Suchergebnisse

AbstractIn the year 2018, Germany's new radical right-wing party, the AfD, completed its electoral success by entering the two remaining state parliament in which the AfD wasn't represented – Bavaria and Hessen. Hessen is also the state where Hubert Kleinert's (The AfD and its members[Die AfD und ihre Mitglieder], 2018) excellent investigation into AfD members takes place. His empirical work represents a unique insight into ideology and thinking of AfD members. One of the key members of the AfD is Björn Höcke. Björn Höcke is more than just a member. He is the leader of the AfD in his home state of Thuringia and his is the leader of the highly influential radical right wing,Der Flügel. The wing, as it is known, represents the most extremist section of the AfD. It is partly because of the wing that CDU hard man, Friedrich Merz, recently called the AfD, 'openly Nazi [with] antisemitic undertones' (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/afd-are-nazis-angela-merkel-rival-friedrich-merz-g0dvwvdlg). In Sebastian Hennig's (Never twice in the same river[Nie zweimal in denselben Fluss], 2018) interview with Björn Höcke, the völkisch boss talks freely about this political ideas. Finally, the rise of the AfD marks a distinctive move to the right changing Germany's political culture. What all this means is shown in Andreas Peglau's (Shifting Right in the twenty-first Century[Rechtsruck im 21. Jahrhundert], 2018) exquisite book 'Shifting Right in the 21stCentury'. The review concludes by arguing that the AfD is not an outright Nazi party. The AfD is a fascistoid party – it carries elements of fascism inside.

Marcus Bensmann, Schwarzbuch AfD: Fakten, Figuren, Hintergründe (Essen:
Correctiv Press, 2017).Stephan Grigat, ed., AfD & FPÖ: Antisemitismus, völkischer Nationalismus und
Geschlechterbilder (Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlag, 2017).Michael Wildt, Volk, Volksgemeinschaft, AfD (Hamburg: Hamburger Edition
Press, 2017).Gerd Wiegel, Ein aufhaltsamer Aufstieg—Alternativen zu AfD & Co. (Cologne:
PapyRossa Press, 2017).

In the year 2017, a new political party entered Germany's parliament called 'Alternative for Germany' or AfD. Mainstream media labels the party far right, radical-right, right wing, national-conservative, populist, etc. Despite this, the AfD has tendencies towards Nazism. Nine books published between 2016 and 2018 examine the stratospheric rise of the AfD, founded in 2013. The review starts with a conservative view that examines 'what the AfD wants.' The next book discusses the 'AfD-Pegida' link. Pegida is the AfD's East-German and mostly Dresden-based street-fighting movement. The third book presents arguments on the AfD from across Germany's political spectrum. This leads to a book written as a 'letter to AfD voters'. The book outlines many inconstancies found in the AfD's party programme and its public announcements. Since the AfD claims to protect the occident, Europe and Germany in particular against hordes of Muslims and the Islamic religion, these issues are discussed in the next book. A quick look at the ideological background of the AfD points to an analysis of the party's relationship with the media. The final two books show how the AfD seeks to conquer Germany's political centre, based on a wealth of empirical data. Overall, the nine books provide one of the first comprehensive examinations of Germany's new radical-right party drawn from recent German language books.