Björn Höcke drives the Simson S51: How the AfD lost its political wisdom in Thuringia

2024-08-13 13:32:00

For ten years, West German AfD party workers have succeeded in consolidating culture in the east and winning votes. Now Björn Höcke appears in Thuringia on the Simson S51 Ostalgie moped. He did not pay attention to the most important thing.

One of the few freedoms of the GDR showed itself in the Simson moped with 3.7 horsepower from the VEB “Ernst Thälmann” in the Thuringian Forest. From the age of 15 you are allowed to drive. Youth initiation ceremonies are gathering for such mopeds. The S50 model costs 1,200 Ostmarks in the best case scenario, while the S51 is priced under 2,000 Ostmarks.

With the GDR, all the Simsons disappeared – until they rose from the dead rust ten years ago. The nominal “simme” is now from 3,000 euros, which would be about ten times the exchange rate on July 1, 1990.

After the youth council of the AfD in Thuringia had already advertised on election posters with the slogan “Simson instead of a wagon”, the top candidate of their party, Björn Höcke, is now sitting on the S51 with a “banana tank”. This is how you present yourself on social media.

“Simson” is the name of a song by Goitzsche Front, a German rock band from Bitterfeld. There is one every year in Zwickau “Samson’s Meeting”The best was in hand a few weeks ago when the organizers seemed tired of enforcing house rules given Nazi salutes and painted swastikas. Bruno Dietel, whose grandfather Karl Clauss designed Simson in the 1970s, has already spoken publicly against the corruption of a classic.

And now Björn Höcke with the message: “Yes to the youth!” “We won’t let the Greens stop us from having fun!” But is that wise? Should a union soldier and former history teacher from North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse who went to Eichsfeld be pictured in jeans and a shirt as an East German?

Orientalists such as the Simsonists were very enthusiastic about this. As long as a western uncle takes something like the battle cry “Wende 2.0!”, you should feel at home. But is anyone allowed to drive an S51? Hasn’t West already taken the Schwalbe from Suhl Simsonwerke and turned it into an e-bike? The loss of cultural-political instinct will cost Höcke important votes.