Dream of the Volksgemeinschaft lives on

The success of the right-wing extremist AfD Party ("Alternative for Germany") in last week's national election has alarmed many observers in Germany and abroad.   Here is the commentary of Roger Cohen in the New York Times: 

And yet, as the election this month showed, even a country with a strong economy and low unemployment is not immune to the anger and fear that feeds the AfD. Looking at the world today I hear Bob Dylan’s words: “Something is happening here but you don’t know what it is.”  The something is a violent, reactionary current. It is a rightist, nativist, nationalist and, yes, “völkisch” reaction against globalization, against migration, against miscegenation, against the disappearance of borders and the blurring of genders, against the half-tones of political correctness, against Babel, against the stranger and the other, against the smug self-interested consensus of the urban, global elite.

For those who think the 94 new AfD representatives in the Bundestag are just misguided conservatives who are dissatisfied with Angela Merkel's drift to a left-of-center position on immigrants and other policies, think again.  There is little to distinguish their ideology from the Nazis ; they have nothing but contempt for the democratic institutions they are sworn to uphold under Germany's constitution. The party's leader - Alexander Gauland - told his cheering supporters as the votes were still being tallied: "We will hunt them. We will hunt Ms Merkel … and we will reclaim our country and our people.” It is clear what he meant by "them" - the representatives of liberal democracy. 

The Tagesspiegel published profiles  of some of the leading AfD MP's who we will now hear from in parliament.  There is Dubravko Mandic, who openly complains that the Fatherland has suffered for 7 decades under American occupation ("Besatzung") and that anyone who stands in the way of the German Volk ("Deutschland den Deutschen") is a traitor.  There is Thomas Seitz, who on Facebook has called the Prophet Mohammed a "blood-sucking paedophile" ("sadistischen Blutsäufer und Kinderschänder"). There is Benjamin Nolte, a fan of the Holocaust -denier Horst Mahler.  There is Peter Boehringer, a proponent of the "New World Order" conspiracy of Jews and other elites who have infiltrated core institutions in Germany and working in tandem with United Nations to "islamicize"the Fatherland.  There is Wilhlem von Gottberg who has repeatedly called the Holocaust a "Myth" that will forever elude historians.  There is Thomas Goebel, who publicly denounced the influx of refugees to Germany as a danger for the purity of the German Volk and sees the mixing of races as an existential threat to the German Volk ("Volkstod").  There is the "historian" Stefan Schell, who blames Poland for starting WWII, and claims that the Nazis made repeated peace overtures which were rejected by Churchill.  There is Sebastian Schulze who claims the ISIS terror attack on the Berlin Christmas Market was a "False Flag" operation carried out by the German government.  And we can't forget Jens Maier, who constantly sounds the alarm that opening the door to non-German immigrants will lead to  "mongrel races" ("„Herstellung von Mischvölkern“). 

These are just a few of the new members of the opposition in the Bundestag - all of whom hold beliefs that were popularized by the Nazis and persist to this day. 

People have told me, and I've read elsewhere, that there is no need for panic, that the extremists only achieved 13% of the vote, that the majority of Germans reject extremism, that other countries have a bigger problem with right-wing and neo-fascist parties that now are represented in national parliaments.  That is true, but in 2014 the AfD failed to reach the 5% hurdle.  Today it is the third largest party in Germany - and Germany is a special case,  given its history.   Heribert Prantl, the columnist for the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, compared Germany post-election to a recovering alcoholic who is in danger of relapsing: 

Nun ist das keine deutsche Spezialität. Man könnte sich damit beruhigen, dass Deutschland nun nachvollzieht, was in den anderen europäischen Staaten gang und gäbe ist: dass populistische Extremisten im Parlament sitzen und sogar, wie in Ungarn und Polen, regieren. In Österreich und Dänemark, in Finnland, Norwegen, den Niederlanden oder in Frankreich sind solche Parteien schon lange Nummer drei oder gar zwei - vereint im "Nein" zu Europa, zum Islam, zur offenen Gesellschaft. Sie haben Anziehungskraft für Wähler, die mit Globalisierung und Moderne nicht zurechtkommen.

Doch der Hinweis auf den populistischen Rechtsradikalismus und Rechtsextremismus anderswo taugt nicht zur Beschönigung der Situation hierzulande. Deutschland ist in der Situation des Alkoholikers. Wenn der wieder trinkt, wird es gefährlich.

Comments

[Hattie]

They are so crazy. How do they expect to keep German language and "Kultur" alive without the influx of fresh voices from other cultures? I happen to care a lot about the German tradition in spite of having no German ancestry at all. Of course it's specious. They don't really care about the things that make German culture so valuable. They are petty, racist narrow minded and vicious people, not in the fine tradition for sure.

[Zyme]

There is no reason to be unhappy David.

The way you prefer was in charge for quite a few decades. Everything ends at one point and this is merely the beginning of a different approach.

It was about time. Keeping in mind this was a result of merry economic times, I would expect quite a potential when we no longer (as in the minds of prominent SPD figures) have "the taxes we have" to share for the well-being of the planet.

You could argue other countries seeing a surging right did know how to pursue their interests before already.
However in Germany's case, when was the last time we had such government? 50 years ago?

[David]

"share for the well-being of the planet."

Who will buy Germany's beautiful exports if the rest of the planet goes to hell?

[Zyme]

Who will buy Germany's no longer beautiful exports if the country goes the route of South Africa?