Düsseldorf Galleries Fight AfD's Bid to Claim Joseph Beuys

More than 30 galleries in Düsseldorf, Germany, signed an open letter on October 15 accusing the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) of trying to "instrumentalize Düsseldorf's art and cultural history to serve a political narrative that promotes social exclusion."

Daniela Horn, founder of the Van Horn gallery, initiated the letter. Its trigger was an AfD event titled "Culture Policy from the Right!," originally scheduled for October 26 at the city's Heinrich Heine Institute. That venue will no longer host the event. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, citing a Düsseldorf city official, attributed the cancellation to "organizational reasons."

Who is being claimed, and by whom?

The letter points to the AfD's own website, where the party invokes two figures central to Düsseldorf's identity: the poet Heinrich Heine and the artist Joseph Beuys. Beuys, who taught at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, remains the city's most famous postwar artist—and a political one, which is precisely what makes the claim contested.

The galleries' response is blunt. "We, the galleries of Düsseldorf, firmly oppose this attempt to co-opt the history and cultural heritage of our city for a partisan political agenda," the letter reads. "Art and culture do not belong to any political party."

The letter frames the AfD's cultural references as part of a broader effort to dredge up new interest in Germany's past in the hope of returning to it. Its closing line draws the boundary in civic terms: "Düsseldorf's culture thrives on its openness—an openness that must be preserved."

Who signed, and how far did it spread?

The signatories include galleries with international reputations, among them:

• Galerie Konrad Fischer
• Ruttkowski;68
• Sies + Höke

The protest did not stay in one city. A second open letter followed, this one from Cologne galleries, signed by:

• Galerie Gisela Capitain
• Drei
• Galerie Nagel Draxler

"By adding our signatures, we—as galleries based in Cologne—support this initiative out of solidarity with our colleagues in Düsseldorf," the Cologne letter states. "Together, across the Rhineland, we stand up for the freedom of art and culture, cultural diversity, and fundamental democratic values."

What does this change for the city's art scene?

In practical terms, the Heinrich Heine Institute has already dropped the AfD event, so the immediate venue dispute is settled. What the letters change is the terms of the argument: they put named, established commercial galleries on record as refusing to let Beuys and Heine be used as partisan shorthand. That matters because dealer communities rarely issue collective political statements at all.

The Rhineland-wide coordination also signals that galleries in Düsseldorf and Cologne—two markets that often compete for the same collectors—will act jointly when they see cultural heritage at stake. Whether further institutions follow, and whether the AfD relocates its October 26 event elsewhere, will test how durable this front is.