The specter that once haunted West Germany was exorcized some thirty-five years ago as the breach in the Berlin Wall opened the way to reunification. This eradicated the specter’s spookiest haunting grounds — the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) — and nailed it into what was hoped to be a shatterproof, Krupp-steel coffin.
In 1989, this joyous victory was marked with fireworks over Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, a moving mass rendition of “Deutschland Über Alles,” good beer, and juicy bockwurst. We can expect similar celebrations on this year’s anniversary.
But it now seems that Germany is facing a new and very different specter, again coming from the East. This time, Germans are talking about the danger of fascism.
Two states in former GDR territory, Thuringia and Saxony, face elections on September 1, followed by Brandenburg on September 22. In all three, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) tops the polls.
Three questions occupy columns and talk shows. How fascist is the AfD? Should it be totally ostracized or even outlawed? And how did the AfD, already in second place in national polls (on 19 percent), take first place (around 30 percent support) in the same Eastern areas that, under Communist rule, were most volubly anti-fascist?
To some folk — most prominently Donald Trump but also German pundits and politicians — “communist,” “socialist,” “fascist,” and “totalitarian” all mean the same thing. Who knows or cares about their polarizing differences? In Washington, they are all “un-American” and equally…
La suite est à lire sur: jacobin.com
Auteur: Victor Grossman
