Is German democracy under threat (again)?
Germany's President Frank Walter-Steinmeier (SPD) got into hot waters for invoking history to make a case against the AfD. Was he right to do so?
Dear Reader,
The 9th of November is arguably the most important day in modern German history.
Known as Schicksalstag (Day of Fate), it marks four pivotal moments when democracy was born, threatened, destroyed — and reborn again.
On November 9th, 1918, two days before the armistice that ended World War I, the Weimar Republic was proclaimed from a balcony of the Reichstag — for the first time in German history the people were the sovereign. But, just five years later, on that same date in 1923, the fragility of the new republic was laid bare as Adolf Hitler and his followers marched through Munich in a failed coup attempt.
The same date would haunt Germany again. On November 9th, 1938 — Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass — Nazi paramilitaries and ordinary citizens unleashed state-sanctioned terror against Jews, shattering the last illusions of a democratic Germany.
Half a century later, on November 9th, 1989, the story of Schicksalstag seemed to come full circle: the Berlin Wall fell, and dictatorships across Eastern Europe crumbled.
But was the arc of history truly complete? Not necessarily.
Flash forward to this past Sunday, November 9th, when Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) delivered a pointed warning to his country.
“One hundred and seven years after 1918…our liberal democracy is under pressure,” said Steinmeier from Berlin’s Bellevue Palace. “Populists and extremists are mocking our institutions, poisoning public debate, and exploiting fear.”
It was an unusually scathing speech for a German president, whose role is traditionally ceremonial and unifying. Steinmeier departed from the script of solemn remembrance, as is typical each year on the date, and instead issued what he saw as a much-needed political wake-up call.
While he didn’t name names, his words were clearly aimed at the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), who are currently polling as the most popular political party in the country. “There must be no political cooperation with extremists. Neither in government nor in parliament,” he stated, unequivocally.
He also said it’s not out of the question to ban parties perceived as threatening to Germany’s Grundgesetz: “A party that steps down the path towards aggressive hostility towards the constitution must always reckon with the possibility of being banned.”
Then came Steinmeier’s most striking line, in which he evoked a lesson of German history as a call to action today: “The reckless attempt to tame anti-democrats by granting them power didn’t just fail in Weimar… Extremism wins when others allow it to do so.”
In other words: the head of state was using his office to warn against working with — or voting for — a specific party that is represented in the Bundestag. While he never mentioned the AfD by name, it was obvious to anyone listening to the speech whom he was referring to.
What’s the reaction been?
Not surprisingly, the AfD were furious about seemingly being compared with extremist and anti-constitutional forces. Many party members accused Steinmeier of abusing his nonpartisan post, and not acting democratically himself.
“Never has a Federal President abused his office so much,” said Bernd Baumann, the AfD’s parliamentary executive.
“In the moment that the AfD would be banned, the Federal Republic of Germany would de facto no longer be a democracy,” added the party’s co-leader Alice Weidel.
The speech also led to fevered commentary in the German press.
“Steinmeier Oversteps the Boundaries of His Office,” read the headline of an opinion piece in the right-leaning magazine Tichys Einblick. The article criticised the speech as a breach of presidential neutrality, accusing the president of promoting ideological division and stigmatising millions of voters.
But the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany’s leading liberal outlet, said that its the president job to take a side when democracy comes under threat. “When it comes to questions of democracy, we don’t need a neutral head of state. On the contrary, what is needed is someone who is willing to throw themselves into the fray for democracy,” the newspaper stated.
What comes next?
Steinmeier’s remarks have already set off political ripples, forcing an even more intense debate on how to confront the far right — and whether a constitutional ban is either realistic or wise.
Bavaria’s Minister-President Markus Söder (CSU) swiftly rejected a Verbot as “the wrong way,” while also ruling out any cooperation. “If we solve our country’s problems,” he said, “the AfD will lose importance again.”
If other mainstream parties take a tip from Söder, they’re likely to rethink their strategy toward disenchanted voters while refusing to legitimise far-right rhetoric. The challenge is real as five states head into election in 2026, including the eastern Bundesländer of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony Anhalt where the AfD have a particularly tight grip on voters.
