The far right must not be allowed to appropriate this place. The monument is glorified by these guys. It's very dangerous," agreed Michael Fischer, 66, visiting the site with his daughter and grandchildren.
In a bid to stop the monument from being co-opted by the AfD, the local government is setting up a new European history documentation centre there.
Henfling, who has been campaigning against the neo-Nazi movement for more than 15 years, believes the centre will help stop the monument being used to fuel far-right political narratives.
Bjorn Hocke, a former history teacher who is now the head of the AfD in Thuringia, is one of the party's most controversial figures and was fined twice this year for using a banned Nazi slogan.
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