right” and similar actors. “The neutrality requirement must not serve as an excuse to keep democratic engagement against right-wing extremism out of our schools.”

Whether it's school visits by the Bundeswehr or lectures by the AfD - when neutrality in schools ends is always hotly debated. Sometimes with consequences for the actors concerned. Just last year, before the early federal election in 2025, a teacher in Saxony-Anhalt was warned because he had warned about the AfD in a class. Finally, shortly before the start of the court hearing, the school authorities removed the warning.