The process sounds incredible. But the memorial stone in the cemetery in Bytom, Poland, has recently been there. He carries a German inscription: "In memory of the fallen German soldiers in the 1st and 2nd World War, to the self-protection and Freikorp fighters and to the murdered and oppressed East Germans."
Meanwhile, the stone has been smeared, apparently by supporters of the Polish right-wing extremist scene. On it is the sign of the racist "White Pride" and in German "Out" and including "Szwaby", which is colloquially in Polish a derogatory term for Germans.
The memorial stone in Upper Silesia was co-financed by AfD member of parliament Stephan Protschka, who proudly announced his inauguration on the occasion of the German Memorial Day on his Facebook page last Sunday.
The Bavarian politician - he is also a member of the AFD Federal Board - is not the only sponsor mentioned on the stone. Among others, the young AfD offspring "Junge Alternative" from Berlin, the fraternity "Markomannia Wien zu Deggendorf" observed by the constitutional protection and other persons are among the participants. Also striking is a line that was removed on the stone - an inscription of the "Young Nationalists", the offspring of the far-right NPD.
The monument was evidently initiated by the local leader of the League of Youth of the German Minority (BJDM) in Bytom (former Beuthen), Markus Tylikowski. He had spoken at the inauguration and also reported on the action via the local BJDM Facebook page - including photos.
Polish institute checks installation
In Poland, the topic has now been taken up by the media - and it also employs the Polish Embassy in Germany. On Thursday, the press attaché of the Polish Embassy in Berlin, Dariusz Pawlos, in a written reply to SPIEGEL, stated that the facts "seem to be very serious", which is why he was referred to the competent authorities in Poland, including the Institute for National Affairs Remembrance - relayed "where it needs to be thoroughly checked".
According to preliminary assessments, it can be assumed that this is "a violation of existing legislation" in Poland, the statement goes on to say. The "results and measures that will be taken or taken in this case," one will inform in due course. As Der Spiegel also learned from the message, the demolition of the memorial stone in Bytom could eventually take place.
Conscious provocation
In fact, the inscription held in the style of revisionist apologists seems like a deliberate provocation of right-wing politicians - with the help of AFD members. Above all, the relation to the Freikorpsverbände is noteworthy: The units - they consisted of predominantly demobilized soldiers - were founded after the end of the First World War in December 1918 by imperial law initially as armed units for the protection of security and order.
DPA
Stephan Protschka, district chairman of the AfD in Lower Bavaria (February 2018): Cofinanced the stone
Many of their followers, however, were right-wing radicals and supporters of the Volkish movement, who were involved in the suppression of the Spartacists in Berlin and the Soviet Republic in Munich in 1919. There were numerous shootings and brutal excesses.
In addition, the Free Corps fought in the Ruhr area and as "Border Guard East" - especially against units of the resurrected after the First World War Polish state in Upper Silesia. And: During the Nazi rule, there were self-defense organizations set up by the SS, which were recruited from members of the German minority in Poland. These murdered thousands of Poles after the German occupation of Poland in 1939/40.
Poland's ambassador worried
The Polish embassy spokesman told SPIEGEL that Ambassador Andrzej Przybski had expressed "his concern" about the inscription. As for the line for the Freikorps- and Schutzverbände, he said that a final historical evaluation by the Institute for National Remembrance in Poland is still pending: "But from the Polish point of view, these were not victims, but perpetrators," said the press attache.
In addition to substantive issues, formal juristic aspects of stone formation are also examined in Poland. According to local law, memorial sites in municipal and church cemeteries can only be erected with the permission of the authorities. "On your own you can not set something up," said the spokesman.
Irritations also triggered the participation of a Catholic priest who blessed the stone. This was a German priest of the "Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter". According to the online site catholic.de, a brotherhood spokesman confirmed his participation, but at the same time made it clear that the priest was not aware of the "complete problematic connection" between the monument and the inauguration on the spot.
Youth Association of the German minority in Poland is appalled
The installation of the memorial stone has brought the co-financier, the AfD MPs Protschka and the Federation of Youth of the German Minority (BJDM) in explanation. In a statement of the BJDM board from Opole, it is now said that the BJDM chairman in Bytom Tylikowski had the establishment in "no way" previously mentioned to the Board or agreed. "With horror" one has only learned from the social media. They distance themselves decisively, even from his contacts with the organizations concerned.
Another striking feature on the pictures of the stone is a blank space: "Young Nationalists" (JN) stood there, the offspring of the far-right NPD. Protschka told the "Tagesspiegel", at his request, they had before the inauguration the JN lettering zelfeltelt. With the "handsome, high three-digit sum" he had paid, the establishment of the soldier's monument had become possible. As well as the junior organization of the NPD landed on it, he could not explain itself. The dissociation of Protschka is from party internal point of view necessary: The NPD youth as well as the NPD stands on the list of incompatibility of the AfD.
NPD offspring contradicts AfD members of the Bundestag
But the JN was now down via Twitter. It was "nonsense" that Protschka "did not want to know anything about the inscription" or "other donors". "Both could be found at any time and without any problems," said the JN about their account.
Even otherwise, the NPD seems to have been involved at an early stage. A photo circulating on the internet shows NPD Chairman Maik Müller demonstrating how he sent a large-scale donation check of the "JN Federal Board" to the "BJDM Beuthen" on a visit to the Polish city on 31 October presented - in the amount of 200 euros. With him - the local BJDM boss Markus Tylikowski.
For the AfD Bundestag MP Protschka, the young man should not be an unknown, as he is in the first issue of the JA-sheet "Patria" presented in a three-page interview - as a "member of the JA" and a member of the German minority, this spring "on the Bavarian Member of Parliament Stephan Protschka" participated in a Bundestag-oriented simulation game "Youth and Parliament".
Of the two AFD faction leaders in the Bundestag, Alice Weidel and Alexander Gauland, was no opinion on the actions of their MP Protschka to obtain. By AfD Group spokesman Christian Lüth it said to the SPIEGEL merely: "Each member of parliament is politically independent with us." The executive committee therefore does not evaluate the travel of the deputies in general.