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Antifa (German pronunciation:[ˈantifa]^ⓘ) is apolitical movement in Germany composed of multiplefar-left,autonomous,militant groups and individuals who describe themselves asanti-fascist. According to the GermanFederal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and theFederal Agency for Civic Education, the use of the epithetfascist against opponents and the view ofcapitalism as a form offascism are central to the movement.^[1][2][3] The antifa movement has existed in different eras and incarnations, dating back toAntifaschistische Aktion, from which the monikerantifa came. It was set up by the then-StalinistCommunist Party of Germany (KPD) during the late history of theWeimar Republic. After the forced dissolution in the wake ofMachtergreifung in 1933, the movement went underground.^[4] In the postwar era,Antifaschistische Aktion inspired a variety of different movements, groups and individuals in Germany as well as other countries which widely adopted variants of its aesthetics and some of its tactics. Known as the wider antifa movement, the contemporary antifa groups have no direct organisational connection toAntifaschistische Aktion.^[5]

The contemporary antifa movement has its roots in the West GermanAußerparlamentarische Oppositionleft-wingstudent movement and largely adopted the aesthetics of the first movement while being ideologically somewhat dissimilar. The first antifa groups in this tradition were founded by theMaoistCommunist League in the early 1970s. From the late 1980s, West Germany'ssquatter scene and left-wingautonomism movement were the main contributors to the new antifa movement and in contrast to the earlier movement had a moreanarcho-communist leaning. The contemporary movement has splintered into different groups and factions, including oneanti-imperialist andanti-Zionist faction and oneanti-German faction who strongly oppose each other, mainly over their views onIsrael.

German government institutions such as theFederal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and theFederal Agency for Civic Education describe the contemporary antifa movement as part of the extreme left and as partially violent. Antifa groups are monitored by the federal office in the context of its legal mandate to combatextremism.^[1][2][3][6] The federal office states that the underlying goal of the antifa movement is "the struggle against theliberal democratic basic order" and capitalism.^[2][3] In the 1980s, the movement was accused by German authorities of engaging interrorist acts of violence.^[7]

Antifaschistische Aktion was established by theCommunist Party of Germany (KPD) based on the principle of acommunist front and its establishment was announced in the party's newspaperDie Rote Fahne (The Red Flag) in 1932. It functioned as an integral part of the KPD during its entire existence from 1932 to 1933.^[8] A member of theComintern, the KPD under the leadership ofErnst Thälmann was loyal to the Soviet government headed byJoseph Stalin to the extent that the party had been directly controlled and funded by the Soviet leadership in Moscow since 1928.^[9][8]

The KPD describedAntifaschistische Aktion as a "red united front under the leadership of the only anti-fascist party, the KPD".^[10] The KPD had proclaimed that it was "the only anti-fascist party" during the elections of 1930.^[9] Unlike the situation in Italy, no party regarded itself as "fascist" in Weimar-era Germany. Central toAntifaschistische Aktion was the use of the epithetfascist. According toNorman Davies, the concept of "anti-fascism" as used by the KPD originated as an ideological construct of theSoviet Union,^[11] where the epithetsfascist andfascism were primarily and widely used to describecapitalist society in general and virtually anyanti-Soviet oranti-Stalinist activity or opinion. This usage was also adopted bycommunist parties affiliated with the Comintern such as the KPD.^[12]

