The #Stolzmonat, a German-language, far-right countercampaign against Pride month

30 October 2023

By: Julian Lanches

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Introduction

In Germany, Pride month,— also commonly known as Christopher Street Day (CSD) in German— is celebrated every June since 1979.  The rainbow colours are used throughout the month in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community, and parades are planned in cities around the world to celebrate diversity and tolerance. However, in June 2023, instead of the internationally established hashtag #Pridemonth, the hashtag #Stolzmonat was instead highly visible across German-language Twitter. Considering that “Stolz Monat” is the German translation of Pride month, one could easily assume that this hashtag was just another form of support for this year’s celebrations. However, as this Digital Dispatch will highlight, the idea behind the hashtag was coined by far-right Twitter bloggers just shortly before June 2023 and quickly amplified by Twitter accounts affiliated to Germany’s largest far-right party, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). Throughout June 2023, on average, eight of the 10 daily posts with greatest reach[1] on Twitter containing either the term “Stolzmonat” or the respective hashtag, #Stolzmonat, expressed anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments or support for broader far-right sentiments (the remaining posts were counter speech). What we found was that “Stolz Monat” was a coordinated far-right counter-campaign to Pride Month, which sought to distort LGBTQ+ discourse on Twitter during the annual celebration.

This Digital Dispatch analyses what we refer to as the Stolzmonat-campaign on Twitter. In it, we identify the core narratives behind the spread of the term and its corresponding hashtag, the campaign’s foundation and origin, including a website which was set up specifically for the campaign, as well as key actors engaged in its dissemination, and the politicians that built on its momentum. We did so by analysing all German-language Twitter posts containing the term “Stolzmonat,” or the hashtag #Stolzmonat, in May and June 2023 and found that the phrase was largely being used sarcastically to express anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments and in support of the AfD. Furthermore, the user ISD identified as having initiated this campaign prompted other users to create their own profile pictures to counter the commonly used rainbow-coloured profile picture overlays that are popular during the month of June.

This Dispatch builds on recent ISD research on broader anti-LGBTQ+ mobilisation trends. Anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments constitute an important part of both far-right and Islamist extremism and can even serve as a linking element between the two ideologies. Furthermore, conspiracy theorist movements have also increasingly promoted anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments and engaged in the harassment of LGBTQ+ activists. Considering that LGBTQ+ communities are frequent targets of hatred and harassment, it is crucial to gain a better understanding of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments in order to safeguard democracy and all human rights. 

Timeline and Metrics

The Twitter Stolzmonat-campaign likely originated in late May 2023. Although the first tweet with the word on 23 May, does not appear to be linked to what we are referring to as the Stolzmonat-campaign and instead seems to be an unrelated use of the German translation, referring to the actual Pride month. The origins of the campaign can be traced to a tweet from 25 May which initiated the idea of using a profile picture overlayed in seven colour shades which resemble the three colours of the German flag (black, red and yellow), instead of the common Pride Month profile picture overlay with panels of rainbow colours, in addition to the hashtag. For the remaining days of May, the term Stolzmonat and the hashtag #Stolzmonat were predominantly mentioned in posts promoting the usage of the German-flag profile picture overlay and rallying for the campaign’s ‘official’ start on 1 June 2023.

To get a better understanding of the proportion of harmful and non-harmful content that were spread during the campaign, ISD analysed the 10 tweets (with the term or the respective hashtag) with the largest reach for each day in June 2023. We found that on average, eight out of 10 posts were supportive of the campaign, expressing anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments or support for broader far-right sentiments. The remaining posts comprised media reporting about the campaign and general counter speech against the campaign. The term “Stolzmonat” or the respective hashtag were not used in any of the days in June to promote Pride Month independently from the Stolzmonat-campaign.

During June 2023, the use of the term and its respective hashtag increased exponentially with a total of 824,651 mentions in German-language tweets by the end of the month. Of the tweets that could be geolocated, 84 percent were sent from Germany. The start of the campaign garnered considerable attention, as tweets containing the term or the hashtag soared from a few thousand mentions in May 2023 to nearly 43,000 mentions alone on 1 June, the first official day of the campaign. The associated hashtag #Stolzmonat was also extremely popular among adherents of the campaign, being retweeted nearly 600,000 times. According to the Twitter Trending Archive, the hashtag #Stolzmonat ranked continuously among the top-five trending German hashtags in the first five days of June. It was also significantly more salient on German-language Twitter compared to Pride month’s official hashtag #Pridemonth which was retweeted about 40,000 times. 

