WAS BLEIBT? ( WHAT'S LEFT? ): ANTIFASCISM AS HISTORICAL EXPERIENCE AND CONTEMPORARY POLITICS IN POST-MARXIST (EAST) GERMANY

In: New political science: a journal of politics & culture, Band 24, Heft 25, S. 39-58

Abstract

SINCE THE COLLAPSE OF THE COMMUNIST (SOCIALIST UNITY PARTY OR SED) REGIME IN THE GDR, MUCH INTEREST HAS FOCUSED ON THE APPARENT ANOMALY OF THE REAPPEARANCE OF FASCISM IN WHAT HAD BEEN THE "ANTIFASCIST" GERMANY. AT THE IDEOLOGICAL LEVEL, ANALYSIS HAS CENTERED ON THE ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES OF THE REGIME'S ANTIFASCIST PROGRAMMATIC--THE PRESCRIBED OR IMPOSED ANTIFASCISM ("DER VERORDNETE ANTIFASCHISMUS") OF THE GDR. THIS ARTICLE ARGUES THAT AS NO EFFORT IS SPARED TO ERASE THE VISIBLE MEMORY OF THE GDR IT MAY BE USEFUL TO RECALL HOW CENTRAL ANTIFASCISM WAS BOTH TO THE ESTABLISHMENT AND THE LEGITIMATION OF THE SOCIALIST STATE. IT SUGGESTS THAT THE TOUGHEST WORK LIES AT THE LEVEL OF DEEP THEORY AND THAT SED FORMULATION OF FASCISM MAY NOW HAVE NOTHING TO OFFER. REPLACMEENT THEORY WILL HAVE TO ADDRESS SOURCES OF NEO-FASCISM, NOT MERELY THE PSEUDOHISTORICAL MANIFESTATIONS RE-ENACTED BY THE MORE OVERTLY HITLERITE GROUPS.