The Radical Right in Germany

1870 to the Present

Lee Mcgowan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317887416
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Historia del mundo

The Radical Right has represented a major element in German politics and society throughout the history of the united country (i.e. since the 1870s), though the understandable concentration on the Third Reich (1933-45) has tended to distort the wider picture.

This book explores the history of the radical right through the full span of Germany's life as a nation, thus putting the Third Reich in its natural context, and also emphasising that the attitudes and policies of the radical right did not begin with Hitler's pursuit of power in the 1920s or end with his death in the ruins of Berlin.

Chapter 1

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The far right in German history and politics: an introduction

The peoples of Europe at the dawn of a new millennium are arguably more at peace with themselves than at any time in the history of European civilization. In western Europe today the prospect of war after almost 60 years of rebuilding, increasing prosperity and closer European integration since 1945 seems inconceivable. The transformation in interstate relationships and the emergence of a new supranational order under the European Union (EU) is remarkable and stands in marked contrast to the ardent strands of nationalist agendas that bedevilled the continent in the first half of the twentieth century.¹ Indeed, the entire process of European integration finds its origins in the often hostile, ambitious and destructive tendencies of the most ultra-nationalist and far right forces that launched two world wars in the first half of the twentieth century. The EU is one of the major success stories of more recent times and has, since the early 1950s, helped to anchor democracy, political stability and economic progress in the west and is now aiming to replicate its success by extending membership to the states of central and eastern Europe.

Simultaneously, the economic prosperity and political stability post-1945 have significantly dampened the appeal and success of the far right which encompassed in its most aggressive forms the fascist, National Socialist and falangist movements from the 1920s to the 1940s in Italy, Germany and Spain (until 1975) respectively. The core ideological tenets that came to shape, inspire and drive such far right parties, however, are not limited to this interwar period. On the contrary, their intellectual origins can be traced back to the previous century and these same concepts and visions persist and thrive on the very fringes of acceptability in the political systems of many European states today. Marginalized examples of such far right political parties, associations and organizations can be found across western Europe in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain and, to a lesser extent, in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Time and again across Europe parties from the far right have made spectacular (albeit limited) temporary advances onto the political stage which have given rise to extensive academic debate and engendered widespread public debate and soul searching about the appeal of such groups, their nationalist and racist convictions, their hostility towards democratic order and their rejection of the concept of individual human rights. The activities of right-wing extremist parties and organizations have become a particular object of media interest over the last two decades. Their divergence from the norm of everyday politics provides the means for avid sensationalism as extremists threaten to shake the foundations of the established order and test the strength of old taboos. In contemporary society aspects of the far right and its ideology are evident across Europe in many spheres of political and social life. They appear in the form of slogans and graffiti on walls. They are manifest at some political gatherings and evident in election campaigns. They surface in school playgrounds, feature among certain adolescent sub-cultures and are easily accessible in print, on film and increasingly on the internet. On occasions their continued existence is displayed in acts of violence against persons and property.

The histories, durability and impact of such forces after 1945 have varied from state to state. Some general assumptions, however, can be made. First, most case studies of organized right-wing extremism have undergone a series of peaks and troughs that have reflected particular domestic circumstances, as in Germany and discussed later.² Second, until the mid-1990s few far right parties ever got close to holding the reins of power, but in more recent years a general rise (albeit modest) in the electoral appeal of the far right across Europe has seen a handful of parties entering into government as the junior coalition partner. Much here, of course, has depended on the state of domestic politics and the specific structure of the electoral system. In Italy both helped first the Italian Social Movement (Movimento Sociale Italiano) or MSI to form part of a short-lived coalition in 1994 and now both the Northern League and the National Alliance (which together received some 5 per cent of the vote) to participate in Silvio Berlusconi’s government since 2001.³ Arguably the most visible far right force in government remains the Austrian Freedom Party (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs) or FPÖ which emerged as a serious political force during the 1990s under its charismatic leader, Jörg Haider, and entered government in 2000 to widespread protests both at home and abroad and for a while transformed Austria into the role of a pariah state, even within the EU.

In short, the spectre of the far right continues to haunt practically all the nations of both western and eastern Europe. All efforts at explaining why individual extreme right-wing parties have emerged and why they have thrived have led to general agreement on a wide set of variables. These have traditionally encompassed a loss of security with the collapse of an established system of beliefs; a breakdown in law and order; humiliation and offended pride; relative deprivation; disputed borders; general feelings of frustration; and resentment at continued immigration.⁴ In practice, the significance of each of these factors has varied and continues to fluctuate from country to country. That such feelings and prejudices are still capable of generating a significant right-wing extremist potential cannot be disputed and some far right themes such as immigration policy, an anti-EU sentiment and an ardent belief in the strengths of the nation state do clearly strike a chord with a wider public. This reality was evident in a series of elections in the spring of 2002 including the 17 per cent of the vote polled by Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the National Front in his campaign for the French presidency in April 2002, the success of Pym Fortuyn’s essentially anti-immigration party in the Netherlands in May 2002 and even the much smaller successes of the British National Party in the English council elections where they secured three elected representatives in Burnley in May 2002. Often the forces of the far right provide an appropriate vehicle to express public dissatisfaction about government policy or the lack of distinction between the main political parties across Europe.