Figure 1: Mentions of “Stolzmonat” on Twitter from May 31, 2023, to June 30, 2023

The Disseminators

Initiators

The Stolzmonat-campaign initiated on 25 May when introduced by a private Twitter account with just over 20,000 followers. In the post, the user declared June to be “Stolzmonat” and proposed the idea of adapting the rainbow colour profile picture overlay but in shades of the German flag. This person associated with this account gave an interview with the pro-AfD newspaper Junge Freiheit as the initiator of the campaign, in which they reiterated the idea. Later that day, the idea was picked up by the regional Twitter account of the AfD chapter of Wuppertal, who used the hashtag #Stolzmonat for the first time on Twitter.

Figure 2: First tweet coining the term “Stolzmonat” by the campaign initiator and presenting the distinct profile picture of the campaign: “Pride month is a week away. Punctually on the 1st [of June], we could all use this D-flag spectrum as a profile picture to own the libs, as they say. [I] believe if they [are] suddenly surrounded only by it, they freak out, they do not like to see how many we are.”

Figure 3: Post from the AfD fraction of the city Wuppertal in which they display that they have used the Stolzmonat profile picture frame as well as referencing the rap song “NDW 2005” which caused controversy around its release due to  its alleged nationalist message which : “This is black-red-gold – Hard and Proud! It’s #Stolzmonat again! We join the celebration and wave our colours together[2].”

AfD-related accounts

From the very beginning, the Stolzmonat-campaign was strongly promoted by official party accounts of the AfD, as well as by individual AfD politicians. On 1 June, the three tweets with the greatest reach all came from AfD-related accounts. The tweet with the highest reach was posted by the account of the AfD’s Thuringia chapter, which expressed support of the campaign and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments stating that they reject “rainbow crap” and “gender madness”. AfD politician Beatrix von Storch also demanded via a tweet on the same day that Pride Month should be thrown into a “trash can”. 

It seems that the AfD may have quickly realised the potential of the Stolzmonat-campaign and attempted to capitalise on it. The AfD began to actively shape the campaign with one of the overall most retweeted posts from the period analysed. On 2 June, the AfD’s official party account promoted the hashtag #stolzstattscholz (pride instead of Scholz) as a sub-hashtag of the Stolzmonat-campaign. This adaptation of the hashtag expressed clear criticism for the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and ended up becoming the third-most shared hashtag after the hashtags #Stolzmonat and #Stolzstattpride. The impact of the AfD on the Stolzmonat-campaign is further highlighted by the fact that the online membership application form of the AfD was highly shared among Stolzmonat-related tweets. Likewise, a tweet which promoted a YouTube video showing AfD politician Matthias Helferich mentioning “Stolzmonat” in a speech in a parliamentary debate in the German national parliament was also widely circulated. Throughout June, the Stolzmonat-campaign was continuously promoted by prominent AfD politicians on Twitter, including Björn Höcke, Beatrix von Storch, Thomas Seitz, Steffen Kotré, Jan Nolte, Ulrich Siegmund, and Georg Pazderski.

Figure 4: Most viewed post on the first day of the ‘Stolzmonat’ campaign (June 1), posted by the AfD state-fraction Thuringia: “There is a remedy against gender mania, rainbow ideology and gender-confused people who celebrate their “Pride-Month” in June: national pride! That’s why we celebrate Stolzmonat! We heartily support this action! Black, Red, Gold is colourful enough!”

Figure 5: Tweet by the official AfD party account. The picture shows a photo of Olaf Scholz holding a rainbow flag with a prohibited sign and the slogan “Pride instead of Schol”. The tweet states: “Olaf #Scholz seems to see his job as chancellor exclusively in grinning friendly into the camera – whether he is recruiting “skilled workers” in Kenya or presenting colourful flags. For this reason, too: Pride instead of Scholz!  #Stolzmonat #ThereforeAfD #AfD

Far-right Twitter bloggers

In addition to AfD and other well-known far-right actors such as the media outlet Compact Magazin or the former Austrian vice-chancellor Hans-Christian Strache, lesser-known far-right bloggers with a medium reach also played a significant role in promoting the Stolzmonat campaign. These far-right bloggers heavily pushed the campaign in May 2023 by promoting the idea and sharing links to profile picture frame generators and the campaign’s unofficial website. Throughout June, they remained highly active, engaging in debates and creating and disseminating various memes and pictures with the term Stolzmonat or corresponding slogans. Despite their medium reach, these bloggers exerted a significant impact on the campaign, accounting for nine of the 10 most mentioned Twitter accounts during the campaign. In total, they posted 5,758 Tweets (on average 332 per blogger) during the campaign analysis. These accounts had a combined following of 120,036.

