{"id":1054,"date":"2026-10-18T11:27:04","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T15:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/?p=1054"},"modified":"2026-10-19T03:44:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T07:44:06","slug":"mentions-of-afd-in-nuremberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/mentions-of-afd-in-nuremberg\/","title":{"rendered":"Mentions of AfD in Nuremberg"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trash Can Musings<\/b><\/h2>\n

October 18, 2026<\/span><\/a> \/<\/span> Carina Fucich<\/span><\/a><\/h2>\n

Since reading about the rise of Germany\u2019s far-right political party, the AfD, I have been looking forward to observing how it is perceived in the country. Within our short time in Nuremberg, I stumbled across only one mention of the party \u2013 a purple sticker reading \u201cFCK AFD.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The sticker was on a grey trash can on the edge of a path that cut through Wohrder Lake. I saw the sticker out of the corner of my eye. I wandered on for a few strides before processing what the sticker was and tracked back to take a picture of the message. The fact that the sticker was written in English caused me to reflect on the perception of English use in Germany.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I have not yet encountered anyone who doesn\u2019t speak English in Germany. Granted, we have spent most of our time in touristy places, which may give me a skewed perception of the use of English here. However, the exhibit text in the Nuremberg Trials museum was in German only. Translation of physical exhibits takes up space and can affect visuals that are so important to museum experiences, but I cannot see any obvious drawbacks to providing a translation option in digital displays.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This absence of translations was very interesting as the Nuremberg Trials themselves were translated into multiple languages in 1945 and remain of great interest internationally. Even more notable, there was a paper sign taped to the top of one of the digital displays that said \u201cOut of Order\u201d in English, with the German translation below. The choice to provide the English translation to \u201cout of order\u201d on a physical sign, but not provide an option for translation of the digital display seemed very counterintuitive. Additionally, at the Albrecht D\u00fcrer house museum, our other stop in the city, provided English translations throughout the exhibits. This lack of English translation seems to be unique to the Nuremberg Trials museum.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When looking into the AfD\u2019s stance on the use of English in Germany, I observed that they would like to limit or eliminate English classes in schools in hopes of preserving the German language. Thus, the choice to write the anti-AfD sticker in English rather than German seems to reflect a contradiction in language use that I would like to learn more about through the course of this trip.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The purple color also stuck out to me. When I researched \u201cFCK AFD\u201d stickers, they seem to come in either rainbow or black and red. The black and red stickers are characteristic German colors, as they appear on the German flag, and the rainbow colors seem to have a correlation to the LGBTQ movement, which the AfD opposes. However, purple seems like a rather random choice of color. I looked for images of purple \u201cFCK AFD\u201d stickers, but none appeared. This deviation is interesting to me, as political messaging in the US typically all follows a uniform font and color scheme, such as the characteristic bright red MAGA hats. I will be on the lookout to see if this deviation in political branding is typical in Germany.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the \u201cFCK AFD\u201d sticker, there is a blue sticker made of a similar material. After some digging, I identified it as a logo for the manufacturer of the garbage can. This indicates that the bottom sticker was placed on the can earlier. However, the AFD sticker is more worn, with its edges peeling off and a slash through the middle. Could this indicate that some person on their morning routine saw the sticker and tried to peel it off? Apparently, they didn’t bother to return and remove it completely.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Upon reading about the rise of the AfD, I have been looking forward to observing how the party is perceived in Germany. Within our short time in Nuremberg, I only stumbled across one mention of the party – a purple sticker reading \u201cFCK AFD.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The sticker lay on a grey trash can on the edge of a path that interestingly enough cut through the Wohrder See lake. I saw the sticker out of the corner of my eye, and kept wandering on for a few strides before processing what the sticker was, and tracking back to take a picture of the message. The fact that the sticker was written in English caused me to reflect on the perception of English use in Germany.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I have not yet encountered anyone who doesn\u2019t speak English in Germany so far. Granted, we have spent most of our time in mostly touristy places, which likely gives me a skewed perception of the use of English in the country. However, the writing in the Nuremberg Trials museum was in German only, including an interactive digital exhibit towards the back of the museum. Translation of physical exhibits takes up space and can affect visuals that are so important to museum experiences, but I cannot see any obvious drawbacks to providing a translation option in digital displays.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This absence of translations was very interesting to me, as the Nuremberg trials themselves were translated into various languages, and the trials are inherently of great interest internationally. What\u2019s even more notable is the fact that there was a paper sign taped to the top of one of the digital displays that said \u201cOut of Order\u201d in English, with the German translation for out of order. The choice to provide the English translation to \u201cout of order\u201d on a physical sign, but not provide an option for translation of the digital display seemed very counterintuitive to me. Additionally, the Albrecht D\u00fcrer house museum we went to provided English translations throughout the exhibits, so this lack of English translation seems to be unique to the Nuremberg trials museum.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When looking into the AfD\u2019s stance on the use of English in the country, I saw that they would like to limit or eliminate English classes in schools in hopes of preserving the German language. Thus, the choice to write the anti-AfD sticker in English rather than German seems to demonstrate this nuance in language use, which I would like to learn more about through the course of this trip.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The color of the sticker also stuck out to me, as when I looked up \u201cFCK AFD\u201d stickers, they seemed to be uniformly colored in either black and red, or in rainbow. The black and red stickers are characteristic German colors, as they appear on the German flag, and the rainbow colors seem to have a correlation to the LGBTQ movement, which the AfD opposes. However, purple seems like a rather random change of color. I looked for images of purple \u201cFCK AFD\u201d stickers, but none appeared. This deviation is interesting to me, as political messaging in the US typically all follows a uniform font and color, such as the characteristic bright red MAGA hats. I will be on the lookout to see if this deviation in political branding is typical in Germany.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lastly, I was drawn towards the condition of the sticker on the garbage can. Under the \u201cFCK AFD\u201d sticker, there is a blue sticker, which with some digging I identified as a sticker advertising the manufacturer of the garbage can. This indicates that that bottom sticker was on the can from when it was placed there originally, and seems to be made of a similar material as the AFD sticker. However, the AFD sticker is more worn, with its edges peeling off, and a slash that goes through the middle of the sticker. Could this indicate that some people on their morning walks and runs see the sticker and try to peel it off, but don\u2019t bother to return to completely cover it up or rip it off? Regardless, this sticker was a very interesting insight into AfD perception in Germany, and has set me up to observe AfD rhetoric in Berlin. I am particularly interested in observing the difference in how the AfD is perceived and discussed in these two cities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trash Can Musings October 18, 2026 \/ Carina Fucich Since reading about the rise of Germany\u2019s far-right political party, the AfD, I have been looking forward to observing how it is perceived in the country. Within our short time in Nuremberg, I stumbled across only one mention of the party \u2013 a purple sticker reading<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7981,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7981"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1054"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1067,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054\/revisions\/1067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}