During the Comintern'sThird Period (1928–1931), theSocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) was included by the KPD in the category of "fascists"^[13] based on the theory of "social fascism" proclaimed by Stalin and supported by the Comintern in the early 1930s, according to which social democracy was a variant of fascism and even more dangerous and insidious than open fascism.^[8] The KPD doctrine held that the communist party was "the only anti-fascist party" while all other parties were "fascist".^[14] The KPD did not viewfascism as a specific political movement, but primarily as the final stage ofcapitalism and the KPD's anti-fascism was therefore synonymous withanti-capitalism. Throughout this period, the KPD regarded the centre-left SPD as its main adversary.^[8] Thälmann "took his instructions from Stalin and his hatred of the SPD was essentially ideological".^[15] In his sympathetic history ofAntifaschistische Aktion, published by the Association for the Promotion of Antifascist Culture, Bernd Langer notes that "antifascism was always a fundamentally anti-capitalist strategy" and that "communists always took antifascism to mean anti-capitalism. Therefore all other parties were fascist in the opinion of the KPD, and especially the SPD".^[16] A 1931 KPD resolution described the SPD, referred to as "social fascists", as the "main pillar of the dictatorship of Capital".^[17] Consequently,anti-fascism andanti-fascist action in the language of the KPD also included the struggle against the social democrats.^[8] In the early 1930s, the KPD had stated that "fighting fascism means fighting the SPD just as much as it means fightingHitler and the parties ofBrüning".^[14] While some KPD members initially believedAntifaschistische Aktion should include other leftists, this opinion was quickly suppressed by the KPD leadership which made it clear thatAntifaschistische Aktion would also oppose the SPD and that "Anti-Fascist Action means untiring daily exposure of the shameless, treacherous role of the SPD andADGB leaders who are the direct filthy helpers of fascism".^[18]

Occasionally, the KPD cooperated with the Nazis in attacking the SPD and both sought to destroy the liberal democracy of theWeimar Republic.^[18][19] While also opposed to the Nazis, the KPD regarded theNazi Party as a less sophisticated and thus less dangerous fascist party than the SPD. In December 1931, KPD leaderErnst Thälmann declared that "some Nazi trees must not be allowed to overshadow a forest" of the SPD.^[20][21] In 1931, the KPD under the leadership of Ernst Thälmann internally used the slogan "After Hitler, our turn!", strongly believing that a united front against Nazis was not needed and that a Nazi dictatorship would ultimately crumble due to flawed economic policies and lead the KPD to power in Germany when the people realized that their economic policies were superior.^[22][23]

The relationship between the KPD and the SPD was characterised by mutual hostility. The SPD had itself adopted the position that both the Nazis and the KPD posed an equal danger to liberal democracy^[24] and SPD leaderKurt Schumacher famously described the KPD as "red-painted Nazis" in 1930.^[12] The SPD-dominatedReichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold described itself as a "protection organization of the Republic and democracy in the fight against the swastika and the Soviet star" and both the Reichsbanner and theIron Front opposed both the Nazis and the "anti-fascist" KPD.^[25][26] In 1929, the KPD's paramilitary organisation,Roter Frontkämpferbund (Alliance of Red Front-Fighters), an effective predecessor ofAntifaschistische Aktion, had been banned as extremist by the governing SPD.^[27] In December 1929, the KPD foundedAntifaschistische Junge Garde as a successor toRoter Frontkämpferbund, which was banned.^[28]

Despite this animosity between party leaderships, on the ground there was considerable co-operation against the Nazis between rank and file activists of the KPD, SPD and other left groups such as in local anti-fascist committees and militias, particularly in 1932 as the fascists gained ground and calls for aunited front byLeon Trotsky,August Thalheimer and other left leaders became more urgent.^[14] It was in this context that the KPD began to emphasise the specific threat of Nazism, leading to the formation ofAntifaschistische Aktion and later the turn away from the "social fascism" doctrine. The 1932 congress organised by KPD dedicated energy to attacking the SPD. It featured a largeAntifaschistische Aktion logo flanked by imagery that showed the KPD fighting the capitalists next to imagery openly mocking the SPD.^[29]

After the forced dissolution in the wake of theMachtergreifung in 1933, the movement went underground.^[4]Theodore Draper argued that "the so-called theory of social fascism and the practice based on it constituted one of the chief factors contributing to the victory of German fascism in January 1933".^[13][15]

After the defeat ofNazi Germany, groups calledAntifaschistische Aktion,Antifaschistische Ausschüsse, orAntifaschistische Kommittees, all typically abbreviated toantifa, spontaneously re-emerged in Germany in 1944, mainly involving veterans of pre-warKPD,KPO andSPD politics^{[30][31][32][33]} as well as some members of other democratic political parties andChristians who opposed the Nazi régime.^[34] Communists tended to make up at least half of the committees.^[34] In the western zones, these anti-fascist committees began to recede by the late summer of 1945, marginalized byAllied bans on political organization and by re-emerging divisions betweencommunists and others and the emerging state doctrine ofanti-communism in what becameWest Germany.^[35] InEast Germany, the antifa groups were absorbed into the newStalinist state.^[30]

