In the bumper election year of 2021, the Center for Political Beauty founded Flyerservice Hahn - Europe’s best flyer service!
Hard to believe, but true: a non-existent company, with no real business address, no entry in the commercial register, and no tax number, made all party associations of the far-right extremist AfD across Germany an unbeatable offer - which they simply couldn’t refuse.
Our fictitious company acquired orders worth millions. Afterall, why should a major political party and real alternative political group be like all the morons from the established parties and do its own flyer distribution?!
The upshot: 85 lazy local, district and regional party associations of the far-right populist AfD delivered millions of flyers to our nationwide network of ‘logistics centers’ - we are afterall the ‘global market leader’...! In the end, the 5 million flyers simply gathered dust in our warehouses and became 72 tons of far-right extremist party rubbish.
Welcome to Flyerservice Hahn!
Björn Höcke has praised the Center for Political Beauty as a »terrorist group«. Get close to the action and become an accomplice to a terrorist organization so far sadly recognized only by Höcke, Erdogan, and the Free State of Thuringia! As an accomplice you will make an invaluable contribution to inciting public unrest in the service of aggressive humanism. Nowhere else will you receive more unrest and dissent for every donated Euro.
1. Did you steal campaign material from the far-right extremist party AfD?
No. We simply offered to distribute their campaign material for them. The party gratefully accepted the offer and delivered 72 tons of rubbish to us. Unfortunately, because we were so appalled by the propaganda, we didn't manage to distribute any of the material.
2. Is your behavior criminal?
No. We are firmly convinced that our sleazy customers - namely the far-right extremist party AfD associations - have no right whatsoever to distribute propaganda of this kind... and certainly not to commission a fictitious company with no legal form to do it. If that’s what they want to do, they should do it themselves. After all, it’s not our problem that the AfD has no members willing to distribute flyers, because they are apparently too busy all day giving the Hitler salute in their own front gardens. The far-right extremist party AfD was free to choose which service provider it wanted. We did not force them to do anything. And whether everything within the AfD was above board when it came to awarding contracts – well, there may still be a few surprises to come. We are looking forward to the legal investigation and will put our litigious clients under the spotlight: we’ll happily reveal their connections to right-wing extremists (honeypots) and details of the financial backers of their propaganda.
We can't wait to have the communications between our bogus flyer service and AfD bigwigs from all over Germany discussed in court and made public. It's hard to believe, but our use of employee names like Dr Zhivago, and our requests for flyers to be transported from Schleswig-Holstein in north Germany to Mainz in southern Germany in order then to be distributed back in Schleswig-Holstein (!) did raise any red flags with AfD staff about the seriousness of our company.
3. Were you effectively manipulating Germany’s parliamentary elections?
Election manipulation is usually the term used for the spreading of fake news or false statements. It is estimated that 90% of fake news in the federal elections emanated from our esteemed ‘clients’, the far-right extremist party AfD. They misquote politicians; they use lies to agitate against particular population groups; and they playdown a serious pandemic. By contrast, we have lied to not one single voter. We have done nothing – quite literally!
In short, this is what happened: we went to AfD campaign events and got flyers. We then threw them in the nearest trash can. Every citizen is at liberty to do just that. We simply did it on what you might call an industrial scale.
4. How could the far-right populist party AfD fall for Hahn's flyer service?
This very question gave us sleepless nights for months. We made the AfD comrades the most ludicrous offer – and all from a company with no business address, no entry in the commercial register and no tax number. But instead of all this blowing our cover, the AfD comrades beat a path to our door. We were always hired immediately, and our details were passed around the party as a »hot tip«. We were offered cash in hand; and whenever we thought the game was up, we always received yet more flyers. Seriously - how stupid can people be?
We simply can't answer that question. But what we can say is that we hope – from the bottom of our hearts – that our country will never be governed by these particular Flyerservice Hahn »clients«.
