From BZ/dpa
A planned appearance by a supporter of conspiracy theories in the town hall in Falkensee, west of Berlin, has sparked protests.
A citizens’ alliance announced a rally on Saturday evening in the city. The International Auschwitz Committee demanded that the Stadthalle should not be available for conspiracy ideologues. The “Tagesspiegel” and the “Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung” had previously reported.
The city of 45,000 hit the headlines in 2022 in connection with an extremist group that had planned the kidnapping of Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) and a coup. According to the investigative authorities, one of the main suspects came from Falkensee. The magazine “Compact” is also based there, which the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies as proven right-wing extremist.
According to Mayor Heiko Müller (SPD), Friedemann Mack is a guest at a party with up to 1200 guests in the town hall on Saturday evening. “However, our assessment is that the event is significantly shaped by this person,” said the city administration. The event, for which tickets were sold, is advertised with the title “Meet and Greet with Mäckle makes you feel good. Party until the doctor comest”.
Heiko Müller (59, SPD), Mayor Falkensee Photo: Michael Sauerbier
Mack is considered an actor in the QAnon scene, he is quite active on Telegram. He runs several channels and groups, although it’s unclear if he runs them with other people. A main channel on Telegram has around 127 000 subscribers.
QAnon is a group that spreads conspiracy myths, especially on the Internet, which, according to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, also have links to anti-Semitism. According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, one of QAnon’s assumptions is that there is a “deep state” in the United States and in the rest of the world that has purposefully infiltrated banks and government administrations, among other things.
“We fear that Falkensee will establish itself as a right-wing suburb of Berlin,” said the Falkensee city councilor for the left, Eric Heidrich, who belongs to the “Alliance against the Right”, the dpa. Other supporters of conspiracy ideologists have also appeared in the city. The citizens’ alliance writes on its website that it is not appropriate “to make the Stadthalle available as a public stage for anti-Semitism and conspiracy ideologies and thus to legitimize them for the general public”. Heidrich expected 200 to 300 participants at the protest rally on Saturday.
Mack, who comes from Baden-Württemberg, told the dpa that he had been invited to Falkensee and that there was only partying and dancing. “It’s not a political issue. I’m not a QAnon sect member either.” Political symbols such as flags are also not allowed at the party in Falkensee, said Mack, who was particularly critical of restrictions in the corona crisis and vaccination against the corona virus on the phone.
Mayor Müller announced that a candidate for the mayoral election this year rented the Stadthalle for the party with Mack on Saturday night. “Since rooms under the responsibility of the Falkensee city administration, including the Falkensee town hall, are also rented out for political events, failure to rent them out to Ms. Stumpenhusen would be a clear violation of the principles of equal treatment, especially in electoral law.”
Censorship of the content or guests would not be compatible with the Basic Law, Müller said in writing. Heike Stumpenhusen, who according to the “Märkischer Allgemeine Zeitung” wants to run for the party Die Basis in the mayoral election, did not want to speak to the media when asked on Wednesday.
The Executive Vice President of the Auschwitz Committee, Christoph Heubner, on the other hand, called on the mayor of Falkensee and all those responsible there to “use every legal opportunity to put a stop to this spook that is destroying democracy”. It was unbearable for Holocaust survivors that a propagandist of this movement was given a town hall in Germany to spread his crude hate speech. “The QAnon movement, to which Mr. Mack publicly acknowledges and for which he conducts propaganda, is now known worldwide as an anti-Semitic and anti-democratic hate and lie campaign,” said Heubner.
The Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution wrote in its 2021 report that Brandenburgers were also involved in the distribution of QAnon content on the Internet. Offices for the protection of the constitution assume that the outbreak of the corona pandemic in spring 2020 increased belief in conspiracy theories.