Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Who Owns the West? German Political Establishment and the New Right

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover Contestations of Liberal Order

  • 632 Accesses

Abstract

The chapter sheds light on different uses of the West in recent German debate focusing on patterns of argumentation by the political establishment on one hand and by the New Right on the other. The Islamist terror attack on a Christmas market in Berlin on December 19, 2016, which in public discourse was regarded as attack against the West, serves as a case study for this chapter. Based on the analysis of speeches, newspaper articles, and posts in the social media, the chapter identifies different definitions of the West which are partly contradictory. Leading representatives of Germany’s political establishment and the majority of German press defines the West in the lines of Karl Popper’s model of the open society. This definition is also reflected in the historiographic narrative of Germany’s continuous and successful Westernization. Germany’s New Right, on the other hand, bases its understanding of the West on the concept of ethnopluralism, which focuses on the protection of single national cultures. In this worldview, a Christian West is represented as a closed society which finds its opposite in Islam.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Attacks on a smaller scale had taken place before in, for example, Hannover, Essen, Würzburg and Ansbach. Compare the information by the German intelligence service. “Verfassungsschutz.”

  2. 2.

    Newspapers with different political affiliations agree on these facts. Compare, for example, Spiegel, December 23, 2016, 16–26; taz, December 21, 2016, 1–3 and December 24/25/26, 2016, 4; FAZ, December 20, 2016, 1, December 21, 2016, 1–3 and December 24, 2016, 1f.; SZ, December 20, 2016, 1f., December 21, 2016, 1–3, December 24, 2016, 1–3.

  3. 3.

    Müller, “Terroranschlag Breitscheidplatz.”

  4. 4.

    Abbreviation for “Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes” (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the Occident).

  5. 5.

    AfD, “Programm für Deutschland.”

  6. 6.

    Sarrazin (2018).

  7. 7.

    Winkler (2009–2015).

  8. 8.

    Trautsch (2017), 58–66; Osterhammel (2017), 101–114; Bavaj and Steber (2017); Browning and Lehti (2010); Bonnett (2004); Hochgeschwender (2004), 1–30; Gassert (2001); Doering-Manteuffel (1999).

  9. 9.

    Browning and Lehti (2010), 23.

  10. 10.

    Gauck, “Statement zum Anschlag.”

  11. 11.

    Merkel, “Press statement.”

  12. 12.

    Müller, “Terroranschlag Breitscheidplatz.”

  13. 13.

    Gauck, “Statement zum Anschlag.”

  14. 14.

    Merkel, “Pressestatement.”

  15. 15.

    Müller, “Terroranschlag Breitscheidplatz.”

  16. 16.

    Ibid.

  17. 17.

    May, “PM statement.”

  18. 18.

    Löfven, “Uttalande.”

  19. 19.

    Hollande, “L’intégralité de l’allocution.”

  20. 20.

    Ibid.

  21. 21.

    Rajoy, “Declaración institucional.”

  22. 22.

    By the end of 2017, ca. 10.6 million persons with an exclusively foreign nationality were registered in Germany; https://www.destatis.de. Almost one-fifth of Berlin’s citizens are foreigners; “Statistik-berlin-brandenburg.”

  23. 23.

    Kautz, “BILD-Interview.”

  24. 24.

    Freie Demokratische Partei, “Wolfgang Schäuble.”

  25. 25.

    Likewise in Die Zeit: Schäuble (2016), 6.

  26. 26.

    Winkler (2000).

  27. 27.

    Conze (2005), 5; Levsen and Torp (2016), 11f.; Doering-Manteuffel (1999), 21; Gassert (2001), 15f.

  28. 28.

    The analysis is based on all articles dealing with the terror attack published in Bild, Der Spiegel, Der Tagesspiegel, Die Welt, Die Zeit, FAZ, JF, ND and SZ and taz during the period December 20, 2016–January 2, 2017.

  29. 29.

    Bild, “Terror”, 1; Schmidt (2016), 1; Zoch (2016), 1; Spiegel, “Stille Nacht.”

  30. 30.

    Schröder (2016), 10.