»A classic case of ›the market will look after things‹ 😬👌🏼«
»Sending you guys all my love«
»It was and will remain the most beautiful and funniest anti-fascist stunt of the year. (...) I can't remember any other campaign in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany in which racist propaganda was so successfully withheld from the population.«
»Thank you, market forces: you sorted it! 😂😂😂«
»This is anti-democratic election manipulation, and I am extremely outraged. But I am also delightfully amused.
You are creating conflicting feelings in me and forcing me to think. Stop - please!«
»The CPB has filed an appeal against the search warrant and called on ›all civil society‹ to ›fend off this attack on artistic freedom‹. Their call is fully justified. If the view of the Berlin public prosecutor's office prevails, artistic freedom, even freedom of the press, will be massively threatened.«
»The AfD has made material available to the artists. That is very commendable. This makes the AfD the only political party that is serious about its support for culture and art, post covid and post lockdown.«
»And Mr Schlingensief is watching you from heaven!«
»How to divert the AfD from the right path. Tutorial Part 1«
»This is what anti-fascism really looks like: action - not words! Hats off to you all.«
»If the Center for Political Beauty did not exist, we’d have to invent it!«
»This is how strong democracy works.«
Tens of thousands of satisfied investors of a flyer service whose top priority is the dissatisfaction of its best (and only) customer.
Swimming in paper: yesterday, shareholders took a unique bath in fresh Nazi propaganda, which with their help had been removed from the election campaign. They witnessed, first-hand, what they would probably have found in their mailboxes had it not been for the »dismal« work carried out by Flyerservice Hahn.
»Your action is certainly very brave. I’m no lawyer – but I don’t think what you’ve done is legal!«
»Shortly before the German federal elections, they led all AfD local, district and state-level associations to believe that they had founded a company specialising in political advertising (...). What the AfD did not know at the time - and did not take the trouble to investigate - was that the company, ›Flyerservice Hahn‹, did not exist (not even on paper), and that the AfD was to be its only customer.«
»And this was despite the fact that some of the campaign artists sent the AfD people on wild goose chases. For example, they demanded that the AfD deliver flyers from Schleswig-Holstein to Mainz, even though the same flyers were intended for distribution in Schleswig-Holstein.«
»Best political advertising company. Everything went as I expected!«
»Great service! Distributes flyers – no quantity too small. Always well organised and has a network established over more than 10 years! Brilliant. My favorite employee there is Tino.«
»Our thanks go to ›Flyerservice Hahn‹ for keeping this blue*/brown** rubbish out of our mailboxes. Hats off! (*the official color of the AfD; **the color associated with the Nazis)«
»Does not deliver urgent flyers. Can cause huge damage. Not recommended.«
»Best company in the world. I can hear Miguel crying from here!«
»To date I have had only positive experiences with #FlyerserviceHahn. Every time I empty the mailbox, I am more convinced of the company’s first-class service. So far, not a single AfD flyer, so no junk to dispose of!«
»Strange, I've never had any problems with Flyerservice Hahn.«
»Either way, the AfD is not entirely satisfied with the non-distribution service it received from Europe’s best flyer service. The AfD now not only wants to withhold the contractually agreed fee; it is also demanding damages and threatening to sue.«
»The Party is pissed off and wants to sue.«
5 million far-right extremist party flyers were shredded at a waste management plant in Eisenhüttenstadt.
Flyerservice Hahn takes its job very seriously and strives for the very highest customer dissatisfaction. Together we prevented 5 million Nazi propaganda flyers from seeping into the election campaign.
The state security police searches for the company's merchandise and confiscates it. Letterbox stickers showing the message: »Flyers from Flyerservice Hahn only please«.
47 cigarette lighters displaying the message that they »must be destroyed«. So the state security police wants to destroy artworks.
