Overview

Rightist assaults on democracy have a long and malignant tradition in Germany. Recently, with the rise of neo-Nazi groups and the re-emergence of xenophobia leading to attacks on immigrants, the problem once again assumes compelling topicality. Is the new right-wing radicalism the same as the old? This series of essays examines the question. It looks at both the history and the current status of right-wing radicalism in Germany. The collection starts with an examination of anti-Semitism as a constant of German politics and traces anti-Jewish attitudes throughout German intellectual history. Then come accounts of the rise of the Nazis after World War I and the cross-connections of the party to Munich's high society as well as its achievement of shaping an ideology that fascinated the middle class. The historical section closes with an examination of the Nazi success in eliminating the first German democracy and establishing a dictatorship. The book looks at recent events by tracing the threat posed to the second democracy in the 1960s (seen as German susceptibility to antidemocratic and totalitarian ideas) and then by discussing current right-wing radicalism in a unified Germany as a product of post-war modernism. The final essay closes the circle by comparing present-day xenophobia with Germany's historical hostility toward Jews.

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9781573924900

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Ulrich Wank is a German writer and the author of Lust an der Geschichte and Break Your Limits, among other works.

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