mothers and fathers […] who were victims of the biggest crime against humanity in history’.11 In such narrative, a main focus is put on those Germans who were expelled from former Third Reich territory, in what is labelled as the ‘biggest history of expulsion in the history of humankind’.12 This is achieved by showing video material of and stressing family histories of expulsion,13 emphasizing the ‘loss of the homeland of Eastern Germans’14 and mourning ‘irretrievably lost’ cities like Königsberg (Kaliningrad) and Danzig (Gdansk) as former hubs of German culture and history.15 Also, the victimization of millions of raped women and girls and German prisoners of war with mainly Soviet troops as perpetrators is mentioned.16 Here, the AfD mobilizes elements of deflected guilt, as well as narratives of victimhood and innocence that exist within, but are not articulated prominently in official post-Holocaust German memory and public commemoration.
To defy accusations of right-wing extremism, AfD actors formally acknowledge the victims of the Holocaust and guilt of some Germans. They stress, however, that Germans were not a people of perpetrators as many had not even voted for Hitler.17 Attempting to furthermore normalize their positions, they relate their interpretations of history to statements of recognized post-war politicians such as Theodor Heuss, who referred to 8 May as ‘most questionable and tragic paradox in [German] history’.18
Finally, the AfD constructs connections between past and present. Here, Georg Pazderski, head of the AfD fraction in the Berlin state parliament, points out that 8 May brought a new dictatorship, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), upon parts of the German people.19 He then stresses that nowadays, socialists are again gaining dominance in Germany, referring to the Left party as the legal successor of the GDR’s governing party SED together with its ‘leftist-green allies’, the Green party and the Social Democrats. He accuses them of not sincerely remembering the victims, but of misusing commemoration to defame conservative positions and the AfD. His lesson learned from 8 May and its aftermath is ‘Never again Socialism, be it left or right’.20
Moreover, Stephan Protschka, AfD MP in the Bundestag, frames the NS rule as a ‘socialist tyranny’.21 By stating that the loss of freedom of opinion and criminalization of the opposition ‘can still happen today’,22 he alludes to the surveillance of parts of the AfD by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution,23 thus implicitly comparing the Nazi dictatorship with the current administration. An equivalence between Nazi Germany and the Merkel government is constructed even more explicitly by AfD Bavaria, claiming that not 8 May, but ‘Merkel stepping down from office would be a real day of liberation’.24
This attempt to re-frame history on occasion of 8 May is part of a central AfD strategy: to offer an alternative German self-conception that does not deny but relativize the importance of the Holocaust; that demands less reflection on German guilt, instead allowing for patriotism. An interpretation of history that does not see the return of fascism as major danger for modern Germany, but warns against the dominance of what is framed as a socialist-green mainstream. An alternative national self-understanding, thus, that serves as the legitimizing backbone for the AfD’s radical right populist political positions.
Sophie Schmalenberger is a Doctoral Fellow at CARR and doctoral candidate in global studies at Aarhus University.
1 Elisabeth Schuhmacher, “German President Marks ‘Lonely’ World War II 75th anniversary,” Deutsche Welle, May 8, 2020, https://www.dw.com/en/german-president-marks-lonely-world-war-ii-75th-anniversary/a-53368453.
2 Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on the 75th anniversary of the liberation from National Socialism and the end of the Second World War in Europe at the Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Victims of War and Tyranny (Neue Wache), May 8, 2020, https://www.bundespraesident.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/Reden/2020/05/200508-75-Jahre-Ende-WKII-Englisch.pdf?__blob=publicationFile.
3 Esther Bajarano, Offener Brief an die Regierenden und alle Menschen, die aus der Geschichte lernen wollen., January 26, 2020, https://www.auschwitz-komitee.de/offener-brief-an-die-regierenden-und-alle-menschen-die-aus-der-geschichte-lernen-wollen/.
4 Jan Sternberg, “Gauland gegen Feiertag am 8. Mai: ‘Es war auch ein Tag der absoluten Niederlage’,” Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland, May 8, 2020, https://www.rnd.de/politik/feiertag-am-8-mai-darum-ist-alexander-gauland-afd-dagegen-DGQCKQIZ5RDVJKY27ZASXC27XI.html.
5 “Gauland provoziert mit Aussagen zum 8. Mai,” Jüdische Allgemeine, May 6, 2020, https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/politik/gauland-provoziert-mit-aussagen-zum-8-mai/.
6 Richard von Weizsäcker, Rede zur Gedenkveranstaltung im Plenarsaal des Deutschen Bundestages zum 40. Jahrestag des Endes des Zweiten Weltkrieges in Europa, May 8, 1985, https://www.bundespraesident.de/SharedDocs/Reden/DE/Richard-von-Weizsaecker/Reden/1985/05/19850508_Rede.html.
7 Bernhard Forchtner, Lessons from the Past? Memory, Narrativity and Subjectivity (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).
8 Harald Welzer, Sabine Moller and Karoline Tschuggnall, Opa war kein Nazi. Nationalsozialismus und Holocaust im Familiengedächtnis (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 2014).
9 Samuel Salzborn, Kollektive Unschuld. Die Abwehr Der Shoah Im Deutschen Erinnern (Leipzig: Hentrich & Hentrich, 2020).
10 Wulf Kansteiner, “Fantasies of Innocence: The Holocaust Bystander as German Television Star,” in Völkermord zur Prime-Time: der Holocaust im Fernsehen, eds. J. Keilbach, B. Rasky and J. Starek (Wien: New Academic Press: 2019), 23-45.
11 Stephan Protschka, “8. Mai: (K)ein Grund zum Feiern?”, YouTube video, 2:50, posted on May 7, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSvqtx5Kh8w&feature=youtu.be.
12 Protschka, “8. Mai”.
13 Stephan Protschka, “8. Mai: (K)ein Grund zum Feiern?,” AfD Kompakt, May 8, 2020, https://afdkompakt.de/2020/05/08/stephan-protschka-8-mai-kein-grund-zum-feiern/
