Germany: extremism without successful parties

Abstract

by both West and later unified Germany. With the notable exception of the 1989 European elections and some regional elections, extreme right parties in Germany have never been able to make substantial inroads into the party system. In fact, they belong to the least successful extreme right parties in Western Europe. This notwithstanding, Germany remains linked to the phenomenon of the extreme right, not just because of its tainted history but also because of contemporary events. In sharp contrast to the weak parties, the extreme right subculture is well developed, particularly in the former East Germany. In this article we provide a short historical survey since the war, focusing on the relevant political parties and their environment. We describe the two parties that have come to dominate extreme right politics since the 1980s, the Republicans (REP) and the German People’s Union (DVU). We assess whether 1998 has brought a ‘Second Coming’ of the extreme right parties. We look at the broader extreme right subculture, ranging from rigidly ideological and highly organised neo-nazi groups to the rather disparate skinheads. In conclusion, we consider why the extreme right in Germany is successful only outside of the party-political realm and whether this is likely to remain the picture in the near future. The postwar extreme right 1945‐80 After the second world war, Germany was briefly divided into four sectors of Allied occupation. Most right-wing extremists were interned or in hiding. Mobilisation was further obstructed by the denazification policy, which included a provision requiring the approval of all parties by the Allied forces. Moreover, as the over three million surviving internees were reintegrated into German society, most chose to stay out of politics or to join a democratic party. The same held for the over ten million expellees, who had come to the Federal Republic from the former ‘eastern territories’ (most notably in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Russia). In the 1950s they had their own party political basis in the form of the Block der Heimatvertriebenen und Entrechteten (Block of Expellees and Dispossessed, BHE), which entered into electoral lists with extreme right organisations at the regional and local levels. The successful social integration of the expellees and refugees led to the