Why a German orchestra is using music to protest against the far-right

Just before noon last Wednesday, an orchestra assembled in front of the state parliament of Thuringia in Erfurt. 

Dozens of musicians dressed in white shirts and black pants set up their chairs in a classic orchestral arrangement. Behind them a banner read, “Flöte und Bass statt Hetze und Hass” (Flute and bass instead of agitation and hatred). Then the music began.

This is ‘Lebenslaute’, a German protest group that has chosen choral and orchestral music as its protest action of choice.

Following the group’s most recent week of actions, The Local spoke with Lebenslaute press speaker Hans Christoph Stoodt about what the group is speaking (and singing) about in Thuringia this year.

What is Lebenslaute?

Lebenslaute was founded in 1996, and Hans Christoph Stoodt estimates that it currently has about 300 active members across Germany – 120 of which came together to help organise actions in Thuringia this week.

A hint to the group’s mission is found in its name. ‘Lebenslaute’ literally translates to ‘Life noise’. As Stoodt explained, the group brings “classical and so-called serious music to places where human life is in danger”.

Stoodt told The Local that the group’s organisers meet during the first week of each year to discuss what is happening in German politics and decide which topic they will focus on for the year. Then around August or September the group carries out a series of concerts and protest actions.

“Usually we host two or three official concerts as well as a few unannounced protest actions,” Stoodt said.

Last year the group blocked a military airfield in North-Rhine Westphalia as part of an anti-war protest, and the year before they protested against the A100 motorway project in Berlin.

Lebenslaute had also taken part in climate protests in Lützerath, when a protest camp there was attempting to block the expansion of Germany’s largest coal mine.

READ ALSO: German police finish clearing site of anti-coal protests

Why bring protests to Thuringia?

This year Lebenslaute is making noise against the rise of the far-right in Germany. 

The group wanted to bring concerts and demonstrations to Thuringia ahead of the state elections there, which could result in victories for far-right AfD party members.

READ ALSO: Germany's far-right AfD sees strong gains in local eastern elections

On the group’s website they explain: "With the state elections on September 1st, the Nazi (Björn) Höcke wants to become state premier in Thuringia. Together with others, we stand in the way of this with civil disobedience and music.”

Bjorn Höcke, the AfD's leader in Thuringia, has been charged twice with incitement to hatred for using a phrase associated with the Nazi party in his public speeches. Due to previous extreme statements, he has also been placed on a list of monitored right-wing extremists by Germany's leading intelligence agency. 

“We are here to strengthen society, and the people and organisations who are opposing that,” Stoodt said.

As part of the “Flute and bass instead of agitation and hatred” campaign, Lebenslaute held three concerts, including one at the Buchenwald Memorial – the site of a former concentration camp.

In an explanation about the concert on their website the group noted: “There are few places where you can experience so impressively and harrowingly where fascism leads.” They added that the concert began at 3:15 pm, the same time when the remaining prisoners there were liberated on April 11th, 1945.

In addition to their official concerts, members of Lebenslaute also organised a couple of protest actions in the area.

For one of these, members organised a spontaneous concert in front of the Flieder Volkshaus building in Eisenach, a known hub used by militant right-wing extremists.

“We came with a bus and several cars full of musicians, and we quickly set-up in front of the Flieder Volkshaus and delivered our concert, singing anti-fascist songs and making speeches,” Stoodt told The Local.

He suggested that the reaction to the protest was largely positive, with the exception of some people who came out of the Flieder Volkshaus and made bitter and aggressive comments.

Organisers of the event had worked with local residents and anti-fascist activists to secure the scene during the protest. But Stoodt suggests that the group was trained to respond to potential threats, and also to move quickly.

“We started five minutes after our arrival, and we had a concert and speeches which took about 45 minutes, and then we disappeared again. They had no time to mobilise any kind of response.”

While the AfD and militant alt-right groups were the primary target of Lebenslaute’s protest, Stoodt said that they also wanted to highlight what they see as support for right-wing ideologies being voiced by Germany’s mainstream political parties.

“Everybody was very upset when it came out that AfD and far-right leaders had a secret meeting about re-migration in Potsdam earlier this year,” he said. 

“But people forget that in October of last year, just two months before the secret meeting took place, Chancellor Olaf Scholz was on the front page of Der Spiegel  saying, 'Wir müssen endlich in großem Stil abschieben' ('We must finally deport people on a mass scale').”

Stoodt suggests that while the AfD’s stated goals are more drastic, the current government’s official policies have already shifted toward AfD demands in some cases. “This is what we wanted to highlight with our concert in front of the [Thuringian] state parliament in Erfurt,” he added. 

What’s next for Lebenslaute?

Having reached the end of their week of actions in Thuringia, the next nationally organised Lebenslaute action can be expected in about a year’s time.

But the group comprises several regional chapters which engage in their own meetings, concerts and protests.

On their website, the group lists upcoming events as well as contact details for people who want to support their work as a volunteer. 

READ ALSO: How to volunteer in Germany - even if you speak no or little German

“We, of course, welcome people who want to sing and play music, but we also always need people who can help with organisational tasks or carrying things and so on,” Stoodt said. “There is always a lot of work to be done, so we maintain a broad spectrum of people who work together.”