Leading Left Youth Members Glorify Stalin and East Germany
Members of Germany's Die Linke youth wing were caught glorifying Stalin and East Germany in chat messages, with one working group defending Soviet gulags as part of socialism's transitional phase.
According to Nius, the scandal emerged from research conducted by Bavarian public broadcaster BR. The federal executive board of the youth organization has announced it will examine the incidents, though the group’s membership has nearly doubled over the past year.
Leading members of the now-dissolved federal working group “Agitprop” allegedly portrayed Stalin as someone who advanced modernization and punished capitalists. When confronted about the crimes committed in Soviet gulags, spokesmen for the working group said they preferred to focus on the positive aspects of what they termed “real existing socialism.” While acknowledging errors occurred, they characterized these atrocities as part of a transitional phase of socialism.
Representatives of the working group also expressed positive views about the German Democratic Republic. Regarding victims killed at the inner-German border, members reportedly stated that the revolution demands sacrifices. On Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong, spokesmen said lessons could be learned from his approach to organizing the classes.
The BAK Agitprop working group remained active within Linksjugend until its dissolution on June 1st, according to the BR investigation. The organization’s website had described the working group’s purpose as radicalizing young people. The regional spokesman for Linksjugend Hamburg was a member of the working group and wrote in an internal forum messages including long live Stalin and long live Honecker, referring to former East German leader Erich Honecker.
At the federal congress of Linksjugend, the state emblem of the DDR was displayed on a wall. Beyond the glorification of Stalin and East Germany, BR’s findings also uncovered anti-Israel statements and trivialization of the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas in internal chats and social media posts.
Linksjugend Solid currently claims approximately 14,300 members. The organization’s membership has nearly doubled since 2024, raising concerns about the rapid growth of a youth movement whose leadership has been exposed celebrating totalitarian dictatorships responsible for millions of deaths.
The revelations come as Germany continues to grapple with extremism within its political youth organizations. The explicit praise for Stalin, whose regime killed millions through forced collectivization, political purges, and the gulag system, represents a disturbing embrace of historical atrocities by activists seeking to influence German politics.
With information from Nius