Figure 6: Far-right Twitter blogger rallying for the Stolzmonat-campaign by promoting its profile picture frame and its unofficial website: “#Stolzmonat – We counter the rainbow craze! Change your profile picture and show your colours – in a few minutes it starts! Image generator, banners, propaganda material and info at http://stolzmonat.cc”

Twitter users with limited reach 

By and large, Stolzmonat-related tweets came predominantly from Twitter accounts with a relatively limited reach. Amongst the 100 accounts with the most Stolzmonat-related posts, only the account of the initial user who began the campaign possessed more than 10,000 followers at the time of analysis. Excluding the account of this initial user, the rest of the accounts had an average of 1,428 followers. An analysis of the 10 most active accounts reveals that all of them expressed far right beliefs as understood through racist language, anti-immigrant and anti-Islam sentiments, climate change denial, COVID-19 and vaccine scepticism, as well as conspiratorial beliefs. All 10 accounts were found to express strong support for the AfD.

Counter speech and media reporting

Lastly, it is also noteworthy that the Stolzmonat-campaign was not only driven by its supporters but also by opponents and accounts considered, such as journalists and newspapers, which used the hashtag while reporting on the campaign. In fact, the two posts with the greatest reach during June can be classified as counter speech. A tweet by the state intelligence of Lower Saxony which explicitly warned against the Stolzmonat, labelling it a “far-right extremist hijacking attempt” of Pride month, was viewed more than 1.3 million times. As such, these users may have also inadvertently contributed to the dissemination of the campaign. 

Coordination and tactics behind the campaign

The Stolzmonat-campaign featured a relatively high degree of coordination. First and foremost, a now-disabled website was set up specifically for the campaign. The link to this website was the most shared URL among Stolzmonat-related Tweets. An investigation of the source code of the website shows that it was set up just shortly before June on 27 May 2023. According to the website, the Stolzmonat-campaign would constitute a “counterbalance” to the “craze of the woke people” and “the rainbow”. The website stated four goals of the campaign:  generating visibility, the ‘normalisation’ of the German flag and a return to “German values”. The core idea, both promoted by the website and various tweets, was that every Twitter supporter should utilise the German-coloured profile picture frame. For this purpose, the website directly provided a profile picture frame generator. Amongst the 20 most shared URLs in Stolzmonat-related tweets are two additional profile picture frame generators.

Figure 7: Homepage of the now disabled website of the Stolzmonat-campaign. The text states: “The #Stolzmonat is a counterbalance to the rainbow.”

Figure 8: Instruction on the website of the Stolzmonat-campaign on how to apply the distinct ‘Stolzmonat profile picture frame’ to a user’s profile picture.

The second distinct marker of the Stolzmonat-campaign was the hashtag #Stolzmonat. Users were called on to tag every Twitter post in June with this hashtag. Especially the above-mentioned far-right Twitter bloggers that promoted the hashtag with the aim of pushing it into the Twitter trends. Twitter users who engaged in the Stolzmonat-campaign also attempted to hijack the #Pridemonth hashtag. As a result, #Pridemonth was also a frequently mentioned hashtag amongst Stolzmonat-related Tweets. This hijacking attempt seems to have been relatively successful, considering that of the nearly 51,000 mentions[3] of the hashtag #Pridemonth, nearly half of those posts (22,640) contained the hashtag #Stolzmonat as well. Moreover, these far-right bloggers also repeatedly called on their followers to post pictures of the German flag and the term Stolzmonat in the comments of Twitter posts that support Pride month, thereby attempting to generally shape the discourse revolving around Pride on Twitter and gain the interpretive sovereignty about these discourses.

Figure 9: Tweets that advocates the hijacking of the hashtag #Pridemonth to increase the visibility of the hashtag #Stolzmonat, especially amongst alleged supporters of Pride month: “Guys, a very important note: Please also use the hashtag #PrideMonth for the #Stolzmonat. Although by doing so we help it in the trends, this is the only way for us to really get to all the woke people who cavort under this hashtag. This is how we really trigger them.”