As much as the AfD might wish otherwise, Steinmeier’s post — which runs until March 18th, 2027 — seems secure. What remains to be seen is whether, on his final Schicksalstag in office, he will strike a more conciliatory tone or double down on his warning — likely against the backdrop of even stronger AfD polling.
The German Review’s take
As an American, I’ve seen how fragile democracy really is — in the United States as well as in Germany. I once believed Donald Trump’s election could never happen — and once it did, that it could never happen again. Yet his rise, much like that of the AfD in Germany, does not necessarily mark democracy’s collapse: the system still functions, even when it produces outcomes that test its central values.
Germany now faces a similar reckoning. The AfD is currently polling at around 26 percent — slightly ahead of the centre-right CDU. Simply dismissing them as a danger to democracy, as many Democrats did with Trump, risks repeating the same mistake: focusing on moral outrage rather than on the social and economic frustrations that drive such hard-right movements. Many AfD voters hold relatively moderate views and are simply disillusioned by high housing costs, crumbling infrastructure, and a sense that Berlin’s political class no longer listens.
As we have written before, the AfD continues to grow stronger despite the long-standing Brandmauer against them. Steinmeier is right that democracy is under strain — perhaps more than at any time since the fall of the Wall. But his speech missed a crucial truth: the AfD is not a cause of Germany’s malaise, but a symptom.
Unlike the US, today’s Bundesrepublik benefits from a robust multiparty system — one fortified with the institutional safeguards the Weimar Republic lacked. Yet those safeguards cannot replace public trust. If mainstream parties, whether Steinmeier’s SPD or the CDU, continue to frame politics as “us versus them” instead of addressing the deeper issues of economic insecurity and regional inequality, they may ultimately find themselves forced to breach their own Brandmauer.
Last week’s poll: Will Germany still have a steel industry in 10 years’ time?
Yes - 56%
No - 44%
News in Brief
🎄 Magdeburg’s Christmas market has been blocked by the Saxony-Anhalt state authority over serious security concerns, shortly before it was set to open on November 20th. Officials criticised gaps in the organisers’ safety concept and demanded stronger anti-terror measures, while the city argued that the eastern German state should bear responsibility for them. The decision comes as a much-watched trial begins against the man accused of last year’s deadly attack on the same market, which left six people dead and hundreds injured. Across Germany, other Christmas markets remain scheduled to open, though some smaller towns have scrapped theirs amid soaring security costs.
💪🏼Germany’s Bundestag Defence Committee this week proposed bringing back some form of mandatory national service. Facing troop shortages and mounting security concerns, the committee says the current volunteer model doesn’t fully suffice. Their plan calls for compulsory service only in certain situations, and would offer both military and civilian options. But the idea has generated mixed opinion: Supporters see it as a way to strengthen national defence and social cohesion, while critics call it unrealistic, plagued with red tape, and a threat to personal freedom -- reigniting one of Germany’s most emotional debates since conscription was scrapped in 2011.
🇺🇸 According to new official figures, fewer Germans are relocating to the US (unless they’re a far-right social media influencer seeking asylum there). Between January 2025 — the month Trump was inaugurated — and September 2025, departures from Germany to the US dropped by 17.8 percent, falling to around 17,100. At the same time, migration in the opposite direction — from the US to Germany — rose by 3.4 percent to over 19,300, marking the first time since 2021 that more people moved into Germany from the US than vice-versa. Nonetheless, German tourism to the US only fell by 1.3 percent, with Good Ol’ America remaining the top non-European destination for German travellers.
Members’ Corner
Germany: A nation of mobile dead zones?
A month ago, I found myself trudging through thick mud in Brandenburg, without shoes and without cell phone coverage. The absence of trainers was voluntary given that I was in a place called The Barefoot Park. But the lack of reception was not, and was made more noticeable after I briefly lost sight of my family in the park‘s sprawling premises. I contemplated ways of finding them that didn’t involve backtracking through mulch or rounded glass shards.
On the ‘Stadtbild’ debate
When Friedrich Merz remarked that Germany had a problem in its Stadtbild (cityscape) that could only be addressed by deporting more asylum seekers, he sparked one of the most emotional debates of the year. Critics accused him of racism; supporters said he had finally voiced what the “silent majority” were thinking. In this piece, we reflect on Germany’s changing Stadtbild in an attempt to find some middle ground in the debate.
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Sincerely,
Rachel Stern