Florian Kirner

alias Prinz Chaos II.

Be as different as you possibly can!

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From 31 May 2012 to 3 June 2012, the small Weitersroda Castle near Hildburghausen became a meeting place for singer-songwriters: the Paradiesvogelfest took place on the grounds, a festival that is now regarded as an established cultural institution in southern Thuringia. But in the days and weeks beforehand, the festival was repeatedly targeted by far-right attacks. Between 2008 and 2012, local Nazis tried to prevent the event—not only through hate campaigns on social media, but also through direct violence: in the castle courtyard, the car of a participating musician was set on fire. After a solidarity appeal by singer-songwriter Konstantin Wecker, Heinz Michael Vilsmeier traveled to Weitersroda and, on the sidelines of the festival, spoke with the organizer Florian Kirner, also known as Prinz Chaos II, about the attacks, the mood on the ground, and what it means to defend culture against intimidation.

Sample

The following excerpt comes from the full interview published in the publication.

Prinz Chaos II: We find ourselves in the midst of an epic conflict. This is a kind of culture war that has arisen here. At its center—actually, and absurdly—is the question of my sexual orientation, or rather that is what it is being reduced to. We are dealing with a virulent and militant hatred of gay people. That mixes with village conflicts and village issues from the last four and a half years that probably no one is spared who tries to further develop a castle under their own direction—a castle that was used for decades in GDR times and lay relatively fallow for 20 years after reunification. It is a very dangerous situation, and it’s a bit like in “Biedermann and the Arsonists”: after an arson attack on a car in the castle courtyard and after assaults and de facto death threats, we are now being pilloried because we allegedly claim that the whole village consists of Nazis. Of course we don’t do that! But to stand there and say there are no Nazis here in this village—that is simply an unbearable blindness on the part of people who obviously don’t want to see it. They must be asked to what extent they are also supporting actions directed against the residents of this castle.

HMV: On the village website, weitersroda.de, the headline reads: “Weitersroda ruled by Chaos …”. There you can read that the village sees itself as having been unjustifiably placed at the center of public interest and that this is due to squabbles with Prinz Chaos. It also takes aim at the mayor of Hildburghausen, who—allegedly without justification—accuses Weitersroda youths of right-wing extremist views. What can you say about that?

Prinz Chaos II: The document you’re referring to is not a statement by the village, but by the local district council (Ortsteilrat), which has positioned itself here in a way that, to me, is scandalous and despicable. A right-wing structure exists in this village—that is, in my view, a fact. And the large majority of residents should open their eyes and look at what is going on in some areas, and unfortunately not only among the youth.