As the neo-liberal project in Germany enters a crisis, German elites return to their fascist roots
Mathew D. Rose is an Investigative Journalist specialised in Organised Political Crime in Germany and an editor of BRAVE NEW EUROPE
Recently Germany’s liberal authoritarian elite was shocked – again. No, it was not the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza and devastating offensive in Rafah or the rapidly deteriorating military situation of the Ukrainian army resulting in many more deaths. What raised the hackles of these “good Germans” was a 14 second long video on twitter. In the film one sees a group of young people at an expensive bar on the exclusive North Sea island of Sylt, considered by Germans to be the reserve of the rich. In the film purported epigones of Germany’s wealthy are dancing and singing along with the song „L’Amour Toujours“ by the Italian DJ Gigi D’Agostino. They sing the refrain, however using a different, German text: “Deutschland den Deutschen. Ausländer raus.” (“Germany for Germans. Foreigners out.”). One reveller even holds a couple of fingers under his nose imitating Hitler’s moustache while raising his right arm. What has since come out is that this is currently – and for some time it seems – a common occurrence among young affluent Germans at such parties and events.
In Germany with its wealth of Nazi sentiments this should not come as a surprise. What however is exceptionally annoying for the liberal extremists is that it is the young and wealthy who are participating in this event, not the yobs attributed to the ultra-right AfD.
In Germany it is once again “in” to put one’s fascism on display, be it a Green party supporting Israel’s Gaza genocide and putting its Russophobe warmongering on display or the AfD, but this was the wrong sort of fascism. The liberal-metropolitan elite have reacted in accordance with their new won authoritarianism: at major events in Germany like the Oktoberfest it is now forbidden to play „L’Amour Toujours“.
Fascism has always been endemic in post-war Germany for those who were not afraid to recognise it. Most chose to ignore it. For economic, military strategic, and political reasons it simply was kept out of sight. Other aspects of fascism such as racism, German exceptionalism, and chauvinism are ubiquitous in German society. While Germany flaunted its “democratic” and “humanitarian” credentials to the world, if you scratched the surface there it was. Now you no longer need to scratch the surface as nationalism, authoritarianism, militarism, and fascism have become a touchstone of being a “good” German.
There are however various fascist factions in Germany. What we are today witnessing are at least three principle streams of fascism in Germany. These are the corporate, the populist, and the authoritarian liberal factions, the latter two of which are in virulent competition.
The corporate stream, was actually the original form of fascism that originated in Italy under Mussolini and was originally known as Corporatism, merging corporate interests with those of the state. The German capitalist class wholeheartedly supported this as Hitler crushed the unions, declared war on Soviet Bolshevism, and employed deficit spending for the war effort. Surprisingly for the Germans, it was the Soviet Union that proved the more efficient state, smashing the German Wehrmacht. In their master race hubris they had overseen that they would need the United States and Western Europe as allies to defeat the Soviet Union, a lesson they have learnt.
After the war in West Germany Konrad Adenauer who led what was referred to as the “centre-right” Christian Democrats accommodated Germany’s still prevailing fascist social structure and mindset, while making it party policy to never permit a real political force to develop to his party’s right. That meant he had to include the whole of the former Nazi elite, which were synonymous with West Germany’s elite: industrialists, large landowners, bankers, judges, lawyers, academics, leading civil servants, the whole lot. As the Americans noticed that they would need West Germany as a militarised ally for the Cold War they turned over their de-nazification programme to Adenauer and the West German government. That was the end of de-nazification in West Germany. Nazi officials as well as SS officers and soldiers guilty of war crimes were never prosecuted, remained highly respected citizens, and later received their state pensions. It was however made clear that the Nazi claptrap would have to be practised behind closed doors if Germany was to prosper in the Western world under US hegemony. It was a don’t tell, don’t ask arrangement. The political practices of the wealthy German elite was not a topic for German media that has always claimed to be an anti-fascist bulwark. In return Germany was made the cornerstone of the American empire in Europe. In the nations of the world outside the US there are still the most American soldiers stationed in Germany. All legacy German political parties and mainstream media are firmly committed in their fealty to the US.
Adenauer’s Christian Union was to carry on this policy dressed up as “liberal democracy”. The other two main parties, the Social Democrats and Liberals never wandered far from these policies also accommodating themselves with the fascist German capitalist class, although they sought slightly more social justice for German society.
The German capitalist class does not care who runs the government for them as long as their profits increase, a policy the mainstream parties have followed. It was the German Social Democrats and Greens that decimated the German social benefit system and introduced neo-liberalsim, not to mention sent German soldiers to foreign wars again. Should there be popular resentment to increasing inequality, then parties that repress this strongly will be preferred, so the AfD may have a future.
German capitalists may be annoyed due to the sanctions against Russia and China, but they know that the mainstream parties will look away even when these are massively violated by German companies, as we are already seeing. They also see the EU as an important bastion of their political dominance. In fact, that is why they so avidly supported its creation, to limit democracy, national sovereignty, and prioritise corporate interests. It is also no coincidence that Germany is the largest and most powerful member.
