Plans to redevelop a memorial at a former Nazi camp have been halted after local funding was blocked by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).
For four years until 1945 the Stalag 326 camp, 30km south of Bielefeld in western Germany, held at least 300,000 prisoners. Up to 70,000 people – mostly Red Army prisoners – died from exposure and catastrophic living conditions.
During a visit in 2015, former German president Joachim Gauck described the site as a place where “we painfully and intensely feel that the living have a duty to the dead”.
For nearly 30 years that duty to the dead has been met by local volunteers and regular fundraising. But the 2015 presidential visit triggered work on an ambitious €64 million development plan for a fully-fledged memorial and research facility.
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That plan is hanging in the balance, however, after the local council in the city of Gütersloh refused to make its agreed €450,000 contribution. With no fresh funding, the current Stalag 326 memorial has closed until further notice.
Leading local opposition to the budget is local CDU councillor Birgit Ernst. She described the council’s funding contribution as overblown and suggested that €200,000 annually would be sufficient to cover running costs. Put to a final vote, the council rejected the €450,000 funding plan by 36 to 33 votes, largely due to CDU and AfD votes.
Since it emerged a decade ago, the AfD has campaigned to draw a line under what one leader dubbed Germany’s “guilt cult” towards the Nazis. Another former leader said that, compared to centuries of glorious German history, the 12-year Hitler dictatorship was a small stain of “bird s**t”.
Whether intended or not, the CDU-AfD alliance to block the memorial funding has caused outrage locally and across the country.
The memorial’s board said it was “deeply affected and shocked” by the outcome of the vote.
“Everything has gone down the drain for now,” said Mr Olaf Elmer, a local historian.
Federal culture minister Claudia Roth of the Green Party, whose office is providing €25 million in funding, has offered to get involved in negotiations to salvage the plan. In a statement she said it would be a “harsh setback for memorial culture and a dangerous precedent” if the local council decision was not reversed.
The vote has raised further questions about the so-called “firewall” the CDU leadership in Berlin says exists between its centre-right party and the AfD.
In Westphalia, many local CDU party members and officials have expressed outrage at the outcome of the vote, which has endangered the memorial’s future.
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Local politician Elmar Brok, for decades a CDU MEP in Brussels, said he was “outraged” at the vote.
“If it is true that the CDU, in such a sensitive issue, voted knowingly with the AfD then it would be absurd to me,” he said.
A plan to celebrate 30 years of voluntary work at the site in October has been cancelled, according to the memorial board.
“The ball is now in the CDU’s court,” it said in a statement. “After their assurances that they do want a memorial, we expect a constructive idea from them. Just saying ‘no’ is not enough.”
