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The German Revolution and the Radical Right

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The German Revolution and Political Theory

Part of the book series: Marx, Engels, and Marxisms ((MAENMA))

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Abstract

This chapter argues that the German Revolution spurred significant and far-reaching changes in the nature and significance of radical right organising. This was most evident in the role played by radical right paramilitaries (the Freikorps) in suppressing left movements. Radical right counter-revolutionary violence produced new forms of organising that had fateful consequences not only for the left, but for the new republic. This increasingly unrestrained violence was shaped by the homosocial and profoundly misogynist cultures of the right, and, this chapter contends, had roots as well in longer colonial histories, with many Freikorps fighters having earlier served in colonial wars. The radical right movements organised around new quasi-exterminationist political economic and biopolitical strategies towards the left, but also, this chapter contends, sought to appropriate a “socialism” for the right.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Robert Heynen

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  1. Robert Heynen
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Correspondence to Robert Heynen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Gaard Kets

  2. Department of Politics, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK

    James Muldoon

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Heynen, R. (2019). The German Revolution and the Radical Right. In: Kets, G., Muldoon, J. (eds) The German Revolution and Political Theory. Marx, Engels, and Marxisms. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13917-9_3

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