The German Elections of February 23, 2025

I will briefly address the German elections of February 23, 2025. In keeping with my promises to White Rose families and surviving friends, this is not a partisan post. It’s neither for nor against the CDU/CSU or the SPD, much less touching on the Green Party or die Linke (the far-left party), or the demise of the FPD. I am not even going to attempt to do what political scientists and journalists in Germany are currently busy with, namely drilling down into AfD gains. I thought about it, but analysis of AfD gains makes about as much sense as analyzing our own 2024 presidential election.

Optimists among my German friends believe Merz’s promise not to create a coalition between the CDU/CSU and the AfD. I worry, however, that the desire for power – to keep and retain power – will eventually push the conservative CDU/CSU into the arms of the second-place AfD, especially if final numbers don’t give CDU/CSU + SPD a clear majority.

I worry too that even if they squeak by with a black-red-green coalition (CDU/CSU-SPD-Green Party), and BSW achieves that elusive 5% that will permit them to be seated in the German parliament alongside die Linken, Merz will be tempted to align with AfD. No matter what he says now. No matter how loudly he protests. Here’s a good Euractiv article on that topic. [As of this writing, vote count for BSW stands at 4.97%. Recount in progress.]

Here in the USA, we often complain that we have a two-party system, that we don’t have enough options, that we must have a third party! What we are seeing unfold in Germany right now is the result of a splintered multi-party system that grants disproportionate power to fringe movements. We should include this example when we gripe about our two-party system.

Why is this short post here, on the Web site of Center for White Rose Studies, where I do not talk partisan politics? Because it directly impacted Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1933.

Hindenburg (photograph) was forced to “deal” with Hitler because the NSDAP slowly but surely increased the size of their representation in the Reichstag. In 1930, the NSDAP went from no representation to second place in the Reichstag. Which sounds like an unwelcome, eerie parallel to yesterday’s vote in Germany.

The crisis came to a head in 1932 when there were four elections in Germany. The last of those four, November 6, 1932, the NSDAP lost some ground but retained their ascendancy. Hindenburg was forced to make a deal with Hitler, simply to stabilize the government. Markets abhor uncertainty.

Details of the NSDAP’s rise to power can be found in my essay entitled The Elections of 1930-1933.

We have not yet reached that crisis point, either in the USA or in Germany. At times, it may feel like we are at that crisis point, but there are still people on most sides of the political and religious spectrum who are willing to speak out for justice, who are taking a stand for what is right.

I truly don’t care whether you are Baptist, Lutheran, Pentecostal, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, agnostic, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, Wiccan, Festivian, or whatever label you choose.

I don’t give a damn whether you vote Democratic, Republican, libertarian (lower-case libertarian and not the fake version – be consistent!), Socialist, or independent; whether you vote CDU/CSU, SPD, Green, Linke, or if you’re FPD hanging in there by a thin thread.

It does not matter if you have an eighth-grade education, a high-school diploma, a Bachelor’s in Engineering, a Master’s in Philosophy, a PhD in genetics, a JD, or a ThD.

What matters: Heeding the words of Paul Spiegel, spoken in front of the Brandenburger Tor in Berlin on November 9, 2000.

Few are heroes. Few have the courage to step in when they witness skinheads attacking a defenseless man, a defenseless woman – and in the meantime, yes, defenseless children – on the street, beating them up. But every single one of us is capable of calling the police. Every single one of us is capable of taking small steps right where he lives. When dining with friends and derogatory jokes are told about Jews, Turks, Blacks, or gays. When a foreigner is treated badly, discriminated against, in your workplace. Talk to your friends and colleagues when they do such things! Talk to your shop steward and thereby demonstrate your opposition to such things! We cannot yield our streets and favorite restaurants to the Brown mob.

I am happy that there are so many of you who — with this demonstration today — say to the right-wing extremists on our streets: “Stop it! Enough! We will no longer stand for the fact that people in our country must once again be afraid!”

We may not cease in our battle against right-wing extremism, antisemitism, and xenophobia. For this is not merely about us Jews, or about Turks, Blacks, the homeless, or gays. This is about this country. This is about the future of every single individual in this country. Do you want to be ruled by skinheads and their predecessors one of these days? That is the real question at hand. Not how many foreigners this country can bear.

Did you get that?

>>We may not cease in our battle against right-wing extremism, antisemitism, and xenophobia. For this is not merely about us Jews, or about Turks, Blacks, the homeless, or gays. This is about this country. This is about the future of every single individual in this country. Do you want to be ruled by skinheads and their predecessors one of these days? That is the real question at hand. Not how many foreigners this country can bear.<<

That is the message of today’s essay. No matter how you vote, where you worship, or where you come from. No matter what you look like or where you work.

Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with your God. No more, no less. It’s really not complicated.

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Image credit: Top photograph--Shopify, public domain for platform users. Middle photograph--1932 postcard of Hindenburg, cropped to exclude his grandchildren. Public domain. Bottom photograph--I Voted sticker, Las Vegas, 2020 election. Photo © 2020 Denise Elaine Heap. Please contact us for permission to use.

The above information is fully footnoted in our White Rose histories. Please purchase them for access to that material! To order digital version of White Rose History, Volume I: Coming Together (January 1933-April 30, 1942), click here. To order digital version of White Rose History, Volume II, click here. WRH1 is © 2002, 2003, 2007 by Denise Elaine Heap. WRH2 is © 2002, 2007 by Denise Elaine Heap.

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