AFD wreath removed at Berlin Stauffenberg ceremony, sparking controversy

During the annual commemoration of the July 20, 1944 Stauffenberg plot at the Bendlerblock in Berlin, Tobias Korenke – great‑nephew of Dietrich Bonhoeffer – seized an AfD wreath that had been placed by the party’s Bundestag faction. He tried to take the wreath away, leading to a brief scuffle in which the wreath was damaged and later thrown into the nearby Landwehrkanal. A security guard intervened, police recorded Korenke’s details and the protocol chief of the federal government filed a damage report; the case was later withdrawn.

Jens‑Christian Wagner, director of the Buchenwald Memorial, publicly praised Korenke’s action, calling it “civil courage against historical revisionism” and suggesting he deserved an award. The 20 July Foundation also condemned the political appropriation of the remembrance ceremony. The AfD denounced the removal as an affront to democratic rights and defended its right to lay a wreath.

Korenke explained that he acted because he believed the wreath was “out of place” at a site honoring resistance fighters, and said he would repeat his action if confronted again.