»I attached the Flyerservice Hahn sticker to my mailbox, but it’s crooked. I wonder if the State Security Police would like to remove it. I would then try to put another one on – but straight this time.«
»The reasons given in the ruling are nothing more than a pretext; the allegations are not even sufficient for an indictment. The searches carried out by the Berlin state criminal investigation office are a political scandal!«
»Those who were targeted by this particular action are largely considered to be right-wing extremists; members have demonstrable connections to neo-Nazi groups and are themselves considered fascists. They don't play by the democratic rules.«
»The Center for Political Beauty has succeeded in creating a new variant of ›art as a service‹, which has long been part of the advanced canon of contemporary art. More specifically, this variant is art in the form of a denied service.«
»But this is fine art, which has an element of education. So is ›education‹ now forbidden? Can someone please enlighten me.«
»So is inventing alternative facts also a fraudulent act? Frau Weidel* wants to know!" (*AfD Member of Parliament)«
»So sometimes you have to take things into your own hands. In a literal sense, this is what the action artists at the Center for Political Beauty did. They offered the AfD the services of ›Flyerservice Hahn‹ (Reliable. Punctual. Cheap) and offered to print their election campaign flyers. And this they did; and then promptly disposed of five million flyers in the trash before they could be distributed.«
»This action by CPB corresponds in at least two ways to axioms of fine art: on the one hand, the ›Flyerservice Hahn‹ took seriously the 1953 clarion call from the Situationist International movement of ›Never work!‹. On the other hand, the action is characterised by precisely the sort of purposeless disinterest that the Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant claimed as a prerequisite for art. The fact that the active disinterest in distributing the flyers turns out in fact to be evidence of an actual interest, namely that of harming the AfD is all for the better.«
»Photos show the activists throwing tons of flyers produced by this radical right-wing political party into trash containers. These flyers would have been thrown away sooner or later any way - except that in this case nobody got to see them except the AfD and the fictitious flyer company.«
»Anyone who opened their mailbox in the weeks before the Germany parliamentary elections often found election flyers from various parties. But when it came to AfD material, things didn’t quite work out so well.«
»In our region, unfortunately the AfD didn’t use Flyerservice Hahn – so I had to take their flyers to the trash container myself.«
»Well, well, very best wishes from OMASGEGENRECHTS (Grannies Against the Right). Berlin #noAFD, in Berlin it was a success: only half got elected. Now it's #OMAräumtauf (#tidyupGRANNY) in the East, where there's still a lot of the stuff hanging around.«
»There are many things in life that can be ›flyer-serviced‹. Your action has made me be more mindful of this.«
»Not distributing Nazi propaganda is a very solid business model!«
»Thank you for your great art that shakes people up and makes them think. You enrich art and humanity.«
»I am extremely satisfied with the way you work and I cannot find anything wrong with your work ethic. Please keep up the good work.«
»There’s bound to be another toilet paper crisis.«
»I had a look at your website: I’d never have given you my business! 😂😂 Great 🙌👏👏«
Exberliner Red Flag: How to dispose of 72 tons of Nazi propaganda
The limited Times Raid at the "Center for Political Beauty" after a flyer campaign against AfD
World socialist web site Berlin justice system prosecutes anti-fascist artists
Reuters Pranksters target German far-right party with election campaign stunt
CGTN Artists prank German far-right, wasting millions of flyers before election
The Washinton Post German activists pretended to deliver a far-right party’s election fliers. A court battle could be next.
