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Demonstrators at a Green Party campaign event in Cologne on May 7
Photo: Ying Tang / NurPhoto / IMAGO
The advice center Sekten-Info Nordrhein-Westfalen e.
V., which also serves as a contact point for relatives of conspiracy believers, has noticed a significant change in inquiries due to the Ukraine conflict.
In the past two years, the vaccination issue and the pandemic have been the main reasons for relatives to seek help - now "the narrative of those affected is shifting," says Christoph Grotepass, theologian and speaker of the association since 2007.
»Corona is increasingly taking a back seat, but the Kremlin propaganda, according to which Ukraine is ruled by National Socialists and NATO is the aggressive and warmongering party, is taking up more space.«
transport enemy images
Factual topics would not be the focus;
instead, conspiracy ideologues are concerned with transporting fundamental enemy images and protest.
At a meeting earlier this week with other counseling and self-help groups in Berlin, this impression was confirmed.
In the past few weeks, there had been massive disruptions to campaign events in the NRW election campaign, when larger groups of demonstrators, including those opposed to vaccination, insulted the Greens, for example, as "warmongers" and "Nazis".
Sekten-Info NRW was founded in 1984 and claims to be the largest state-financed association of its kind in Germany.
Over the past two years, he has recorded an enormous increase in requests for help from those whose relatives believe in conspiracy myths.
According to the association, there were already 160 in 2020, and then 249 in 2021. "We have our backs to the wall," says Grotepass.
"The number of cases has also increased in many other areas." In the meantime, the facility based in Essen has set up its own discussion group for relatives on the subject.
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