Overview
- In a new interview, principal Alexander Otto stood by blocking a 10th-grader’s placement with the AfD’s Brandenburg parliamentary group and described receiving death threats and abusive messages.
- Brandenburg’s education ministry reiterated that school leaders can deny internships when student welfare or pedagogy is at risk and said the pupil would have faced unmediated exposure to an anti-democratic ideology.
- Authorities classify the AfD’s Brandenburg state association as firmly right-wing extremist, a designation Otto cited in arguing schools need not be neutral.
- AfD lawmaker Lena Kotré had spotlighted the case in October, repeatedly naming the school and sharing a video that preceded a wave of online harassment.
- Otto said the school also received broad support, including flowers, many postcards, and a call from Minister-President Dietmar Woidke, and he recounted calming students who told him they were afraid.