On top of a mountain in the lush green forest of Thuringia, the Kyffhaeuser monument was erected as a tribute to Kaiser Wilhelm I, the first head of a united Germany.

But the huge sandstone monument has become a symbol of division in the former East German state as it prepares to hold a key regional election on September 1st.

The nostalgic structure has become a popular meeting point for members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is leading opinion polls ahead of the election on around 30 percent.

According to legend, Holy Roman Emperor Barbarossa has been sleeping at the monument for 800 years and his reawakening will restore the greatness of the German empire.

“The far right must not be allowed to appropriate this place,” Madeleine Henfling, the Green party’s top candidate for the election, told AFP at the foot of the monument.

“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.

Attacks and insults

Thuringia is one of three former East German states holding elections in September, with the AfD looking set to make big gains in all three.

Björn Höcke, 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.

Meanwhile, the Greens – part of the incumbent three-way coalition government in Thuringia – are fighting for their survival, polling on less than five percent.

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Henfling, 41, was born in Ilmenau, a small village in the region, six years before the fall of the Berlin Wall and remembers being aware of the rising far right even as a child.

“It’s sort of in my DNA. I can smell Nazis 100 metres away, even in a headwind,” she told AFP.

Attacks on politicians from all parties have increased in the run-up to the election.

“We get insulted all the time, and for me this is nothing new,” said Henfling, who has been a member of Thuringia’s regional parliament for 10 years.

However, the danger “has diversified”, she said, with people of different ages and backgrounds now potentially posing a threat.

“Our members no longer give out flyers or stick up posters on their own, and especially not at night,” she said.

Henfling and her team use an anonymous black vehicle for campaign trips and notify the police each time they are out.

‘Tired of change’

When campaigning door to door, “there are certainly places we don’t go, because we know we’d be turned away and there’d be no point,” she said.

Henfling believes the Greens have struggled in the former East Germany because they are “asking people to change their behaviour (to protect the climate)”.

“Many people in Thuringia, and elsewhere, are tired of change – even if it’s for their own good,” she said.

READ ALSO: INTERVIEW – ‘Failed climate policies are fuelling far-right politics in Germany’

After German reunification in 1990 and the collapse of the communist government, the former East Germany struggled with social deprivation and unemployment was rife.

“(People) are now afraid of being marginalised yet again, against a backdrop of uncertainty with the war in Ukraine and inflation,” Henfling said.

Henfling’s mother never found another job after being made redundant from a bookshop in 1990. But she believes trials like these have made East Germans stronger.

In the town of Nordhausen, a stone’s throw from the Kyffhaeuser monument, a 67-year-old pensioner who gave his name only as Wolfgang said he will be voting for the AfD.

“It’s because of the Greens that the economy is going to the dogs,” he said.

READ ALSO: Why a German orchestra is using music to protest against the far-right