Surgeon Fired from Lippe after Candidacy with AfD

Lippe dismisses pediatric surgeon over candidacy with AfD

A German public hospital has dismissed a pediatric surgeon for doing something allowed by German law: running for election.
Svetlana Sprina worked as a physician at Klinikum Lippe in Detmold. She ran for the AfD municipal council of Osnabrück. When her candidacy became public, internal pressure mounted.

What peine at the Detmold hospital

According to accounts circulating about the case, representatives of the SPD and the Greens on the center’s supervisory board demanded her departure. The physician yielded to the pressure and resigned from the party, but the dismissal was carried out nonetheless.

The uncomfortable part is not the decision itself. It is its lack of transparency. The center has provided no specific reason for her termination, a silence that leaves the matter open to interpretation and complicates any legal defense.

The reason for dismissal that the hospital offers none

Here, the formal detail matters more than the noise. A candidacy is a public act—traceable and perfectly legal. Making it grounds for dismissal requires, at minimum, explaining which rule was triggered and why. No one has done so.

The discussion quickly escalated into a broader terrain: that of ideological conformity demanded in certain European professional environments. Alongside this argument were also drifts denying strongly established historical facts, which lack any supporting evidence.

It is wise to separate the two issues, because mixing them weakens the first.

The counterpoint: neutrality and minors

There is a reasonable objection. Anyone in an authoritative position regarding minors sees any political affiliation they maintain amplified, and some argue that certain professional settings demand neutrality. The problem is where the line is drawn, and who draws it, especially when the center provides no explanation.

The case leaves two facts intertwined: a legal candidacy and a dismissal without written cause. How many dismissals based on candidacy can fit into a democracy before someone notices the contradiction?