Anti-Germans (political current)

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The rapid collapse of the German Democratic Republic and the looming reunification of Germany triggered a major crisis within the German Left. The anti-German tendency first developed in a discussion group known as the Radical Left, which consisted of elements of the German Green Party, Trotskyists, members of the Communist League (Kommunistischer Bund), the journal konkret, and members of Autonome, Libertarian and Anarchist groups, who rejected plans by other segments of Leftist political organisations to join a governing coalition.^[6] This circle adopted a position developed by the Kommunistischer Bund, a decidedly pessimistic analysis with regard to the potential for revolutionary change in Germany. Known as the "fascization" analysis, this theory held that due to the particularity of German history and development, the endemic crisis of capitalism would lead to a move towards the far right and to a new Fascism.^[7]: 11

During an internal debate, representatives of the majority tendency said that the minority current, due to its bleak analysis and unwavering pessimism, might as well just emigrate to the Bahamas.^[8] The minority tendency, in an ironic gesture, thus named their discussion organ Bahamas.^[8] In 2007 Haaretz described Bahamas as "the leading publication of the hardcore pro-Israel, anti-German communist movement."^[8] The phrase Nie wieder Deutschland ("Germany, Never Again"), which became a central anti-German slogan, originated in demonstrations against reunification,^{[3][8][9][10]} the largest of which attracted a crowd of approximately 10,000 people.^[7] This early alliance dissipated shortly after the process of reunification was complete.^[6]

The emergence of the Anti-German current was also shaped by older disputes within the West German radical left about anti-Zionism, antisemitism and the legacy of National Socialism. Andreas Musolff has argued that West German left-wing terrorism was closely connected to unresolved conflicts over the Nazi past: militant groups described themselves as anti-fascist while, in some cases, adopting ideological elements that critics identified as antisemitic.^[11] The 1976 Entebbe hijacking, carried out by members of the Palestinian Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations and the West German Revolutionary Cells, became an important reference point in later debates because the hijackers separated Israeli and Jewish hostages from other passengers.^[12] These debates contributed to a later reassessment of anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist traditions within parts of the German left.^[13]

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The notion of a revival of German nationalism and racism as a result of the reunification seemed to confirm itself over the course of the 1990s, as shown by such events as the Rostock-Lichtenhagen riots and a murderous attack on a Turkish family in the West German town of Solingen.^[14] This wave of anti-immigrant violence led to tightening of Germany's hitherto liberal asylum laws.^{[citation needed]}

As a result of these conflicts, through the 1990s, small groups and circles associated with anti-German ideas began to emerge throughout Germany, refining their ideological positions by dissenting from prevailing opinions within the German Left. These positions became particularly prominent within "Anti-fascist" groups.^{[citation needed]} The Gulf War in 1990 consolidated the Anti-German position around a new issue, specifically criticism of the broader Left's failure to side with Israel against rocket attacks launched into civilian areas by the regime of Saddam Hussein.^[6] Left-wing writers such as Eike Geisel and Wolfgang Pohrt [de] criticised the German peace movement for failing to appreciate the threat posed by Ba'athism to left-wing movements through the Middle East, in particular around the Iraqi regime's use of poison gas.^[6]

Another reference point in the 1990s debates was the Revolutionary Cells' 1991 statement on the death of former member Gerd Albartus. Albartus had been killed in 1987 by a Palestinian group with which he had been associated. The statement, later reprinted in the RZ collection Früchte des Zorns, is described in secondary literature as a turning point in the history of the group because it publicly confronted the RZ's own antisemitism in relation to the Entebbe hijacking.^[15][16] The text became part of a wider left-wing discussion about whether anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist politics had reproduced antisemitic patterns, especially by viewing Israel solely as an outpost of Western imperialism rather than also as a refuge for Jews after the Holocaust.^[13] Raphael Schlembach argues that Anti-German thought drew on critiques of German anti-imperialist and armed-struggle groups, while becoming a more coherent political tendency only in the context of reunification, xenophobic violence and renewed debates about antisemitism in the 1990s.^[17]

The outbreak of the Second Intifada provided another focal point for the emerging Anti-German movement. According to Assaf Moghadam, the Anti-German movement's unconditional support for Israel, in contrast to the position of most left-wing organizations, was further intensified by the September 11 attacks on America, with anti-Germans strongly criticising other leftist positions that claimed that Al-Qaeda's assault on the United States was motivated by anti-imperialist or anti-capitalist resistance against American hegemony,^[6] instead claiming that Al-Qaeda and their attacks represented what Patrick Hagen characterised as a modern form of fascism that needed to be stringently opposed.^[7] Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda's leader, had written in the preceding years about various grievences against the United States and their allies, including Western military presence in Saudi Arabia (his home country and the location of Mecca and Medina) and mass killings of Muslims in numerous other countries.^[18]

In 1995, the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Dresden, anti-Germans praised the bombing on the grounds that so many of the city's civilians had supported Nazism.^[3] Kyle James points to this as an example of a shift towards support for the United States that became more pronounced after 9/11.^[3] Similar demonstrations are annually held, the slogans "Bomber Harris, do it again!" and "Deutsche Täter sind keine Opfer!" ("German perpetrators are no victims!") have become common.^[4]

The reasons the German government gave to legitimize the war – from an anti-German perspective – marked a turning point in the discourse of governmental history-policy.^[19] The war was not justified "despite but because of Auschwitz". This judgment is often combined with the analysis of the genesis of a new national self as the "Aufarbeitungsweltmeister"^[19] or "Weltmeister der Vergangenheitsbewältigung" (world champion in dealing with and mastering one's own past evil deeds).

Later anti-German focal points included the Stop The Bomb Coalition, active in both Germany and Austria, to maintain sanctions against Iranian attempts to obtain nuclear weapons.

