Balloons for East-German children
Posted by Thomas Klikauer
It was a warm and summery day on 28th June 2025. In the East German town of Sonneberg, a volunteer for the neo-fascist AfD is distributing blue balloons at a day-care centre. Blue is the camouflage colour for the otherwise rather brown – as in Hitler’s brown-shirts – AfD.
The AfD man in Thuringia’s Sonneberg has been known for his militant and neo-Nazi contacts for years. From ample studies on Nazi propaganda under Adolf Hitler, many know two things: first, the importance of children for Nazi propaganda; and second, how the Nazis manipulated children.
Fast forward eighty years, and some neo-Nazi methods, seemingly, have not changed all that much. Handing out balloons is 46-year-old AfD militarist Daniel W.
While Daniel is only known by his initial “W.” – the German state likes to protect neo-Nazis – his surname is not known. Meanwhile, neo-Nazi W. likes to wear his Hitler-Wehrmacht uniform.
Mr W. came into the focus of German authorities in the early 2000s because of his far-right and often violent neo-Nazi activities. In other words: his likely, more brutal activities during the baseball-bat years of the 1990s remain undetected and unmentioned.
The man in a Hitler-style Wehrmacht t-shirt supports the AfD. Neo-Nazi Daniel W. has been part of East Germany’s violent neo-Nazi platoons.
On the day of W.’s AfD activities, he not only handed out balloons with the AfD logo, but also wore a t-shirt with the image of a Nazi soldier in a Wehrmacht helmet, emblazoned with the inscription “Wehrmacht” – Hitler’s fascist army. This occurred in East Germany – not in 1944 – but in 2025.
W.’s trousers represent the colours of Germany’s Imperial Reich: black, white, and red. Always excusing neo-Nazis, the day-care centre stressed that W. was the father of one of the children. In East German hallucination, that makes the handing out of balloons by a violent neo-Nazi okay.
Yet balloon-distributor W. comes from East Germany’s more brutal neo-Nazi circles. Unsurprisingly, he was part of the NSU network. The NSU was the terrorist killer squad in Germany – killing ten people.
Perhaps with the exception of the 1980 Munich bombing by neo-Nazi Gundolf Köhler – part of the Wehrsportgruppe Hoffmann – no one in post-Auschwitz Germany has murdered more people than the NSU.
While non-Aryans are murdered by neo-Nazis – from Köhler in 1980 to the NSU in the early 2000s – Aryan children are given balloons by an AfD/neo-Nazi stooge.
W.’s car, from which the balloons were handed out, featured not only a local Sonneberg license plate. His rear window also displayed a sticker: “Volunteer Deportation Assistant.”
In the wake of the 2024 Wannsee 2.0-style mass deportation plans by the AfD, German neo-Nazis, seemingly, still dream of rounding up non-Aryans to be placed in the next cattle train.
Self-evidently, W.’s Wehrmacht t-shirt glorifies Hitler’s Nazism. A video of the AfD–neo-Nazi balloon man went viral in Germany. It caused outrage nationwide.
That East German police are investigating the incident might not scare hard-core neo-Nazis all that much.
For decades, Daniel W. has been an “active member” – a synonym for brutal thug – of a local and very militant neo-Nazi division in the town of Sonneberg.
Expectedly, the neo-Nazi–AfD balloon man was a former soldier in Germany’s army – the Bundeswehr.
The AfD’s balloon man has also been a member of the far-right outfit Kameradschaft Sonneberg – the “comrades of Sonneberg” – since the early 2000s.
This comrade outfit was the local branch of a neo-Nazi platoon called Thüringer Heimatschutz – Thuringian Homeland Protection – read: protection against non-Aryans, which in turn was part of the even more violent umbrella organisation behind the NSU killers.
Daniel W.’s neo-Nazi biography leads from the NSU’s far-right terror network straight to the AfD. Before joining the NSU’s sub-divisions, there are records of W. being interrogated by Germany’s military counterintelligence service – the Militärischer Abschirmdienst (MAD), the German equivalent to the MI5 or CIA.
These records reveal that the AfD’s balloon man took part in regular meetings of far-right comradeships and the neo-Nazi predecessor of the AfD, the NPD – and its marches.
The AfD’s balloon man was a close associate of neo-Nazi Ricky N., a well-known violent extremist from Thuringia – the home state of the local Gauleiter or unofficial AfD-Führer Björn Höcke, and one of the NSU’s prime locations during its killing spree.
Neo-Nazi Ricky N. has been active for decades in neo-Nazi bands and fraternities, such as Treuebund (bound by trust) – a crypto-SS slogan.
Worse, the balloon man’s bedfellow, Ricky N., was on trial for a brutal SA-style attack in the town of Ballstädt. Most unsurprisingly, the neo-Nazi was acquitted for lack of evidence.
Brutalities aside, many Neo-Nazis have found a new ideological home in Germany’s AfD – for quite some time now.
The neo-Nazi–AfD links became ever clearer when photos surfaced online showing W. with prominent Sonneberg AfD figures like Robert Sesselmann – arm in arm with Björn Höcke – the Führer.
Aligned with the AfD, W. spreads anti-refugee and racist propaganda on Facebook. He admitted to involvement in right-wing populist “Sonneberg Peace Rallies.”
In a now-classical move, the AfD’s Thuringia division quickly “distanced itself” from W., issuing the 100th version of the same statement: people like W. are neither accepted nor tolerated as party members. Just as Hitler knew nothing about Auschwitz, pigs can fly, and the Earth is flat.