This book focuses exclusively on the German experience and aims to draw out the themes and elements that have shaped the far right in Germany since unification in 1870. It is arguably, given the excesses of the Hitler years from 1933 to 1945, the most obvious choice for a country study of contemporary right-wing extremism, but it is also one that provides for an interesting examination given the widely different types and forms of political system that have existed in Germany over the course of the last 130 years. Chronologically these range from the imperial autocracy of the Second Empire (1871–1918); to an ill-fated experiment at democracy under the Weimar Republic (1919–33); to the National Socialist dictatorship from 1933 to 1945 which plunged Germany into another world war, military defeat and dismemberment; to the short interregnum of allied and Soviet occupation from 1945 to 1949; to the ‘temporary’ division of Germany in 1949 into two very different political systems, one (the Federal Republic of Germany) based on the free market and oriented towards western liberal and democratic values whereas the other (the German Democratic Republic) was structured on a command economy basis and looked towards Moscow for support; and, finally, to the reunification of Germany in October 1990.⁵

The unification of East and West Germany brought many challenges for the newly enlarged Federal Republic of Germany.⁶ While many of these focused on environmental concerns and the necessity of economic restructuring, one largely unanticipated consequence of a unified Germany was an upsurge in the violent activities of the far right that came to tarnish Germany’s image internationally and awaken memories of a darker past. The recent spate of right-wing extremist offences in Germany is part of, and the latest stage in, a phenomenon that can be traced back through all these regimes. The existence of the far right continues to raise questions about the nature of German society and democracy, but it is not exclusively a German preserve and is an issue that requires careful and urgent consideration across the European Union as the popularity of the far right reflects and is a response to fears among sections of society about issues such as deepening European integration and the wider process of globalization over which they feel they have no control. Degrees of alienation and insecurity among today’s traditional blue-collar areas have led some to embark on a desperate search to uncover their own identity and purpose which some have found among the nationalistic and xenophobic sentiment of the far right. This mood was caught by Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, when he argued in April 2002 that Le Pen’s surprise election result was a ‘necessary shock’ that would fortify Europe. ‘Le Pen feeds on fears. To fight him we must nourish hope … (EU) enlargement, for example, represents the end of nationalism and wars in Europe.’ This view could be extended to all parties of the far right.

Structure of the book

At its core this book seeks to examine the history of the far right in modern Germany in the period from 1870 to the present. It is an ambitious project, but it is a necessary one if we are to understand the development of the extreme right. There already exists a substantial literature on the histories, individuals and parties of the far right for each of these distinct periods covered within this timeframe. In some cases works cover two or occasionally three of these periods.⁷ None to date has attempted to provide an account of all five.

The book is organized into nine chapters and proceeds on a chronological basis. This chapter provides the backdrop to the study and considers, albeit briefly, definitional approaches to the issue of the far right and the continuity debate in the study of German history. The second chapter focuses on the emergence and radicalization of the far right in Imperial Germany. The following four chapters will centre on the most extreme, and the most successful in electoral terms, variant of the far right in the twentieth century, namely National Socialism (Nazism): chapter 3 traces its rise to power. The succeeding chapter deals with ideology, chapter 5 examines its membership and the use of violence while chapter 6 details the radicalization of government policy in Nazi Germany. The following and final three chapters focus on the post-war world from 1945 to today: chapter 7 accounts for the various rises and falls of organized right-wing extremism after 1945. Chapter 8 explores the reality and nature of militant neo-National Socialism and its predisposition towards acts of terror, confrontations and violence and chapter 9 considers the role of extremism in the new millennium.

This book has two core objectives. First, to trace the far right’s origins and development. This takes us from a series of small, vocal pressure groups materializing in the 1870s to its struggle for power in the 1920s; its seizure of government in the early 1930s before turning to chart its denouement and ongoing survival as a minor force on the fringes of politics after 1945. Second, it aims to identify and analyse the common tenets of far right ‘ideology’, its political objectives and to investigate to what extent it is possible to identify a theme of continuity that runs through these five political orders. How far can our knowledge of the common tenets such as its overt nationalism, degrees of militarism and desires for territorial expansion, anti-parliamentarism, authoritarianism and an aversion to, in some instances a hatred of, all foreign influences enable us to portray a degree of continuity in thinking and position despite the political turmoil and changes that have shaped and transformed modern day Germany?

Defining the radical right

Before embarking on an examination of the far right in each of these timeframes it is first of all necessary to address and identify what actually constitutes the radical right. Those engaged or interested in the study of the contemporary far right will be familiar with one definitional problem from the very outset. This relates to the variety and number of terms in usage to refer to the far right. These range from right-wing extremism and fascism to neo-fascism and neo-Nazism. Often they are mistakenly assumed to be synonyms and are used interchangeably, particularly in the media.⁸ The rise of the Republikaner in the late 1980s provided clear evidence of a case in point.⁹

There has been an explosion in academic material from the late 1980s analysing the nature and identity of right-wing extremism in Germany and beyond. But what is right-w...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations and glossary
• 1 The far right in German history and politics: an introduction
• 2 Tracing the origins and rise of the radical right: the Kaiserreich, 1870–1918
• 3 Pushing to extremes: the radical right in Weimar Germany, 1919–33
• 4 National Socialist ideology and leadership
• 5 Party membership and propensity for violence
• 6 The extreme right in power: pursuing an ever radicalizing agenda
• 7 The fall, rise and fall of organized right-wing extremism in West Germany, 1945–90
• 8 Homeland and hate: right-wing extremism and neo-Nazi militancy in unified Germany, 1990-present
• 9 A new millennium for the extreme right?
• Further reading
• Index