The AfD wants you to speak “fluid” German

Over a month after it was widely mocked, a poster on the AfD website still demands that citizenship should only be granted to foreigners who speak “fluid German”.

AfD wants only “fluid” German speakers

The requirements for attaining German citizenship are high, but until now they have not been physically impossible. According to one of the AfD’s latest demands, “Nur wer flüssiges Deutsch spricht darf die deutsche Staatsbürgerschaft erhalten!” (“Only those who speak fluid German should be granted German citizenship”).

In a moment of irony beyond compare, the Saxony branch of the far-right anti-migration party confused “flüssig” (fluid) with “fließend” (fluent), and forgot an essential comma. The party used the headline in an Instagram post, which has since been removed, but the poster remains on AfD Saxony’s website.

“We also demand that, going forward, German naturalisation only be possible after 10 years,” the party said. Currently, international residents must have lived in Germany for at least five years before they are eligible for citizenship, and must prove German language skills to B1 level.

Other branches of the populist party have been clarifying their stance on immigration and naturalisation in other ways. In late November 2024, the AfD branch in Bavaria officially adopted a resolution to deport non-Germans and Germans with a migration background “with a weak ability and willingness to integrate” from Germany en masse, should the party enter government.

More recently, the Bavarian branch announced it would be in favour of introducing a deportation force modelled on the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and that it would make life even more inhospitable for people seeking asylum in Germany, by cutting their financial support. Currently, a single person seeking asylum in Germany receives just 455 euros per month in financial support.

AfD councillor shared Nazi-era antisemitic comic

Alongside “flüssiges Deutsch”, another AfD social media post has been in the news recently. Peggy Lindemann, an AfD councillor in Schwedt, Brandenburg, is facing criminal charges filed by Commissioner for Antisemitism, Andreas Büttener.

Lindemann shared an Instagram reel showing an antisemitic comic from a Third Reich newspaper alongside the caption, “A painter from Austria claims in his "propaganda" that elite🧃drink the blood of our children. Do you still believe that he was the evil one?”

In this context, the juice carton emoji is a stand-in for “jews”, which is commonly used in neo-Nazi circles online. Lindemann’s defence is that she was reposting reels relating to the Jeffrey Epstein case and overlooked the antisemitic content before republishing.

Lindemann’s case is just one of many in which AfD politicians have been investigated or penalised for using antisemitic language or language associated with the Third Reich. In one of the most prominent cases, AfD leader in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, was convicted and fined in 2024 for using the Nazi slogan “Alles für Deutschland” (“Everything for Germany”) during a speech.

The party now regularly uses the slogan “Alice für Deutschland”, ostensibly calling for co-leader Alice Weidel to be elected chancellor. Other placards have used the phrase "Abschieben schafft Wohnraum" ("Deportations create living space"). 

In the lead-up to and during the Second World War, the Nazis used the idea of expanding the "Lebensraum" ("living space") for German people to justify invading other European countries, deporting and committing genocide against Jewish people and other groups.