Figure 10: Twitter post by a far-right Twitter blogger, calling on his followers to spread Stolzmonat content under posts that support Pride month: “Tip: Every now and then, type Pridemonth into the search and counter tweets with #Stolzmonat flags.”

Key narratives

Anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments

Designed as a counter-campaign against Pride month, the Stolzmonat-campaign is inherently promoting an anti-LGBTQ+ agenda. In contrast to the scientific consensus, adherents of the Stolzmonat-campaign expressed beliefs that all sexual orientations that deviate from heterosexuality are abnormal and part of a bigger ‘leftist-woke’ ideology. Any gender identity beyond the male-female binary was rejected through the common slogan: “There are only two genders”. Furthermore, the “traditional” family of father, mother and child was promoted as the only legitimate family structure. In general, LGBTQ+ and associated symbols such as the rainbow were portrayed as an ideology of a minority-establishment, imposed on the people against their will through “brainwashing”. Consequently, education about and promotion of LGBTQ+ rights was characterised as a threat, in particular for children who allegedly must be protected from school-related “indoctrination”. Such narratives are in line with legitimising far-right stances by linking them to an alleged threat to children.

Figure 12: Tweet displaying a meme in which two parents protect their children from the rain in the form of rainbow colours labelled with the word ‘pride month’ by an umbrella in the colours of the German flag labelled with the word ‘Stolzmonat’. The text reads: “My 1. #Networking-tweet, let us show how many people are out there. Together for a Germany in which our children can grow up safely”

Figure 13: Tweet by AfD politician Martin Richardt: “Every person should live as he wants! Sexuality is a private matter! Stop the grating of the rainbow lobby! No to gender mania & LGBTQ propaganda especially in kindergartens & schools! There are only 2 genders! @svenlehmann [Federal Government’s Commissioner for the Acceptance of Sexual and Gender Diversity] step down! #PrideStattPride #PrideMonth”

Nationalism

The display of nationalism constitutes one of the most prominent narratives of the Stolzmonat-campaign. Amongst Stolzmonat-related tweets, “Germany” was the third-most mentioned term (39,050 mentions). Other frequently mentioned terms such as flag, homeland and patriots, as well as hashtags such as #schwarzrotgold (black, red gold – the colours of the German flag) or #deutsch (German), and the German flag emoji further highlight the nationalist direction of the campaign. The German flag and being “truly German” are idealised as the only legitimate source of pride for Germans and juxtaposed against an oppressive “rainbow ideology”. Following this logic, it is impossible to be “truly German” and identify with LGBTQ+ or support the rights of LGBTQ+ people. The second most-frequently used hashtag (154,861 mentions) of the Stolzmonat-campaign, #Stolzstattpride, clearly expresses this juxtaposition: the German word for pride, “Stolz”, was charged with nationalism and contrasted against the English word pride which was used a synonym for an allegedly oppressive LGBTQ+ ideology, resulting in the hashtag “Stolz instead of pride”. On the one hand, this narrative allowed for a self-victimisation and the portrayal of a silent majority, as several tweets claimed that mere pride in their own country would automatically be equated with the imputation of holding far-right beliefs and subsequent marginalisation. On the other hand, an ostensible focus on the promotion of nationalism instead of open hatred for LGBTQ+ communities allowed the bigoted nature of the campaign to be veiled.

Figure 14: Tweet with a picture in which several people are waving German flags and a text in the foreground of the picture which states, “Homeland love is no crime” The tweet reads: “In this sense, a beautiful good morning #schwarzrotgold #stolzmonat”

Figure 15: Tweet by the AfD politician Jörg Urban:  #Stolzmonat We are proud to be Germans! Germany is the country of great inventors, poets, thinkers and composers. Good reasons to declare June to the “Stolzmonat” as an alternative to the cultureless, globalist “Pride month”

AfD support and anti-establishment sentiments

The entire Stolzmonat-campaign was closely intertwined with expressions of support for the AfD. This is highlighted by the fact that “AfD” was overall the most frequently mentioned word in all analysed tweets. Likewise, both the hashtags #AfD and #nurnochAfD (only AfD), as well the blue heart emoji (commonly associated with the AfD due to blue being the unofficial colour of the party) were present among Stolzmonat-related tweets.  Various Stolzmonat-related tweets posted election advertisements or posters for the AfD and celebrated their high approval rate in recent polls. In particular, the election of Robert Sesselmann as the first ever AfD county commissioner was euphorically celebrated. On the day of his election, on 23 June, the hashtag #Sonneberg was used over 5,000 times in Stolzmonat-related posts.

