In the streets of Erfurt, tens of thousands placed their bodies between a political party and its ambitions, as the Alternative for Germany convened its annual conference amid polling numbers that suggest the far-right is no longer merely a protest movement but a governing force in waiting. The demonstrations, organized by civil coalitions and trade unions, spoke to a deeper reckoning within German democracy — one that asks how a society built on the memory of its own catastrophes responds when the patterns it swore to recognize begin to reappear. With eastern state elections approaching and t