While racism has always been an integral part of radical-right ideology, the West German radical right scene started with extensive racist activities in the late 1970s. Since then, agitation against migration has become a more central theme of radical right activism. Migration was certainly never a “new” phenomenon to the German society: (mainly labour) migration… Continue reading “Racist violence in West Germany before 1990”
The murder of Walter Lübcke, a member of Merkel’s political party, highlights the long history of radical right terrorism against German politicians. On 2 June 2019, Walter Lübcke, the acting district president of Kassel (Hesse) and member of Angela Merkel’s CDU, was murdered in front of his house door with a headshot. A couple of… Continue reading “The Neo-Nazi Murder Of A German Politician Highlights Threat Of Radical Right Terrorism”
The hateful actions of the furthest fringes tend to be tolerated, downplayed or even ignored. In October 2019, England’s national football team played what should have been a humdrum European Championship qualifying match against Bulgaria in Sofia, the country’s capital. But the match soon made headlines for all the wrong reasons, being stopped twice because… Continue reading “Football fandom and fascist generals: Bulgaria’s radical right”
Neo-Nazi and other white supremacist organizations in the United States are looking for a new improved pool of racists to draw from. The leaders of neo-Nazi and other white nationalist groups in the United States face a major problem, one having to do with their claims of white or Aryan racial superiority. What to do if… Continue reading “The Search for the Better Nazis”
For decades, anti-Semitism has been a steady ideological feature of radical-right violence and terrorism in Germany. The suspect in the terrorist attack on a synagogue in the German city of Halle in October, 27-year-old Stephan B., was driven by anti-Semitism and a radical-right worldview. After the murder of Walter Lübcke in June, this was the second deadly… Continue reading “Anti-Semitism Continues to Be a Steady Feature Among Germany’s Radicals”
Militiamen of Ukraine’s nationalist movement are espousing white supremacist views. This is one of the challenges Ukrainian President Zelensky is facing. On October 10, during a “marathon” press conference in Kiev, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that it is impossible to separate the opposing forces of the Ukrainian army and the forces of the self-proclaimed republics in the… Continue reading “Zelensky Struggles To Contain Ukraine’s Neo-Nazi Problem”
A neo-Nazi targeted a synagogue on Yom Kippur, aiming to “kill as many Jews as possible.” His manifesto continues a trend of white supremacist terrorism. With The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui (1941) German playwright Berthold Brecht (1898-1956) produced a satirical allegory of the rise to power of Nazism and Hitler. In Brecht’s typical educational fashion, the… Continue reading “The Germany Synagogue Terrorist’s Manifesto Highlights Threat Of Neo-Nazism”
Armed robberies were often the first crimes nascent right-wing extremist organizations carried out after deciding to take the terrorist “option.” Little research has been done on the financing of radical-right terrorist groups, especially when it comes to Germany. However, the finding within terrorism research that “money is the lifeblood of any organization, including the ones… Continue reading “How Crime Helps Finance Radical-Right Terrorism”
The 2019 European Parliament Elections provided an important case where the far-right Alternative for Germany Party (AfD) performed electorally well. However, we argue that there is a core tension within the AfD’s party strategy. This tension lies at the regional level, with a clear split ideologically within the party between Western and Eastern Germany. We… Continue reading “East v. West? The Internal Battle within the Far Right in Germany”
Why would right-wing terrorists decide not to claim responsibility for their crimes? In Germany, there has been an ongoing public debate as to whether radical-right terrorists take responsibility for their crimes, particularly after the radical-right terrorist group Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund (the National Socialist Underground, NSU) was uncovered. This group did not claim credit for its… Continue reading “Not All Terrorists Want to Claim Responsibility for Attacks”