The German Right-Extremist Scene, 1945–1990

Abstract

In order to understand German right extremism in a country that has been unified only since 1990, it is necessary to look back at its antecedents. This chapter will deal primarily with the rightist political parties and neo-Nazi and skinhead groups that made up the right-wing extremist side of the West German political landscape from 1945 to 1990. We must ask why some of the groups arose so soon after the Nazi regime collapsed in 1945 and why former Nazis in leadership positions found a political home in some of the newly established democratic parties. What led to the right-wing extremist parties’ and groups’ rapid cyclical rise and fall? Did they constitute a danger to the fledgling new democratic order? Did the democratic parties take a stand on the issues raised by the rightist parties and groups? This chapter will also deal with rightist groups in the German Democratic Republic prior to its demise in 1990. Why did the groups play a lesser role than similar ones in West Germany? Did they ever constitute a threat to the GDR regime?