Far right in Germany uses Luther’s image on campaign posters

Martin Luther’s defiant declaration to Catholic Church leaders in 1521, “Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise,” is treasured in Germany as a motto of virtuous subversion. Now church officials and other political groups are taking a stand against attempts by the far right National Democratic Party, or NPD, to co-opt Luther’s words as a campaign slogan.

For the second straight election in the central German state of Thuringia, the NPD has put up posters incorporating a famous portrait of Luther by Lucas Cranach. Luther is portrayed as saying, “I would vote NPD, I cannot do otherwise,” alongside the party’s slogan, “Defend the homeland.”

The NPD, classified as a neo-Nazi party by the Counter Extremism Project, has used Luther’s image in previous German state and national elections. In 2017, Christoph Meyns, the Lutheran bishop in Braunschweig, to the north of Thuringia, told the German news agency DPA that the posters were “intolerable” political distortions of Luther and his message.