Germany’s far right taps nostalgia for communist East to propel election surge

Key Points:

• Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is leveraging Ostalgie, nostalgia for life in former East Germany, to gain political support in the country’s eastern regions ahead of upcoming elections.
• In Quedlinburg, AfD leader Ulrich Siegmund led a convoy of Simson mopeds—a symbol of East German identity—using the event to evoke a sense of freedom and unity from the communist era, despite its authoritarian nature.
• The AfD is polling strongly in eastern states like Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, aiming to secure governing power for the first time and break political isolation by capitalizing on regional identity and economic grievances.
• While Ostalgie has historically been associated with the far left, the AfD is now co-opting eastern German memories and regional pride to fuel hostility toward the West and frame itself as a defender of eastern values and autonomy.
• The family of Simson’s Jewish founders, whose factory was expropriated by Nazis and later nationalized by East Germany, opposes the AfD’s use of the brand, viewing it as inappropriate far-right politicization, but AfD leaders dismiss such criticism as foreign interference.