»The AfD has apparently fallen for a perfectly orchestrated guerrilla action: posing as the putative company, ›Flyerservice Hahn‹, the Center for Political Beauty (CPB) convinced numerous AfD district associations to send it around five million election leaflets.«
»In my opinion, ladies and gentlemen, fascism ALWAYS belongs in the trashcan!«
»Have you ever wondered why the AfD distributed so few flyers and advertising material during parliamentary election campaigns? It's probably because of those party members who, while in on the general rabble-rousing, were unwilling to use the normal means – like those used by the ›morons from the established parties‹ - of distributing campaign material.‹«
»So it was precisely the art activist group, the CPB, which back in 2017 (...) seriously annoyed the AfD, that – it claims - accepted no less than five million election flyers – which amounted to 72 tons of advertising material - only then, of course, to not distribute them.«
»Disguised as a fake flyer distribution company, the Center for Political Beauty extracted millions of flyers from the AfD. The party is absolutely furious.«
»The exhibition of the flyers is the tentative climax of an action that was greeted online by mass gloating and mockery of the AfD.«
»Normally, election flyers are distributed by local party workers; but some local Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) local associations took a different approach. They commissioned the Flyerservice Hahn to carry out this tedious work. This turned out to be a mistake, from the party's point of view – but much to the delight of the ›Center for Political Beauty‹«
»After activists from the group ›Center for Political Beauty‹ (CPB) cheated the AfD out of some five million flyers and posters during the election campaign and publicly exposed them, on Thursday morning things moved to the next stage. (...) The flyers were presented in three rubble containers filled to the brim and prepared ›for disposal‹ (...). The CPB then announced via Twitter that in the afternoon anyone interested would have the opportunity to come along and swim in the flyers.«
»The AfD, which has been well and truly hoodwinked, is probably foaming at the mouth. They don't want to give interviews and simply refer all enquiries to a press release.«
»How could a party be – pardon my bluntness - so stupid as to put its election campaign in the hands of an obviously bogus company ... a company with no other clients, and no entry in the commercial register?«
»The Berlin public prosecutor's office is ordering another round of politically motivated house searches against female artists. It seems as if some young lawyers would like to see a return of the Weimar Republic. Is this the same public prosecutor as in our case? We'll find out.«
»The AfD doesn't have much appreciation for art: they now want to file criminal charges.«
»In their abstract, poetic description of what they do, one of the characteristics of the collective's work is already clear: they provoke with their statements, create linguistic contradictions and want to initiate debate through their modes of communication.«
»Yes, the CPB pushes the boundaries of political politeness and certainly of criminal law. But that is a different matter. Their attack is not aimed at democracy, quite the opposite in fact: they want to reveal the gaping wounds of democracy.«
»I must admit, however, that as I was wading around in a pile of racist fliers three metres deep, I felt extremely happy. The only thing that makes me happier is being in a crowd of tens of thousands of people blocking AfD events. Antifascist art is an important component of such a mass movement.«
»But nobody in the AfD suspected anything - Hahn's give-away prices were apparently irresistible.«
»These German activists show that using art as a weapon can be fun—and very effective.«
»This was definitely not an ›art action‹.«
»Mr Ruch and his colleagues believe that they occupy the moral high ground from which they can make decisions for other people. It’s as if they are saying they are protecting those who don’t understand their moral values. This is precisely how dictators operate.«
»You can see immediately from the way they appear in public and smear themselves with dirt that they are mentally disturbed. And their actions show that clearly: they are totalitarian, anti-democratic left-wing fascists.«
»Great, finally an action that will put a legal stop to the allegedly criminal Center for Political Beauty. In their delusions of grandeur they have now committed clear fraud and will be destroyed in court by the AfD. I hope they will be given long prison sentences and that these criminals will finally get the justice they deserve. Maybe there is still a cell free next to Lina E.«
»So this is what democracy looks like. Anyone connected to #FlyerserviceHahn should be sent to North Korea, because it’s precisely this sort of thing that they need there - and you would have work there. Pathetic action, unnecessary; just shows that you're afraid the AfD won't come to power after all.«
»Another example of the criminal energy of leftists.«
»I hope the AfD sues for damages.«
»Constitutional protection? Nothing will happen. We live in Absurdistan. On the contrary: things will only get worse. What has happened so far is nothing compared to what’s to come. The concrete has been flowing for 16 years, and now comes the tombstone. Amen. R. I. P. Over and out.«
»This is neither art nor satire: it’s fraud.«
»You fucking do-gooders think you are smarter than everyone else.«
»Democracy is a foreign word for you. Your anti-democratic association is disgusting!«
»Total disgrace! Really bad.«