Yesterday on 25.06.21, the far right party AfD Neu-Ulm wanted to meet undisturbed in the restaurant Gut Holz in Schwabenstraße 35 Neu-Ulm and listen to a talk by the very esteemed Dr. Rainer Rothfuß. This was spontaneously & clearly oppsed by antifascist activists. Here a short report:
Despite public secrecy, it was quite easy to find out the exact location – after all, the local AfD has been kicked out of every room it used in the past years. After the 2021 Baden-Württemberg election defeat, even the last publicly known space closed: their office in Söflingen.
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s far as we know only the Gut Holz still lets them meet in their rooms. And not for the first time. In July 2019, they were already there.
The spontaneous antifascist counter-protest was called at very short notice and, as they say, “cross-spectrum” in Ulm / Neu-Ulm . We participated and distributed some flyers in the neighborhood.
More about Rainer Rothfuß, who has been spreading conspiracy ideological narratives for years, can be found in this article by Allgäu Rechtsaußen.
In total, there were about 30 antifascist activists on site, almost twice as many as the approximately 15 people of the AfD&Co. troop. Among them were Rainer Rothfuß (AfD Lindau), Markus Mössle (local council member in Ulm), Franz Schmid (AfD Neu-Ulm), Marcel Patzke and of course, as at every event of the AfD, a member of the Generation Identity Swabia (in german: Identitäre Bewegung Schwaben, Short: IB): Nicolas Brickenstein.
Nicolas appeared yesterday wearing a white Generation Identity tube scarf and a Make-Europe-Great-Again T-shirt. He had a brief amateur boxing appearance in 2013, but lost in his first fight:
During the approx. 30-45min counter-protest, there was unsurprisingly some provocation by the right-wing side in the form of filming and statements, that really could not have been much blunter. The whole range of right-wing fantasy ideas was given to the best. This was countered with antifascist slogans such as “Rothfuß Rainer, nobody needs him” and “Hurray hurray, the bank robber is back!” at the arrival of the very esteemed local councilor Markus Mössles, who was an organized Nazi in the 1980s and committed armed robberies to finance Nazi structures.
The police, who were finally called up in a hurry, were more concerned with calming down the constantly provocative right-wing gangs. This was a situation that was admittedly unfamiliar and unprecedented for many of us.
With all the fun and mockery, we also want to briefly mention two threatening situations:
- First there were two people attending a lecture who thought it would be a good idea to drive their cars towards several people with banners on the sidewalk in front of the Gut Holz parking lot. While one of them quickly realized that there would be no way through, another candidate did drive up several times until some activist placed them directly in front of the car.
- Secondly, at least two people were seen in the surrounding area with radios and something that looked like pepper spray canisters, but quickly moved away as soon as the first police arrived. According to multiple reports, our current assumption is that these were right-wing individuals. Plainclothes officers can be ruled out based on the description of the persons, their behavior, and their timing. It is conceivable that it is through cell phones quickly informed buddy’s or people living nearby.
Person 1: 
Person 2: smaller and larger than person 1, was wearing a white top and some kind of vest that looked similar to a bulletproof vest. Haircut similar, sides short. Appeared to be clearly aggressive by his body language.
This shows again clearly, that every person who takes to the streets against the far right AfD could be exposed to right-wing attacks. This was made absolutely clear by incidents such as a car attack in 2020 in Henstedt-Ulzburg or recently in Freiburg , when an AfD supporter attacked antifascists and passers-by with pepper spray and a knife.
After a good 30 minutes of delayed start of the lecture, part of the counter-protest decided not to wait for the end of the lecture. Others, however, stayed until the end and duly said goodbye to the participants of the lecture.
Overall, the goal to spontaneously show “here now meets the far right AfD and we think that sucks” could be clearly achieved. Many people in the neighborhood were informed and some showed support. The AfD was disturbed and their new/old/one of the few places where they meet locally was made publicly known.
Finally, it only remains for us to say: Thank you to all the people involved!
And to the old white men: If you come again, so we will too.