A town in eastern Germany has voted to stop the installation of new memorial plaques commemorating victims of the Holocaust, triggering widespread criticism after local lawmakers from Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative CDU joined the far-right Alternative for Germany in supporting the move.
The decision was made by the municipal council in Heidenau, southeast of Dresden, which voted on Sept. 24 to halt the installation of new Stolpersteine, or “stumbling stones,” in public streets.
The small brass plaques are embedded into sidewalks, usually outside the former homes of people persecuted and murdered under the Nazi regime. Each stone carries the name and fate of an individual victim, making the memorials part of Germany’s decentralized approach to remembering the Holocaust.
The Stolpersteine project was launched by German artist Gunter Demnig in 1992. More than 126,000 plaques have since been installed across Germany and more than 30 other countries, making it one of the world’s largest decentralized memorial projects.
Supporters of the Heidenau decision argued that the plaques are inappropriate because they are placed at ground level and can be walked over. They proposed concentrating future commemorations at a dedicated memorial site in the town’s northern cemetery instead.
The move has nevertheless prompted strong reactions from Jewish representatives, politicians and Holocaust remembrance organizations.
Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, criticized the decision, noting that some Stolpersteine in Berlin commemorate members of his own family. Christian Meyer-Heidemann, a German state commissioner for political education, described the Heidenau decision as an attack on the country’s culture of remembrance.
The International Auschwitz Committee also condemned the decision, while Holocaust memorial advocates argued that the plaques are deliberately placed where victims once lived so that their individual stories remain visible within the communities from which they were removed.
The controversy has taken on an additional political dimension because members of the CDU and AfD supported the same municipal motion.
Germany’s mainstream parties have traditionally maintained an informal political “firewall,” known as the Brandmauer, against cooperation with the AfD. The Heidenau vote has therefore renewed debate about how that policy is being maintained at the local level as the AfD gains political support, particularly in eastern Germany.
The CDU’s participation is particularly notable because Merz has publicly rejected cooperation with the AfD at the national level. The local vote does not establish a change in the national CDU’s formal position, but it has intensified discussion about the boundaries of cooperation between the two parties in municipal politics.
The debate over Stolpersteine itself is not entirely new. Some Jewish leaders and communities have previously objected to the plaques because people walk over the names of Holocaust victims. Munich, for example, does not permit Stolpersteine on city-owned land and has developed alternative forms of memorialization.
For supporters of the project, however, placing the memorials at the locations where victims once lived is central to their purpose. Demnig has argued that remembrance should remain visible in everyday public spaces rather than being confined to cemeteries or centralized memorial sites.
The Heidenau decision therefore touches on two separate issues: how Holocaust victims should be remembered and how Germany’s mainstream political parties respond to the growing influence of the AfD.
For now, the vote applies to future Stolpersteine in Heidenau rather than removing existing plaques. The controversy is likely to continue as officials, Jewish organizations and memorial advocates debate whether the town’s alternative approach can preserve the individual and public character of Holocaust remembrance.
