Nazism rears its head

Smirky Höcke, with his penchant for waving with a suspiciously straight elbow and an open palm, won't get to be boss of either state.

- Cathrin Schaer

It was like any ordinary, late-summer Sunday in Berlin: flea markets bustling, couples brunching, kids bicycling. Everything seemed so nice and calm - an urban weekend idyll. But less than two hours' drive away, what local media would later describe as a "debacle for liberal democracy" and a "frightening and terrible" turning point for Germany was in development.

On September 1, elections were held for local parliaments in two eastern states, Thuringia and Saxony. And almost exactly 85 years after Nazi Germany invaded Poland and started World War II, a far-right political party would win a state election in the country.

On that sunny Sunday, around a third of all voters cast their ballot for the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party. Senior AfD member Björn Höcke has previously gone to court for using a Nazi slogan (illegal in Germany) and AfD party chapters are classified as "potentially extremist" by the country's domestic spy agency.