The AfD represents the second stream of German fascism: populist fascism. That it now has the support of twenty percent of German voters was the result of former Chancellor Angela Merkel following the political herd and concentrating on winning voters from the middle, abandoning Adenauer’s rule of securing the far right. Many who once had or would have had their political home in the CDU are the current AfD voters. As so often with populist fascists, the AfD’s promises to protect the “little people” will turn out the opposite, as they will do everything to gain the support of the corporate fascists who are the political kingmakers in Germany. Just how radical these German fascists are became apparent when even French far-right leader Marine Le Pen decided to break off collaboration with the party, after a leading AfD member declared not every member of the SS, the most brutal element of the Germany’s army in World War II, should automatically be considered a criminal. This is an opinion shared by Germany’s government that for 85 years only prosecuted mabe a handful of SS members.
The current leader of the Christian Union, Friedrich Merz, moving ever further into far-right political terrain, is trying to regain AfD voters, but with little success. The political elite and mainstream media have lost all influence over this group. Despite all the scandals that have been built up around the AfD, the little support it has lost is due to a new political party, the BSW, that is offering social justice for the broad mass of Germans, however based on social democratic policies.
The third and newest fascist stream, liberal extremism or liberal authoritarianism, is a populist movement of the metropolitan middle class. It is without a doubt currently the most dangerous fascist movement in Germany. While claiming to be defending liberal democracy, it is nationalist, racist, authoritarian, and militaristic. It is mainly constituted of the legacy political elite and media, which is turning to totalitarian fanaticism as its neo-liberal project is failing. It was remarkably successful with its reanimation of Russophobia following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It has been equally successful mobilising Islamophobia with its support of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. That this movement extends across the whole spectrum of the German political elite became visible as the conservative German politician Ursula von der Leyen, currently president of the EU Commission, and Germany Foreign Minister Annalena “Butcher” Baerbock of the Green Party were the first prominent European politicians who rushed to Israel for photo sessions with the war criminal Netanyahu, while declaring that the European Union and Germany stood with Israeli genocide. As Butcher Baerbock declared: we are all Israelis now. Germany is currently the only nation in the world supporting Israel at the International Court of Justice in denying that the Jewish State is guilty of genocide. But there may be more to this than meets the eye. Both women, unequivocal warmongers and Atlanticists, maybe imagined they would be able to form an axis consisting of the US, Israel, and Germany. With the US, Germany is the other major supplier of arms to Israel. True, the US can use Germany’s wealth and weapons, but it can take what it wants from Germany, which the Americans proved when they blew up the Nordstream pipeline. Furthermore, Germany is not a superpower and cannot even militarily protect its own interest.
Within Germany these liberal fascists believe that can do whatever they want disposing of democracy. And they do. Butcher Baerbock made this clear when she declared “‘If I make the promise to the people of Ukraine: ‘We will stand by your side as long as you need us’, then I will honour this promise. No matter what my German voters think.” Their fanaticism knows no limits. Democracy has been binned in Germany. Even the persecution of Jews is once again popular – against those that condemn Germany’s surrogate genocide in Palestine. This oppression of any opposition under the jackboot heel of liberal fanaticism is also used against Germans who criticise this recrudescence of fascism in their nation. Long gone are the liberal principles of tolerance and accepting different opinions. We are seeing the collapse of democratic rights in Germany, including the threat to ban their domestic arch-enemy the AfD.
The problem with the liberal fascists is that they are not terribly clever, nor honest or transparent, however extremely arrogant. They have reduced their policies to being battles between good and evil. Germany itself has been dragged before the International Court of Justice for its support of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. For many Germans the nation seems to be adrift, the economy is in recession, has a crumbling infrastructure, inequality is increasing, and austerity is orthodoxy, while billions of euros are being diverted to the Ukrainian war and German military. With regard to geopolitics they are not in the least conscious that they are gambling with Armageddon in Ukraine, assuming that Russia, unlike themselves, have humanitarian values that will prevent it from using its nuclear arsenal. German politicians are way above their heads in geopolitical and intellectual abilities. This applies for the whole of the European NATO member states’ political class. This became all to clear when recently Prime Minister Kallas of Estonia declared that “We have no Plan B for a Russian victory” in Ukraine.
In the meantime German Authoritarian Liberals know something is going very wrong with their policies. Ukraine is losing the war and Israel is becoming a pariah state. Their helplessness is becoming tangible. In a publicly televised dialogue with citizens in Berlin on 26 May Butcher Baerbock appeared to be completely surprised that she was heckled by protestors concerning Germany’s delivering arms to Israel and her support of genocide there– and probably just as surprised that no one in the audience attacked her critics. Baerbock did what German Liberal Fascists do these days and tried to mount the moral high ground. As this was not succeeding she turned to pathos claiming that Israel’s genocide was justified as she had seen a Hamas video of an Israeli woman being raped on camera”on 7 October. As revealed by the Electronic Intifada, besides Baerbock no one else has seen this video, neither the UN that has investigated this thoroughly nor the Israeli army. This is all too reminiscent of Joe Biden’s fabricated claim to have seen pictures of babies beheaded by Hamas fighters on 7 October.
It has taken almost 85 years, but fascism has once again gained the upper hand throughout Germany’s elite. It might be better to say that the German elite is showing its true face again as Germany has finally emancipated itself from the fraud of being a humanistic liberal democracy: from the Greens to the AfD, Germany is finally free.
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