Overview
- Zentrum für Politische Schönheit set a bronze figure of Walter Lübcke outside the CDU’s Konrad-Adenauer-Haus and held an evening inauguration attended by more than 100 people.
- Publicist and former CDU politician Michel Friedman addressed the gathering and called for a ban on the AfD, with actress Anna Thalbach listed among expected attendees.
- Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner criticized the action as tasteless and an inappropriate use of a murder victim for political messaging.
- Lübcke’s family faulted the organizers for notifying them only at the last minute and not involving them in the plans, while reaffirming opposition to right-wing extremism and support for a firm firewall to the right.
- The artist collective said the memorial aims to pressure the CDU not to cooperate with the AfD; Lübcke was murdered in 2019 by a right-wing extremist who is serving a life sentence.