As the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) surges in the polls, street-level right wing foot soldiers are growing bolder — attacking those from a migrant background, left-wing activists, and now even the memory of past struggles. One of their latest targets? The Memorial for Socialists in Berlin’s Friedrichsfelde Cemetery, a site dedicated to revolutionaries Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, and other socialist martyrs. In a blatant act of political vandalism, right wing thugs have removed the plaques bearing Luxemburg and Liebknecht’s names.
Let’s be clear — this isn’t just a case of petty vandalism. It’s part of a growing far-right assault on history itself. The far right, including the fascist wing of the AfD want to rewrite Germany’s past, downplay the horrors of fascism, and silence anyone who stands for socialism, anti-racism, and working-class solidarity. Björn Höcke, who heads AfD in the eastern state of Thuringia, told supporters that Germans were the “only people in the world who planted a memorial of shame in the heart of their capital” (referring to the Holocaust memorial near Brandenburg gate: ed). This attack on Luxemburg and Liebknecht’s graves is just the latest front in that fight.
The Friedrichsfelde memorial site has deep roots in socialist history. A monument originally designed in 1926 by modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and financed by selling postcards in working class districts, was commissioned by the German Communist Party (KPD) as a defiant tribute to those murdered in the struggle for socialism. But the Nazis destroyed it in 1935 after first removing the red star that stood on top of it. After Hitler’s fall, the GDR state built a smaller monument to Luxemburg, Liebknecht and the other militants buried there. Later in 1951 the Memorial for Socialists was built, incorporating the names of Luxemburg and Liebknecht with members of the GDR state leadership.
Today, the site is more than just a historical monument — it’s a symbol of resistance. Every January, thousands of socialists, trade unionists, and anti-fascists march through Berlin for the annual Luxemburg-Liebknecht demonstration, ending at Friedrichsfelde.
The removal of Luxemburg, Liebknecht and others name plaques from the Memorial for Socialists is no accident. It’s an attempt to bury the revolutionary legacy, just as the Nazis tried nearly a century ago. And it comes at a time when the AfD is gaining ground, spouting nationalist, racist rhetoric while pretending to be a “respectable” party. But on the streets, fascists and right wingers are harassing migrants, attacking leftists, and defacing anti-fascist memorials.
So what do we do? We fight back. Words alone won’t stop the far right — mass mobilisation will. Trade unions, socialists, and anti-fascists must take to the streets, defend our history, and push back against this new wave of fascist violence. The memory of Luxemburg and Liebknecht belongs to the working class, and no amount of vandalism can erase their ideas.
The fight against fascism is happening now, and it’s up to all of us to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself.
