In reaction to the planned appearance of the far-right stand-up comedian Nikolai Binner in the Frankfurt district of Bergen-Enkheim, civil society groups and political actors are organizing resistance. For this Friday, the Bergen-Enkheim Alliance has scheduled a rally at 6:00 PM in front of the Bergen Stadthalle on Schelmenburgplatz. Binner is set to perform there that same evening at 8:00 PM before a sold-out crowd.
The protests’ background lies in repeated accusations against the comedian’s act and public presence. A civil society coalition as well as political parties—including Frankfurt’s SPD and Die Linke in Römer—accuse Binner of disseminating queer-hostile, racist, and antisemitic content under the guise of comedy.
Coalition: Binner aims to push the boundaries of what is permissible to say
According to the coalition, Binner pursues a strategy of wrapping minority-hostile narratives in seemingly harmless jokes to push the “boundaries of what is permissible” to the right and normalize discrimination in everyday life. Die Linke also pointed to Binner’s closeness to the so-called New Right, as well as the sale of merchandise bearing the slogan “Reh-Migration,” which is criticized as a deliberate trivialization of far-right deportation plans. In addition, there are allegations of Holocaust relativization and of the blanket contempt of democratic institutions.
Criticism of the municipal Saalbau GmbH
A central target of the protests is the City of Frankfurt and the municipal subsidiary ABG Frankfurt Holding—specifically its Saalbau company, which operates the Bergen Stadthalle. At the end of September, the Left faction in Römer urged the city administration to terminate the venue’s lease and to refrain from providing municipal spaces to actors who stoke hostility toward groups. “No one needs to give him a stage, especially not the municipal Saalbau,” said Michael Müller, the Left faction’s cultural policy spokesperson.
As efforts to cancel the event in advance failed, the Bergen-Enkheim Alliance now calls for fundamental review mechanisms in the allocation of public halls. Municipal operators should be held more accountable in screening ahead of time which actors they give a public platform to. With the rally Friday evening, citizens, political parties, and local initiatives seek to send a signal for diversity and the protection of queer and other marginalized groups in the neighborhood.
