They were the big political winners of the “refugee crisis” of 2015. In the German federal election of 2017, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), Germany’s version of radical right-wing populism, garnered more than 12 percent of the vote, making it Germany’s third largest party. In the months that followed, the AfD successfully contested regional elections, particularly in the eastern part of the country (i.e., the territory of the former GDR), giving rise to growing concern. And for good reasons.
Among other things, the AfD fundamentally questioned one of the foundations of Germany’s postwar consensus – the centrality of Germany’s Nazi past for the self-understanding of the Federal Republic. As a prominent leader of the AfD put it, Hitler and National Socialism were nothing more than “bird shit” compared to Germany’s “long and successful history”.
To be sure, the AfD’s take on the dark sides of Germany was hardly a major reason for the party’s dramatic gains. What counted much more was a general disenchantment with the coalition government headed by Angela Merkel and, in the eastern part of the country, a strong sense that after almost three decades since German unification, eastern Germans were still being treated as if they were “second-class citizens.” Symptomatically, in eastern regions, such as Saxony and Thuringia, the party scored more than 20 percent of the vote.
