The Protestant church in Pirna, Saxony, defends itself against any comparison with the Nazi era. This came from Mayor Tim Lochner, who is close to the AfD.
According to MDR, the Protestant parish in Pirna, Saxony, has spoken out against a Facebook post by the AfD-affiliated mayor Tim Lochner. The non-party politician made a provocative comparison on the social network after the parish had hoisted a rainbow flag at St. Mary’s Church on the occasion of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia and the local Christopher Street Day. Lochner drew a parallel to swastika flags that hung on the church during the Nazi era.
According to reports from MDR, the raising of the rainbow flag at St. Mary’s Church is also a reaction to the fact that it has not been allowed to fly on the masts of the Pirna city administration since Lochner’s term in office. In a post that has since been deleted, Lochner pointed to supposed historical connections and called on the church to take a stand and show its stance.
In his Facebook post, which has already been deleted and is available to “Sächsische.de”, he wrote: “God gave the German people a leader, God gave this people Adolf Hxxler.” That is a quote from a book from the Protestant Church in the library by Lochner.
He continues: “If we research very deeply, we will find evidence that flags with crosses and hooks also hung on St. Mary’s Church. The same church is welcome to comment on this. Show attitude. If it doesn’t, flying the rainbow flag becomes a compliant symbol and cheap political interference. In short, it was a state church, it is a state church. As long as Antifa flags and rainbow flags are waved together at demonstrations, I view the CSD as a political organization. My requirement of neutrality forces me not to let this flag fly.”
The church community responded to these accusations with a statement on its website. The church council described Mayor Lochner’s comparison as “hard to bear and wrong in content” and emphasized the Protestant church’s commitment to openness and tolerance. Raising the rainbow flag was an expression of solidarity with “people who are still being oppressed.”
The community appealed to the mayor to seek direct dialogue: “From our self-image, we are interested in ensuring that there is a friendly, calm and approachable culture of discussion among the people here, in which people can happily argue about differences in content,” said it further in the statement.
Tim Lochner was elected as the country’s first AfD mayor in December 2023. The independent master carpenter ran as a candidate for the AfD and received 38.54 percent of the vote in the second round. Lochner clearly prevailed over his opponent Ralf Thiele from the Free Voters (around 23 percent). In third place was the CDU candidate Kathrin Dollinger-Knuth with around 20 percent.
Lochner is a member of the AfD faction in the city council, but is not a party member himself. The 54-year-old already ran in the mayoral election in 2017, but clearly failed against the previous incumbent Klaus-Peter Hanke (independent), who did not run again in the last election for reasons of age.
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