In the 1890s, Germany pioneered electric bikes, launching a legacy of sustainable transportation innovation. Yet today, in an ironic twist, Germany’s Nazi party (AfD) has elevated a polluting relic of Soviet engineering into a cultural battleground symbol.

As Germans increasingly embrace efficient, affordable electric two-wheeled transportation, Nazis (AfD) have seized upon an unlikely symbol of resistance: the primitive, polluting two-stroke Simson engines manufactured in East Germany. This embrace of DDR-era technology by a nationalist party reveals a deeper political strategy.

The irony is striking: while electric bikes represent Germany’s authentic heritage of proud innovations, the AfD has chosen Soviet-bloc mopeds as symbols of “traditional” German identity. This dubious appropriation appears deliberately provocative — these engines, which fail modern emissions standards by spectacular margins, serve as perfect vehicles for the AfD’s broader assault on regulations and regulatory authority itself.

Obsolescence makes these mopeds ideal political props for the politically obsolete Nazis. An inability to meet basic standards transforms them from mere vehicles into symbols of false victimhood, grievance and attempted defiance against time itself, not to mention modern governance.

I have firsthand experience with these machines, having spent years modifying an Italian moped from the 1980s. The technology was fundamentally flawed even then. The two-stroke engines release up to 30% of their fuel unburned directly into the air, mixing oil with gasoline to create dramatically higher pollution levels than four-stroke designs. When Simson attempted a more sensible four-stroke update with the SR50/4 in the 1990s, it was snubbed by traditionalists, a perfect metaphor for the AfD’s stance. The more weak and unhealthy a technology, the more ardently they embrace it as a symbol of resistance.

The AfD’s embrace of obsolete technology reveals another layer of historical ignorance. Nazi Germany was crippled by technological backwardness, particularly its heavy reliance on horses. Nearly 80% of the Nazi military depended on horse transport during WWII, lacking reliable access to modern fuel and engines. This technological deficit was a key factor in their defeat by 1942, though Hitler prolonged the war purely to continue his genocidal campaign. The historical irony is sharp: while the AfD claims to champion German technological tradition, they mirror the Nazi regime’s fatal embrace of outdated transportation methods — just replacing horses with Soviet mopeds. Nazis…can Nazi the future.

Like their Nazi predecessors, the Nazis today (AfD) build power by twisting historical symbols into nonsensical propaganda. They appropriate whatever serves their disruptive agenda, regardless of historical accuracy or internal contradiction. The fact that Germans pioneered electric vehicles in the 1800s makes any “traditional” stance against the modern technology particularly absurd; yet another example of blowing their bets on the wrong horse.

The AfD’s appropriation of the Simson becomes even more cynical when considering the moped’s original design philosophy. The designer’s own grandson reveals the bitter irony[1]:

What does the Simson designer actually think about his moped being exploited by right-wing groups? Clauss Dietel designed the Simson models S50 and S51.

Unfortunately, BuzzFeed News Germany can no longer ask him, as he passed away in 2022. His grandson Bruno Dietel did not want to comment on the topic when we approached him.

In a post on X/Twitter, he writes that the moped’s design was based on the so-called ‘open principle,’ a ‘solidary, ecological, democratic design concept.’ Simson is being ‘wrongfully misused and annexed as a symbol.’ ‘My grandfather experienced the Nazi era in Saxony and in his final years was very concerned about the resurgence of totalitarianism. What’s happening in the Simson context would have deeply outraged him.’

This calculated provocation, using an environmentally conscious designer’s work as a symbol of anti-environmental protest, exemplifies the broader AfD strategy. Nazis deliberately misappropriate symbols to generate outrage, treating German cultural heritage as merely raw material for political theatre.

Their visual branding follows the same cynical logic. Their red ‘swoosh’ logo deliberately contrasts with the German Reichstag’s considered and thoughtful blue, suggesting violent disruption to any democratic process.

Also, I swear that logo wasn’t designed intentionally to look like a giant red horse penis attached to a swastika man. Pure coincidence.

The Simson story exemplifies how the AfD weaponizes nostalgia against progress. While electric motors offer traditional German solutions to contemporary mobility needs, the AfD transforms them into cultural battlegrounds. Their embrace of anemic polluting Soviet-era mopeds has nothing to do with transportation policy — it’s about manufacturing outrage. The more harmful or obsolete a technology, the more valuable it becomes as a symbol of resistance to modern environmental and social standards.

The path forward may lie in Clauss Dietel’s original vision of modernity, the “open principle” of democratic, ecological design that respects heritage while embracing progress. His Simson vision represented an attempt to bridge East and West, old and new. That his creation has been twisted into a symbol of extreme division would have outraged him, but perhaps not surprised him. After all, he had seen Nazis put on this show before.

[1] “Höcke und die AfD feiern ostdeutsche Kultmarke – die reagiert empört: „Missbrauch““, Frankfurter Rundschau, 12.11.2024. (https://www.fr.de/panorama/simson-moped-ostdeutschland-bjoern-hoecke-afd-kultmarke-partei-rechtsextrem-fans-zr-93283765.html)