Against the backdrop of an insurgent far right and numerous deadly neo-Nazi attacks, various cultural practitioners have written far-right violence into Germany’s collective memory and imagined more inclusive futures in its wake. This volume explores contemporary examples from literature, music, theatre, film, television and art that respond to this situation. They demonstrate that, alongside the ways in which art expands the public sphere in terms of what is said and who is heard, aesthetic questions of how artistic works are presented are a crucial part of how they open up new perspectives.

This volume provides a state-of-the-art analysis on the fourth wave of far-right politics in Germany by leading scholars in the field. Innovatively, the book focuses not only on the role of the electoral breakthrough of AfD, the Federal Republic’s first-ever nationally established far-right party, but also on the many crucial instances of non-party activism, such as the ‘New Right’ intellectual circles, PEGIDA street protest, and political violence. For a long time, Germany was regarded as an exceptional case because of the lack of an established far-right party on the national level. Times have changed – but Germany still remains unique. The book highlights four features that continue to make the case exceptional within Western Europe: (I) The strong diversity of vibrant far-right political players in Germany and their many interconnections, (II) the electoral success of AfD, i.e. the delayed electoral breakthrough of a far-right party on the national level, (III) the importance of ‘militant democracy’, specifically how established players have responded to AfD, and (IV) the relevance of the east-west divide for understanding far-right politics in Germany. Contributions on these topics highlight the broader theoretical relevance of the analysis of the German far-right, connecting to many research questions that have occupied scholars also in other contexts. The book is essential reading for all those with an interest in the far right, German and European politics, as well as in the interconnections between political parties, social movements, and subcultural milieus.

This book examines a range of public debates on the Nazi legacy in Germany since Schröder's SDP-Green coalition came to power in 1998. A central theme is the 'dialectic of normality' whereby references to Nazi past impact upon present normality. The book is a valuable resource for students of contemporary German politics, history and culture.

This book presents a critical and empirically informed examination of Islamophobia and related issues of racism and nationalism in Germany today, with particular attention to the East/West distinction. The authors, representing several disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, and media and literary studies, situate the topic in the global and German context of the 2015-16 "migration crisis" and its aftermath, and of the ongoing transformations seen in the postsocialist regions of the European Union. Since the 2015-16 "refugee crisis," illiberal leaders and parties within Europe have instrumentalized Islamophobia in an attempt to dislodge the traditional political elites. Strikingly, such illiberal movements have been most successful in the formerly socialist areas of the EU. This is mirrored within Germany itself, where political formations with an Islamophobic agenda remain more popular in the East than in the West. This volume examines the reasons for this difference, including not only the ideological heritage of Soviet-dominated socialism but also the effects of western interventions in the formerly socialist areas in and beyond Germany since the end of the Cold War. Some Islamophobic and other hateful tendencies were in fact introduced from, and continue to prosper also, in the West. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary European Studies.

Based on research fieldwork conducted in France and Germany, this study seeks to explain how public actors have taken part in the regulation of the expression of right-wing radicalism. The author compares these two neighbouring countries which have framed the struggle against right-wing radicalism differently. German political and state actors have constructed a public policy responding to political radicalism, whilst in France, the radical right is primarily handled in the political arena. The text evaluates how these two Western European democracies address the paradox of tolerance (i.e. the fact that liberal democracies may restrain rights they value, such as freedom of speech, in order to repress intolerant forces that threaten democracy). This book is core reading for scholars and students interested in the spread of far-right politics in contemporary democracies.

This study of the German right-extremist movement looks at the three rightist political parties, neo-Nazi groups, skinhead gangs, and New Right intellectuals. It poses the question whether, at a time of global recession, the existing democratic system is resilient enough to meet the challenges posed by the xenophobic and racist groups.

Europeanisation of the Contemporary Far Right explores the role of transnational European identity in far-right mobilisation strategies. Focusing on the national members of two trans-European far-right coalitions – Generation Identity and Fortress Europe – the author explores the extent to which European far-right extra-parliamentary actors Europeanise their mobilisation. Drawing on social movement literature, the book argues that national extra-parliamentary actors’ Europeanisation processes are influenced by their political and discursive opportunities and resources. Focusing on the groups’ mobilisation during the ‘refugee crisis’ (2015–2017), the analysis considers the groups’ frames, collective action, and coalition-building in the period, finding that the depth of the groups’ resources particularly affects their capacity to mobilise. This book will be of interest to scholars, students, and civil society actors in fields related to the far right, European studies, social movements, and migration.

Scholarship on Eastern Europe after 1989 often focuses narrowly on the socialist past as authoritarian, dictatorial, or totalitarian. This collection, by contrast, illuminates an additional dimension of post-socialist memory: it traces the survival of hopes and dreams born under socialism and the legacy of the unrealized alternative futures embedded within the socialist past. Looking at contemporary German-language literature, film, theater, and art, the volume analyzes reflections on everyday socialist realities as well as narratives of opposition and dissent. The texts discussed here not only revisit the past, but also challenge the present and help us imagine alternative futures. Rather than framing the unrealized futures envisioned in the pre-1989 era as failures, this collection probes post-socialist memory for its future-oriented potential to rethink issues of community, equity and equality, and late-stage capitalism. Foregrounding the complexities of Eastern European legacies also helps us reimagine the relationship between East and West both in Germany and in Europe as a whole.

A study probing the ambiguities of German nationhood. Berman takes a theoretical perspective of cultural studies, exploring such themes as: the constitution of nationhood; what holds a citizenry together; and history's role in providing a framework for current identities and institutions.

This book is the first comprehensive academic study of German right-wing terrorism since the early 1960s available in the English language. It offers a unique in-depth analysis of German violent, extremist right-wing movements, terrorist events, groups, networks and individuals. In addition, the book discusses the so-called ‘National Socialist Underground’ (NSU) terror cell, which was uncovered in late 2011 by the authorities. The NSU had been active for over a decade and had killed at least ten people, as well as executing numerous bombings and bank robberies. With an examination of the group’s support network and the reasons behind the failure of the German authorities, this book sheds light on right-wing terrorist group structures, tactics and target groups in Germany. The book also contains a complete list of all the German right-wing terrorist groups and incidents since the Second World War. Based on the most detailed dataset of right-wing terrorism in Germany, this book offers highly valuable insights into this specific form of political violence and terrorism, which has been widely neglected in international terrorism research.