To up the ante, the AfD’s state executive board announced that it “most clearly distances itself” from this person.
Yet, on his Facebook account, there are numerous photos of him in AfD advertising material – dressed in AfD attire. A photo showing neo-Nazi W. with AfD super-apparatchik Björn Höcke was quickly deleted.
Meanwhile, Daniel W. is not the only neo-Nazi campaigning for the AfD. Neo-Nazi Martin S. has also been active for years in Thuringia’s various extremist scenes. Today, Martin S. is frequently seen at AfD events.
Worse still: Martin S. was a member of the neo-Nazi squad Blood & Honour, of the NPD’s youth organisation JN, and of the Freie Kameradschaften – another extremist platoon. Stickers on his car glorify Hitler’s Wehrmacht.
Beyond this, Thuringia’s AfD apparatchik and Bundestag member Jürgen Pohl employs long-time neo-Nazi Benedikt Kaiser.
Kaiser has participated in neo-Nazi marches in Chemnitz and Zwickau as well as in NPD rallies – the party once popular among extremists until the AfD replaced it.
Photos show AfD stooge Kaiser with neo-Nazi comrades from NS Chemnitz – Nazi Chemnitz – and the far-right hooligan gang NS-Boys (Naziboys).
Kaiser also worked for the extremist publisher Antaios, owned by far-right ideologue Götz Kubitschek – a close confidant of AfD-Führer Björn Höcke.
In other words: it is impossible that the AfD could not have known of Kaiser’s extremist views. His Wehrmacht-glorifying car stickers are unmistakable.
Back in the small East German town of Sonneberg – where neo-Nazis are accepted – many others live a dangerous life.
Together with Hitler-fan Ricky N., Daniel W. was involved in a 1995 brawl with bikers in Rauenstein, a town in the Sonneberg district. These were the infamous baseball-bat years, when East German neo-Nazis roamed freely.
In a subsequent MAD interview, Daniel W. admitted to repeated violence and to “fighting with” foreigners – that is, violently attacking non-Aryans.
The AfD’s balloon man never hid his ideology. In August 2001, MAD officials noted in their protocol that W. “liked things about Hitler.”
He said he would have killed the disabled, adding, “Adolf Hitler was clever.” He also stated: “I’m not a follower. I have always had my conviction. I’m on the right.” He is not alone.
In the past twelve months, the AfD’s camouflaged “blue” – which should be brown – has prevailed across East Germany, from the Elbe to the Oder.
Today, supporting the AfD is no longer unusual. It is entrenched in East Germany’s so-called middle class – the petty bourgeoisie.
There are many reasons people in Thuringia and Brandenburg support this party. Propaganda is one. Today, 30% to 40% of East German voters support the far right.
In East Germany more than in the West, the AfD claims to be “the” voice of East German interests – even though its policies hit its own voters hardest, according to leading economic research institutes.
Cunningly, the AfD cultivates the feeling of being short-changed. Its propaganda implies it’s always “the other” – migrants and refugees – who get more than you.
In East Germany, this narrative scores points. Despite numerous scandals, despite consistent investigative journalism, despite proven neo-Nazi ties, AfD propaganda ensures many voters don’t perceive the party as extremist at all.
Worse still, the AfD has succeeded in positioning itself as “the protector” against change from above. The AfD promises: the ordinary man can live in peace – without new heating laws, and without immigration.
Meanwhile, in the rural, remote, and small-town areas of Eastern Germany – known as Dunkeldeutschland, dark Germany – authoritarian tendencies are growing. Social cohesion is declining.
A right-wing extremist culture has stabilised. Some of its roots date back to the GDR. Signs of this are everywhere – more than three decades after reunification. The AfD is rising not only in the East, but also in the West – even in wealthy southern regions.
Still, East Germany stands out. Many experienced a deep cultural, political, and economic rupture after 1990. Western arrogance brought humiliation. Yet this went hand in hand with material gains.
East German society is not downtrodden. In many respects, the opposite is true. Compared to 1990, most East Germans are better off today. But as these gains stabilised during the 2010s, voices arose: East Germans must
- fundamentally change their lifestyle,
- renounce old habits,
- help refugees,
- and embrace sustainability.
This was the AfD’s hour. It offered: “If you don’t want all this – vote for Germany first.” Understanding the AfD’s rise in East Germany is not difficult. The neo-fascist AfD appeals to an authority-fixated mindset – needing no arguments, no deliberation, no democracy. Just a few propaganda slogans.
The AfD’s East German line is: You in the West don’t understand us in the East. Ironically, this includes West German import Björn Höcke – the Führer.
An authoritarian reflex becomes visible – one that no argument can penetrate. East Germans are defamed as “natives.” They feel robbed of homeland, identity, and dignity. Often, these feelings are not unfounded.
Particularly those socialised in the GDR (born long before 1990) believe that cohesion is damaged – by foreigners, refugees, and migrants. Meanwhile, East German states like Saxony and Thuringia are aging. They are becoming regions of retirees. Birth rates have declined for years. Young women are missing.
Even in Leipzig, the most vibrant East German city, students say: We won’t stay. The intellectuals leave. What remains are old, bitter men. The AfD’s neo-Nazi man handing out balloons to children in Sonneberg, Thuringia, fits this profile exactly.
Photo: (source: https://deepai.org/machine-learning-model/text2img)
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