  31. 31.

    Matthies (2016), 11.

  32. 32.

    Minkmar (2016), 30.

  33. 33.

    Ibid., 31.

  34. 34.

    Popper (1947), especially 153, 165, 166 and 177.

  35. 35.

    Flade (2016), 1; Di Lorenzo and Wefing (2016), 1; Münkler (2016), 42; Kohler (2016) 1; Truscheit (2016), 1; Deckers (2016), 1; Kister (2016b), “Hass”, 4; Emcke (2016), 5; Jansen (2016), 2.

  36. 36.

    Joffe (2016), 43.

  37. 37.

    Kister (2016a), “Tod”, 4.

  38. 38.

    The first edition was published in 1945.

  39. 39.

    taz, “Herausforderung,” 1.

  40. 40.

    taz, “Interview,” 2.

  41. 41.

    Feddersen (2016), 1.

  42. 42.

    Kalbe (2016), 3.

  43. 43.

    Schweppenhäuser (2016), 9.

  44. 44.

    Seifert and Winter (2017), 10.

  45. 45.

    Blome (2016), 2.

  46. 46.

    Compare, for example: Bild, “Abschiebe-Versagen,” 1; Bergmann et al. (2016), 2; Bild, “Land sicherer,” 4; Bild, “Wie kann es sein, dass Anis Amri,” 2; Bild, “Schließt endlich,” 2; Bild, “Wer trägt Schuld,” 3.

  47. 47.

    Bild, “Land sicherer,” 4.

  48. 48.

    Link and Solms-Laubach (2016), 5.

  49. 49.

    Bild, “Teil-Verbot,” 1; Bild, “Abschiebe-versagen,” 1.

  50. 50.

    Bild, “Wie kann es sein, dass Anis Amri,” 2; Bild, “Wie kann es sein, dass wir kriminelle,” 3.

  51. 51.

    Pretzell, “twitter-account.” By “Nice” Pretzell refers to the Islamist terror attack which had been taken place in the French city in July 2016.

  52. 52.

    The German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) names a net migration of 1.1 million for 2015. BAMF, “Migrationsbericht 2015.”

  53. 53.

    AfD, “Facebook-account.”

  54. 54.

    Maréchal, “twitter-account.”

  55. 55.

    Wilders, “twitter-account.”

  56. 56.

    Pretzell, “Rede.”

  57. 57.

    Ibid.

  58. 58.

    Eckert (2010), 26ff.

  59. 59.

    Pfeiffer (2004), 55–57.

  60. 60.

    JF, “Leser der JF.”

  61. 61.

    Alexander Gauland, party leader of the AfD, stated: “If you want to understand the AfD, you need to read Junge Freiheit”. Erk and Schirmer, “Journal national.”

  62. 62.

    Stein, “Die Stille.”

  63. 63.

    Ibid.

  64. 64.

    Ibid.

  65. 65.

    Fest, “Endlich wählbar.” The author is the son of Joachim Fest, a famous conservative German historian and journalist who passed away in 2006. This may serve as one example for the close connection between the conservative establishment and the New Right in Germany.

  66. 66.

    AfD, “Programm für Deutschland,” 6.

  67. 67.

    Krautkrämer, “AfD-Vize von Storch.”

  68. 68.

    Höcke, “Facebook-account.”

  69. 69.

    Ein Prozent, “Morgen.”

  70. 70.

    Ibid.

  71. 71.

    Ibid.

  72. 72.

    Guten Morgen mit Sat 1, “Aktuell.”

  73. 73.

    Ibid.

References

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Ann-Judith Rabenschlag

Authors
  1. Ann-Judith Rabenschlag
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ann-Judith Rabenschlag .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tampere Peace Research Institute, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

    Marko Lehti

  2. Turku Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Henna-Riikka Pennanen

  3. Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Jukka Jouhki

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Rabenschlag, AJ. (2020). Who Owns the West? German Political Establishment and the New Right. In: Lehti, M., Pennanen, HR., Jouhki, J. (eds) Contestations of Liberal Order. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22059-4_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation