On Saturday, June 14, Anklam once again became the site of a gathering that sounds harmless at first. “Visit to the North” – that was the code name under which dozens of far-right actors arranged to meet at the Haus Jugendstil via social media. It’s a familiar location in the scene, long known, well connected, with a history that says more than many would like to admit. But this time, things were a little different. Less martial. Less visible. And yet still present.
While the Saturday morning proceeded as usual on the platform at Anklam station, several police vans were already parked on the other side. Presence, security, surveillance – a familiar image in a city that has long ceased to choose this for itself. The Pasewalker Straße was particularly in focus, where a former supermarket once stood and where now a building sits that, under changing names and banners, continues to house the same thing: far-right ideology. A networking meeting had been planned with up to 200 participants from Saxony, Brandenburg, and the Ruhr region. The Nordkurier reported on arrivals from Dortmund, on Telegram groups with martial rhetoric, on right-wing symbols that no one in the city wants to see anymore. That significantly fewer people showed up in the end is no mere coincidence. It is the result – of a civil society response.
The group Greifswald für alle had issued a last-minute call for a vigil. “Colorful wave instead of brown cell” – that was the motto. Around 30 people gathered in front of the Haus Jugendstil. Among them not only students and activists, but also familiar faces from Anklam itself. Protestant pastor Helge Jörgensen stood at the roadside with a large banner. “Love of humanity demands clarity – Protestant church against right-wing extremism,” it read. It wasn’t just a phrase – it was a stance.
Jörgensen spoke quietly but unmistakably: he loved this city, he understood the pride many people felt in its development, but - “As long as the rainbow flag is still perceived as a provocation in this city, I will keep holding it up – also today.” And every word of it was believable. Because to contradict hate, you don’t need volume. You need resolve. Also present were state parliament member Jeannine Rösler, as well as former SPD member of parliament Erik von Malottki. Both emphasized that Anklam must not once again lose control of how it is perceived from the outside. And they were right. Because cities are more than façades. They are stories. And if you don’t give them a voice, you get silence in return.
Mayor Michael Galander later expressed gratitude for the vigil – even though no one from his own political group, the Initiativen für Anklam, took part. From city politics, it was only Dr. Georg Becker of the socio-ecological citizens’ platform who publicly joined the counter-protest. That is the contradiction that remains. The relief that things stayed peaceful – and the bitter aftertaste that still far too few are willing to take a clear stance.
Because the Haus Jugendstil is not simply a building with problematic tenants. It is a symbol, a refuge, an architectural echo chamber for a network that appears bourgeois on the outside – and radicalized on the inside. For years, far-right businesspeople, activists, and ideologues have gathered here. And there are still spaces in which no one asks what is being said – as long as the rent is paid.
The vigil was small. But it was dignified. And it had an impact. That day showed: it is possible to take the space away from such meetings without disrupting them. By opposing them – visibly, peacefully, decisively. But this cannot remain the task of a few. Anklam deserves more than a silently tolerated hub of far-right self-assurance. It deserves clarity. Conviction. Politics that doesn’t flinch when things become uncomfortable. And it deserves that places like the Haus Jugendstil are no longer normalized but finally named for what they are – on all levels.
Because even if it was quieter than usual on that day – the house did not stay silent. And it will keep speaking as long as no one contradicts it. If we democrats do not continue to show up – in Anklam, in Demmin, in Pasewalk, in Greifswald – then others will. And they are already here. It is time that the state recognizes that too. And acts. At last.
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