Saxony school pornography scandal triggers police probe and political backlash
German Parliament Debates School Project Week After Far-Right Outrage Over "Porn Scandal"
It's rare for the Bundestag to concern itself with school project weeks, but this week, that may well happen. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has called for an emergency debate to express outrage over a so-called "porn scandal." Once again, the extremist party is demonstrating that, for them, education is first and foremost a battleground.
The controversy stems from a theater project in March at a ninth-grade class in Schleife, a town in Saxony's Görlitz district. During the workshop, students were suddenly confronted with a magazine containing photos of naked people and explicit sexual imagery, distributed by the project leaders. School principal Jan Rehor intervened, and the project week was abruptly canceled. But the issue is far from resolved.
The project at the secondary school in Schleife was meant to explore the theme of courage. The two external leaders—affiliated with the Berlin branch of the Falken, a socialist youth organization—were brought in to guide the workshop. As Rehor told regional broadcaster MDR, the week was supposed to address "despair and hopelessness among young people in the face of current crises."
The Falken's state association later confirmed this in a public statement. At the start of the project week, students were tasked with creating a collaborative collage. The workshop leaders provided stacks of magazines and booklets for the students to cut out images and rearrange them. However, among the materials was a publication containing pornographic content.
When students took photos of the explicit images, the project leaders confiscated the magazine and explained that "the material was not part of the workshop and should not have been in the hands of the participants," according to the Falken's statement.
Media reports identify the magazine as Queer Sex – Whatever The Fuck You Want!, a 160-page publication. In a 2021 review, Süddeutsche Zeitung described it as a work showing "how normal queer sex is," while Die Zeit called it a "smutty magazine with an educational mission."
Yet the project at Schleife's secondary school was not intended as sex education. Principal Rehor shut it down on the first day after learning of the incident, a decision the school authorities have since deemed appropriate.
After students told their parents they had been exposed to pornographic material in class, the parents filed a police report. Investigators are now probing two individuals on suspicion of distributing pornographic content to minors. Meanwhile, Saxony's Ministry of Education is examining whether the project organizers violated state school regulations.
Micki Börchers, who has served as federal chair of the Falken since 2025, told our website on Tuesday that the inclusion of the magazine was an oversight. The materials for the collage had been donated, she explained. While the two volunteer project leaders had reviewed the magazines beforehand, they had not realized one contained inappropriate content when they distributed them in March.
About a month after the incident, the far-right weekly Junge Freiheit reported that pornographic images had been shown during a ninth-grade theater project, along with the dissemination of political messages. According to the local Lausitzer Rundschau, AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla—who lives just a few kilometers from the school—drew attention to the case.
For the far-right AfD, education has long been a political battleground. The party has repeatedly failed in its attempts to block anti-racism initiatives in schools, operates denouncement platforms targeting teachers whose politics it opposes, and directly harasses educators. Universities, too, are in the AfD's crosshairs: In Saxony-Anhalt, the party's state parliamentary group is reportedly compiling lists of degree programs and academic chairs it finds objectionable.
The AfD in Saxony-Anhalt also aims to defund anti-racism programs in schools, replacing them with self-defense courses, as outlined in its platform for September's state elections. The party further seeks to abolish compulsory schooling, arguing that parents who distrust "political indoctrination" should be free to homeschool their children—presumably to raise them as staunch patriots.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is also exploiting the incident in Schleife, Saxony, for political gain. On Tuesday, Götz Frömming, the party's education policy spokesman in the Bundestag, announced a special debate on the matter—despite it being a state-level issue. For the AfD, it was a welcome opportunity to call into question compulsory schooling, claiming that left-wing NGOs are allegedly pushing their way into schools.
While Frömming did not explicitly demand the abolition of compulsory education, he noted that voices within the party were growing louder in favor of "relaxing school attendance requirements." He then quickly pivoted to the broader culture war: "We want schools to be neutral spaces again." It is clear, however, what the AfD considers "political neutrality."
The AfD's account of what happened in Schleife was vague and far removed from the actual events. Frömming claimed that two very young activists had "prioritized their own sexuality" during the project, adding, "The tip of the iceberg was that the materials provided to students included a pornographic booklet over 100 pages long."
He dismissed the idea of an accident, then veered into insinuations about group sex scandals at a 1960s summer camp run by the Falken, a left-wing youth organization. "They have declared war on everything we associate with a heteronormative family model," Frömming alleged.
In the upcoming debate, he said he intended to investigate whether similar cases existed, what the state's duty of care for "our children" entailed, and to what extent such NGOs should be "allowed to target our children." The political consequences, he suggested, would become clear once the facts were established.
The AfD's years of intimidation tactics are having an effect. A representative survey on political education from last year reveals that many schools now avoid the topic out of fear of conflict with colleagues, students, and parents. This is particularly true in eastern Germany, where nearly one in three teachers reports resistance to democratic education from families or students. Nationwide, one in five educators fears being accused of violating supposed neutrality in the classroom.
Susann Weitzmann, regional coordinator for Eastern Saxony at the Schools Without Racism—Schools with Courage network, views these developments with concern. "In the districts of Bautzen and Görlitz, there are schools with entrenched far-right structures," she told our website. For the AfD, she added, these environments make it easier to advance their agenda.
Even among the 13 schools currently in her network, Weitzmann senses growing unease. One school administration, for example, required that newly distributed brochures avoid provoking far-right backlash. In some cases, students involved in anti-racism initiatives have faced harassment.
The incident is still under review. While many teachers and school leaders remain committed, Weitzmann noted, "It has not gotten easier for schools to stand up for tolerance and diversity."
The Schleife case was also discussed this week in Saxony's education committee. State Education Minister Conrad Clemens (CDU) called it an "outrageous incident." Though the investigation is ongoing, he said the school had responded appropriately. A ministry spokesperson told our website that projects with external partners fall under the school's own responsibility, though "digital marketplaces" exist where external providers' applications are vetted by school authorities to ensure quality.
Would such measures have prevented the Schleife incident? Micki Börchers, chair of the Falken, insisted the booklet had ended up in students' hands by mistake, contradicting the organization's pedagogical standards. "If we ever run a similar project again," she promised, "we will scrutinize our materials more carefully."
The Amadeu Antonio Foundation had funded the theater workshop in March. The organization has since issued a statement apologizing "to the affected students and their parents, as well as to the school staff." The foundation has halted its funding and is in contact with the school administration, working to address and investigate the incident.
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