AfD Vows To Drain ‘NGO Swamp’ After Berlin Café That Bans White People Received Taxpayer Cash

Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,

The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) has vowed to cut off taxpayer money for left-wing activist groups after a Berlin organization that runs a coworking café that reportedly excludes White people received more than €662,000 in public funding.

The controversy centers on BIWOC Rising, a nonprofit group in Berlin-Kreuzberg that operates a coworking space and café marketed as a protected venue for Black, Indigenous, and women of color, as well as transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people of color.

Critics say the model amounts to a publicly subsidized space that excludes white people while presenting itself as a project for tolerance, diversity, and democracy.

AfD co-leader Alice Weidel said the case showed why the party wants to overhaul Germany’s taxpayer-funded activist sector.

“A Berlin café that bans white people from entering was funded with €662,450 in taxpayer money — from the federal program ‘Democracy in Action!’ Pure racism! The AfD will drain the NGO swamp and end the waste of taxpayer money on left-wing ideology,” she wrote on X.

Ein Berliner Café, das Weißen den Zutritt verbietet, wurde mit 662.450 Euro Steuergeld gefördert – aus dem Bundesprogramm „Demokratie leben!“. Rassismus pur! Die AfD wird den NGO-Sumpf austrocknen & die Steuergeldverschwendung für linke Ideologie beenden.https://t.co/Ky6H66dbll

— Alice Weidel (@Alice_Weidel) April 29, 2026

According to German media reports citing funding lists from the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, BIWOC Rising received €662,450 from the federal “Live Democracy!” program between 2021 and 2024. Other calculations place the figure closer to €800,000 when related funding is included, according to reporting from Tichys Einblick.

The program was created to support democracy, counter extremism, and prevent radicalization, but critics say the BIWOC Rising case exposes how public money has been channeled into highly ideological projects.

The group’s official charitable purposes reportedly include education, the promotion of tolerance, and support for people persecuted on political, racial, or religious grounds. However, questions have been raised over how those aims can be reconciled with a venue that restricts access according to racial and identity categories.

The organization is believed not to have responded to media inquiries about the allegations.

It’s not the first time allegations of White racism have been made within German institutions. In August 2023, a German museum of industrial heritage in Dortmund was scolded for only allowing “Black, Indigenous, and People of Color” to enter the museum on Saturdays between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. for the “That’s Colonial” exhibition. The Zollern Colliery museum argued it was creating a “safer space” intended to protect people of color from “further discrimination.”

The exclusive access was “an offer for BIPoC and black people to be able to withdraw and exchange ideas openly,” according to the museum. “For BIPoC, such safe spaces are rarely found in everyday life or in museum rooms.”

In May 2025, the German Evangelical Church (EKD) was accused of racism after banning White children from attending a workshop on being “courageous and strong” during its Church Congress in Hanover.

The “Become Courage and Strong” workshop was, again, only open to Black, indigenous, and children of color. However, while ethnic Germans and ethnic Europeans are indigenous to Germany and Europe, the designation did not apply to them, only indigenous people from other continents.

“This offer is aimed exclusively at Black, Indigenous, and children of color,” read the program website.

In January of this year, the German taxpayer-funded NGO “Black Sheep,” Schwarze Schafe in German, was offering a six-month intensive seminar designed specifically for White individuals to examine their “alleged privileges,” which is modeled after the concept of “Critical Whiteness.”

The organization, which identifies as a “post-migrant education initiative,” has received significant taxpayer funding from Germans and operates a reporting center for anti-Muslim racism.

White participants were expected to pay up to €2,290 for the course that runs from March to September.

Read more here…