Figure 16: The tweet features an edited picture showing the results of a poll of the main German political parties on 3 June 2023. The bars of the Green and the Social-Democratic party are edited showing a rainbow flag together with the flag of the Soviet Union. The bar of the Conservative party is partially showing the rainbow-communist flag and partially the seven-colour iconography of the Stolzmonat while the bar of the Liberal party shows a fortune wheel with the symbols of the Green, the Social-Democratic, and the Conservative party. Only the bar of the AfD is fully coloured in the iconographic colour shades of the Stolzmonat-campaign. The text above the picture refers to the high polling result of the AfD of nearly 20%, stating: “According to recent polls, every fifth German is already openly proud”.

Figure 17: The tweet features an image showing the official logo of the AfD and a question in the foreground asking, “Why do you vote for the AfD?” The tweet states: “Why do you vote for the AfD? My reasons: against mass immigration, gender ideology and climate craze. And you? #Stolzmonat #stolzstattpride #stolzstattscholz”

Networking

Lastly, a less salient but nevertheless important narrative was networking with like-minded people. The hashtag #Vernetztungstweet (networking tweet) was the ninth-most shared hashtag amongst Stolzmonat-related Tweets. Likewise, words such as ‘networking’, ‘connected’, or ‘follower’ were frequently mentioned. From the beginning, the aforementioned far-right Twitter bloggers called on their followers to network with each other. As a result, many people used the hashtag #Stolzmonat to reach out to other likeminded people, often based on a follow-for-follow principle, while some users also celebrated an increase in the number of their followers due to the networking during the Stolzmonat-campaign. Such networking may provide users with a feeling of being part of a broader community and a sense of belonging, as well as evoke a feeling of strength in numbers.

Conclusion

This Digital Dispatch analysed the far-right #Stolzmonat campaign. Our findings show that the far-right continues to use Twitter to spread hatred against minority groups, in this case the LGBTQ+ community. 

Our analysis found that the AfD played a critical role in the promotion of the #Stolzmonat campaign. Without significant efforts by the AfD, the campaign would likely have never reached the level it did. In fact, the campaign was closely intertwined with the AfD: on the one hand, AfD politicians and official party accounts promoted the campaign from the very beginning and throughout June, whereby clear anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments were displayed. On the other hand, the vast majority of Twitter users who engaged in the campaign expressed support for the AfD.  

At the same time, our analysis highlights the importance of lesser known but highly active far-right bloggers who initiated the campaign, significantly contributed to its reach and even contributed to the coordination by setting up a website. The Stolzmonat-campaign is therefore also a good example of how anti-minority campaigns on social media can be amplified through mutual efforts. 

Lastly, our findings demonstrate that those seeking to report on or criticise anti-LGBTQ+ campaigns should be careful not to inadvertently amplify them. Journalists and people who engaged in counter-speech alike used the hashtag #Stolzmonat for these purposes, which likely also contributed to the involuntary dissemination of the campaign.

While this snapshot of Twitter does not constitute a representative mapping of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments in the German population, it clearly highlights that despite a recent OECD study that Germany has a relatively high degree of (legal) inclusion with regard to the rights of LGBTQ+ people compared to other countries, anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments remain widespread. Considering the undermining effect on democracy and human rights, this Digital Dispatch underscores that efforts to tackle extremism and hatred should remain an urgent concern of politics.

Julian Lanches was previously a Research Intern at ISD. 

Footnotes

1. 1. Reach was measured by means of Brandwatch which defines it as the average of the number of people estimated to have seen a given post from a source. The calculation looks at the reach of mentions from the source within the given period. Reach itself is calculated using metrics such as followers, engagement, page ranks and estimated views.
   2. Rapper Fler has criticised the AfD for referencing his lyrics: https://www.tagesspiegel.de/gesellschaft/afd-nutzt-seinen-songtext-rapper-fler-distanziert-sich-von-rechtspopulisten-9886433.html
   3. Including tweets and retweets.