Fellow AfD members were embarrassed by Höcke’s speech. Many considered it anti-Semitic and wanted him ejected from the party. But he’s still a member and still has supporters. Like Höcke, they are convinced that Germans need a 180-degree change in “their politics of commemoration.” Thinking about the past, they want to consider more than the 12 years of Hitler.

Among AfD members it’s not hard to find people who say they shouldn’t be responsible for what Germans did three generations ago. Or “We are a different generation, we haven’t committed any crimes.” They want a Germany that feels like a normal country. “Everyone else is proud of their country, but we’re not,” they sometimes say.

The saddest summary of the controversy over the Memorial came from the architect, Peter Eisenman. In an interview with the weekly Die Zeit he said that it couldn’t be built today. In his view the currents of xenophobia and anti-Semitism now flowing through the German body politic would not allow him to erect such a monument in the nation’s capital. The principle that the Habermas generation spread, that victims of the Holocaust deserved permanent commemoration, has faded. “The social climate has changed,” Eisenman said. “Much of what was long considered to be accepted is now being questioned.”