“You are not alone”

Felix Kummer knows exactly what it feels like to be threatened by followers of the far-right. Kummer, lead singer in the successful Chemnitz-based band Kraftklub, has first-hand experience of how people can find themselves in the crosshairs of Neo-Nazis simply due to their clothes or hairstyles. These incidents have left their mark on his lyrics and his commitment to democracy.

In the track “9010” on his solo album “Kiox”, Kummer tackles far-right violence from his early years, when he and his friends often had to flee from Neo-Nazi brutality. Years later he re-encounters one of the people who attacked him, now a figure of a failed existence. “The song is all about my frustration at not even being able to gloat when I see him looking a wreck outside the supermarket,” Kummer explains. Instead of taking delight in another’s suffering, he feels sympathy, but for Kummer, nothing has changed in the responsibility this man bears for his actions.

Sending out a message from Chemnitz

One occasion when Kummer’s commitment to democratic values was visible across the whole country was in September 2018, when Kraftklub and other artists organised the #WirSindMehr (We Are More) concert in the aftermath of far-right riots in Chemnitz in eastern Germany. Sixty-five thousand people came to protest against xenophobia and the far-right AfD party.

More than anything else, the concert was a sign of solidarity for Kummer. He wanted people who stand up to far-right extremism to feel, “You’re not alone.” Now more than ever, he says, people need to show that “we’re not going to back down.”

Space for diversity

Kummer goes out of his way to find places where efforts to support democracy need a helping hand. In August 2025, for example, Kraftklub played the Christopher Street Day in Bautzen in Saxony, while a far-right counter-demonstration went on nearby. That month, Kraftklub also appeared at the Jamel rockt den Förster festival in the village of Jamel in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which has been taking a stand against far-right extremism since 2007.

Whenever Kraftklub take to the stage, Kummer makes sure everyone knows that “We’re sick of racism, homophobia, transphobia.’ He calls on people to support youth centres, cultural associations and anti-fascist initiatives. He believes programmes such as these can create safe spaces for diversity and for people to get to know each other as individuals, especially in small towns.