IT IS AS unusual in Germany as anywhere to see conservatives cavort with Marxists. But at a demonstration in Bitterfeld, a town in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, flags bearing the names of almost all Germany’s political parties flutter in the breeze, from the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) to the Greens and Social Democrats (SPD) all the way to the hard-left Die Linke. The Bunt statt braun (colourful instead of brown) demos began last year to counter rallies organised by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). For many in Bitterfeld’s town square, the prospect of the AfD in power is...