Brandenburg: In Ortrand in Lusatia, every second person voted for the AfD – a visit to the site
Ortrand. Herb sauce please, a dash of garlic sauce, full salad but not many onions. No problem, Hüseyin Yavuz fills a quarter of flatbread with shaved meat and an impressive amount of greens. Then he wraps the kebab in aluminum foil. It comes with a plastic fork because the portion is so full. "Everyone is very friendly here," says the man behind the counter of the "Ibo Döner Kebab" food truck on the old market in Ortrand in Lusatia.
In the federal election last Sunday, every second eligible voter there voted for the AfD - 52.53 percent of the second votes went to the party, and AfD direct candidate Birgit Bessin even received 55.78 percent. Nationwide, the AfD is well ahead - it received 32.5 percent of the second votes.
This makes Ortrand (Oberspreewald-Lausitz), which has a population of 2,000 and is only a few kilometers from the Saxon border, one of the AfD strongholds in the state of Brandenburg. We tried to find out why the party, which the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution considers to be partly right-wing extremist, is the first choice for an absolute majority of Ortrand residents.
The day after the election is one thing above all else around the old market square in Ortrand: a day of rest. The German House, the pizzeria, the bakery - all are closed. Hüseyin Yavuz's kebab van is the only food vendor around the mint-colored town hall with its wooden bell tower. The AfD's election manifesto for the Bundestag states: "Immigration from foreign civilizations does not solve Germany's economic problems." On Mondays in Ortrand you have to say: yes, it does.
Marcel Hausmann is on his lunch break and has the warm aluminum foil package with the kebab put into a bag. The professional fisherman voted for the AfD. "I've been voting for the AfD for as long as I can remember," says the 41-year-old, who lives in a neighboring village and gets a kebab in Ortrand once a week. Donald Trump's "America first" must also apply to Germany: "I'm proud to be a German," says the fisherman.
For Hausmann, migration is the key issue. "At some point the country will be full," he says. That's why the state needs to better guard the borders, says Hausmann. There are police everywhere in football stadiums, says the Dynamo Dresden fan. Christmas markets are also strictly guarded, "but it doesn't work at the border," says Hausmann.
The fisherman admits that he has not personally had any bad experiences with foreigners. In Ortrand, you can "count them on one hand". Personally, he is not doing badly and he wants it to stay that way, says Hausmann, adding: "I am afraid of conditions like in West Germany." He has family near Frankfurt am Main who don't dare go out on the street in the evenings. When asked, the fisherman says that his relatives have not personally had any bad experiences with foreigners either.
Town Hall with Old Market in Ortrand.
Source: Ulrich Wangemann
He doesn't mean the kebab seller Hüseyin when he calls for a change in migration policy, says Hausmann. It's not about those who pay taxes. "Anyone who does stupid things" has to leave the country. Since all the other parties have already taken over, the AfD should now be allowed to take over, says Hausmann: "The AfD should prove that it can do it."
Nurse Ines (55) had an early shift and treated herself to a kebab after work. She doesn't expect anything from a federal government under Friedrich Merz. "In two years there will be a big bang, then the AfD will take over," says Ines, who also voted for the party. The AfD will "kick out parasites," Ines expects - and reintroduce nuclear power.
Marcel Hausmann
professional fishermen
She has nothing against foreigners as long as they "learn the language and work," says the nurse. She has not had any bad experiences with people from other countries. "We are lucky in Ortrand - for now," says Ines. You hear so much in the media about the big cities.
In the town hall opposite the kebab shop, district director Niko Gebel sits at a long consultation table. Anyone who wants to see him first climbs the stairs past murals with scenes from the region's history. A fireman with a spiked helmet extinguishes a burning attic, workers in leather aprons pour glowing ore into a mold - a tribute to the Ortrand ironworks. The company, which dates back to 1887, filed for bankruptcy at the end of 2024 because of a lack of orders from the automotive industry.
CDU politician Gebel, who is also a member of his party's state executive committee, believes the migration issue is important, but steers the conversation towards an economic-psychological trauma. "Lusatia used to be the industrial centre of the German Democratic Republic," says Gebel. "This is where the prosperity was, this is where the bear was dancing - right from here to Cottbus. We generated the energy, had the glassworks and the heavy industry."