The anti-Germans (and the Deutsch-Israelische Gesellschaft) have produced many of the anti-antisemitism commissioners hired by German institutions after the 2015 European migrant crisis.^[20]

The anti-German current is a heterogeneous political tendency within the German radical left. It emerged most visibly around opposition to German reunification in 1989–1990 and was further shaped by debates within the left during the 1991 Gulf War, especially over Iraqi missile attacks on Israel and the German peace movement's response to them.^[17][21][22] Its central themes include opposition to German nationalism, criticism of antisemitism and anti-Zionism within the left, and solidarity with Israel, which adherents commonly understand as a necessary refuge for Jewish life after the Holocaust.^[21][22]

Anti-German writers and groups have often presented themselves as continuing a leftist and anti-fascist tradition while criticizing what they regard as the failure of classical left and anti-imperialist movements to confront antisemitism adequately.^[17][23] In particular, they have criticized parts of the radical left for supporting or excusing authoritarian or reactionary regimes and movements under the banner of anti-imperialism, and for adopting forms of anti-Zionism that Anti-German authors interpret as structurally antisemitic.^[17][22]

Typical features associated with Anti-German critique include:

• solidarity with Israel and defense of its existence as a Jewish state;^[21][22]
• criticism of antisemitism within leftist, anti-imperialist, and Islamist discourses;^[17][22]
• rejection of German patriotism and national identity, especially in the context of post-reunification nationalism;^[21][22]
• opposition to anti-American rhetoric, which Anti-German authors often interpret as connected to anti-Zionism or coded antisemitism;^[21][17]
• suspicion toward forms of anti-capitalism that personalize capitalism or invoke antisemitic tropes concerning finance, abstraction, or "rootless" capital.^[17]

The Anti-German milieu has generally been characterized less by formal political organizations than by publications, magazines, journals, and essayistic interventions. Important or frequently discussed publications have included Bahamas, Konkret, Jungle World, Phase 2, and the now-defunct 17 Grad.^[17][21] Its discourse is strongly theory-driven, drawing on Marx, Critical Theory and the Frankfurt School, especially Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer, while also being marked by polemical and essayistic styles of intervention.^[17][21]

Zionist leftists that are linked to the Antideutsche movement in Germany and Austria have been accused of targeting left-wing German Jews and Austrian Jews.^[24]

According to Haaretz writer Ofri Ilany, "Incensed Germans, some of them descendants of Nazis, don't hesitate to attack Jewish and Israeli left-wingers" and "besmirch Jews" and violate their freedom of expression "under the banner of the struggle against anti-Semitism."^[25] Left-wing Austrian-Jewish activist Isabel Frey said that "Jews are fetishized in this pseudo-tolerant way and assumed to have unified interests" by the political mainstream in Austria and Germany. According to Frey, "Jewish leftists are being accused of antisemitism by non-Jewish leftists. To me, these accusations are a way of denigrating our Jewish identities, of saying that we’re the “wrong kind” of Jew. I keep asking myself, are these accusations themselves a kind of antisemitism?"^[26] Michael Sappir, an Israeli-born German-Jewish anti-Zionist activist affiliated with Jewish-Israeli descent in Leipzig, has said in +972 Magazine that the experience of being an anti-Zionist Jewish leftist in Germany can be disempowering and "very isolating" because the German left is often associated with the Antideutsch movement. According to Sappir, Jewish leftists and other pro-Palestinian voices are marginalized in part because "Antideutsch groups have managed to bully them into silence" and that Jewish leftists "felt very insulted by the idea of calling this struggle 'antisemitic'".^[27]

The Anti-Deutsch movement has faced criticism for its perceived unconditional support of the State of Israel. Critics argue that this position often leads to the marginalization of Palestinian perspectives and struggles. Some sources note that Anti-Deutsch groups have defended Israeli government actions including the Gaza genocide. These positions have sparked debate within the German and international left, with opponents asserting that the movement's stance may conflict with broader anti-imperialist and human rights principles.^[28][29]

Since the 2000s, anti-German positions, symbols and in-jokes have also been taken up in popular culture, music and artistic contexts.

One example was the Kufiya Feigale, a scarf discussed in 2007 and 2008 that reworked the Palestinian keffiyeh with Stars of David, condoms, butt plugs, and Viagra and ecstasy pills. In 2008, taz described the object as both a fashion item and a political statement within debates over anti-Zionism, solidarity with Israel and anti-German positions.^[30]

In 2009, the Viennese art group monochrom released a T-shirt bearing the slogan "man spricht antideutsch" ("anti-German is spoken here").^[31] The phrase was also picked up at the time by the blog unkultur, which noted its allusion to Gerhard Polt's film Man spricht deutsh.^[32]

Anti-German references have also appeared in music scenes. The Berlin electropunk band Egotronic and its singer Torsun Burkhardt were repeatedly associated with anti-German positions; in 2011, taz described Burkhardt as an artist who, "by virtue of his anti-German convictions, offends both the left and the right".^[33] The hip-hop group Antilopen Gang has also often been described as anti-German.^[34] The band has problematized the term as a polemical label, while not distancing itself from it.^[35][36] In 2017, for example, the member Koljah stated that he was "anti-German in that sense" insofar as he rejected "this German ideology".^[37]

• New Antisemitism
• Henryk Broder
• Egotronic
• Matthias Küntzel
• Andrei Markovits
• Moishe Postone
• Anti-Japaneseism
• White guilt
• I Apologize campaign
• German collective guilt
• Anti-Palestinianism
• Haavara Agreement
• Euston Manifesto
• Anti-antisemitism in Germany
• Antifa (Israel)
• Neoconservatism