Niko Gebel (CDU)
district administrator
Then came the turning point. Gebel bangs the heavy table with the edge of his hand. The unemployment rate was more than 20 percent. "Of the 103 students in my year, ten stayed here," says the district director. "That had an effect on people." Billions are flowing into the region to make it easier to say goodbye to coal. But Gebel fears: "People will only believe in the structural change once it has been successfully implemented - perhaps not until ten years later."
In comparison, Ortrand is doing quite well, says Gebel. There is even an oversupply of dentists in the district. Economically, there is still almost full employment with an unemployment rate of 2.3 percent.
But the signs of an economic crisis are increasing, Gebel points out. The BASF site in Schwarzheide is weakening, the Franconian pipe works are closing their factory, and wind turbine manufacturer Vestas has left the area. "This is reflected in the election results," says Gebel. "We are in the greatest economic crisis that the Federal Republic has experienced since its existence."
Niko Gebel (CDU), district administrator of the Ortrand district.
Source: Ulrich Wangemann
Many AfD voters still feel the trauma of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Pensioner Marianne crosses the Old Market with a walking stick and shopping bag. She is on her way to a therapeutic treatment. With regard to the fall of the Berlin Wall, she speaks of the "change when they attacked us from over there". Marianne was a telephone operator at the chemical plant, which then went to BASF. She experienced the dismantling of her department.
She has no problems with foreigners, says the 76-year-old. "In the East, every second person was a Fiji," says Marianne, using this derogatory term for Vietnamese and other Asian skilled workers in the GDR. However, she is not happy with the Afghans and Syrians today. "The whole mentality doesn't fit," she says. She doesn't think the AfD people are Nazis. Then the pensioner says something that really should never be said again: "Nothing was wrong" under Adolf Hitler, she says. The only thing I wouldn't consider to be a good thing is the extermination of the Jews.
How are the other 48 percent of Ortrand voters who did not vote for the AfD doing in such a political climate? Detlef Zimmermann is a pensioner. The 65-year-old used to work for an energy supplier. Like many AfD voters, he is not happy with the traffic light coalition. But he thinks the AfD people are just wisecracks. "Anyone can throw out slogans," says the pensioner while waiting for his kebab. "How do they plan to make all borders secure and control them 100 percent?"
He only has political discussions "with certain people," says Zimmermann. "If I come across a lateral thinker, I'd rather not. There's no point." He himself has always voted for the Left Party, but this time he voted for the FDP for tactical reasons.
In the shop behind Hüseyin Yavuz's kebab truck, Steve Kühne (39) and Yannick Herfurth (18) are renovating the former Schlecker market. Together with Yavuz, Steve Kühne wants to create a permanent location for the snack bar at the Altmarkt. The menus are already hanging on the walls and a stainless steel kitchen has been installed.
The renovated train station of Ortrand in Lusatia.
Source: Ulrich Wangemann
"The election result is catastrophic," says Kühne. He said he voted for the Left "out of self-defense" and even recently joined the party. The AfD only makes politics for the "upper ten thousand" and feeds the population with populist slogans, says Kühne.
Even today, five years after the start of the corona pandemic, demonstrators still march through the streets of Ortrand every Monday evening. He recognizes many faces. The processions are accompanied by music from nationalist singer-songwriters, reports Kühne. Many of the protesters probably no longer know why they are taking to the streets in the first place. They follow the motto "The main thing is that I am against it." He finds that sad, says Kühne.
Bus shelter in Ortrand with political slogans.
Source: Kyra Hertel
Anyone who leaves Ortrand by train cannot fail to notice the traces of the ideological struggle in the town. A sticker war is taking place on street lamps and switch boxes on the way to the lovingly renovated train station with its slate gable. Dresden ultras are handing out stickers with skulls and steel helmets, while the opposing side is covering them with the words "Nazi propaganda was covered up here". A battle of the permanent marker taggers is raging at the bus shelter in front of the train station: "FCK AfD" versus "FCK AFA" (FCK stands for "Fuck", AFA is the abbreviation for Antifaschistische Bewegung).
Two 15-year-old schoolgirls are waiting for the train. They feel the struggle every day at school, they say. "Everyone at school is behind the AfD," says one girl. Political discussions are very one-sided. If you criticize the AfD, you are immediately called a "left-wing tick," even if you are politically neutral. After school, both girls want to leave Ortrand.
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