In theSoviet occupation zone which later became East Germany, the Soviet occupation authorities pressured the KPD and the remainingSocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) to merge into theSocialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) while those within the SPD who resisted theStalinization were persecuted and often fled to the western zones.^[36] The repression in the Soviet occupation zone and the onset of theCold War quickly exacerbated the conflict between the SED and the SPD. The termanti-fascism was widely used byMarxist–Leninists to smear their opponents, includingdemocratic socialists,social democrats and otheranti-Stalinist leftists.^[36]

Anti-fascism was part of the official ideology and language of thecommunist state^[1] andAntifaschistische Aktion was considered an important part of the heritage of the governing SED along with the KPD itself.Eckhard Jesse notes thatanti-fascism was ubiquitous in the language of the SED and used to justify repression such as the crackdown on theEast German uprising of 1953.^[37][38]Anti-fascism generally meant the struggle against theWestern world andNATO in general and against the western-backedWest Germany and its main ally the United States in particular which were seen as the main fascist forces in the world by the SED.^[12] From 1961 to 1989, the SED used Anti-Fascist Protection Wall (German:Antifaschistischer Schutzwall) as the official name for theBerlin Wall. This was in sharp contrast to theWest Berlin city government which would sometimes refer to the same structure as theWall of Shame.^[39][40]

Theanti-Zionist struggle was seen as an important part of the anti-fascist struggle and Israel was regarded by East Germany as a "fascist state"^[41] alongside the United States and West Germany.Jeffrey Herf argues that East Germany was waging an undeclared war on Israel^[42] and that "East Germany played a salient role in the Soviet bloc's antagonism toward Israel".^[43] According to Herf, after becoming a member of theUnited Nations (UN), East Germany "made excellent use of the UN to wage political warfare against Israel [and was] an enthusiastic, high-profile, and vigorous member" of the anti-Israeli majority of the General Assembly.^[42] Anti-fascism as interpreted by East Germany served as a "legitimizing ideology" and "state doctrine" of the regime.^[1][5][38] When the regime crumbled during theRevolutions of 1989, the SED intensified its use of anti-fascist rhetoric directed at the West to justify its existence.^[37][38]

The contemporary antifa movement has its origins in West Germany, in the student-basedAußerparlamentarische Opposition (extra-parliamentary opposition) of the 1960s and early 1970s which opposed the alleged "fascism" of the West German government.^[5] Major factors that formed the backdrop of this movement were criticism of theVietnam War and theUnited States, students' anti-authoritarian rebellion against their parents' generation, criticism of professors' dominance of universities and continuity of the societal relations of power, especially the continuity in the civil service since the Nazi era, and the criticism of the centre-leftSPD by those to the left of the SPD.^[44]

The earliest contemporary antifa groups that were inspired by the left-wing student movement were founded by theMaoistCommunist League in the early 1970s. During the 1970s, parts of theAußerparlamentarische Opposition wereradicalized, culminating in the formation of militant groups like theRed Army Faction, the2 June Movement and theRevolutionary Cells.^[45] Some of the more radical elements within antifa groups of the late 1970s had contact with the Red Army Faction and the Revolutionary Cells.^[46] From the late 1980s, thesquatter scene andautonomism movement were important in an upswing of the antifa movement.^[30]

The contemporary antifa movement in Germany comprises differentanti-fascist groups which usually use the abbreviationantifa and regardAntifaschistische Aktion of the early 1930s as an inspiration. Contemporary antifa "has no practical historical connection to the movement from which it takes its name, but is instead a product of West Germany's squatter scene and autonomist movement in the 1980s".^[30] Many new antifa groups formed from the late 1980s onwards. One of the biggest antifascist campaigns in Germany in recent years was the ultimately successful effort toblock the annual Nazi-rallies in the east German city of Dresden in Saxony which had grown into "Europe's biggest gathering of Nazis".^[47] UnlikeAntifaschistische Aktion which had links to theCommunist Party of Germany and which was concerned with industrial working-class politics, the late 1980s and early 1990s autonomists were instead independent anti-authoritarianlibertarian Marxists andanarcho-communists not associated with any particular party. The publicationAntifaschistisches Infoblatt, in operation since 1987, sought to exposeradical nationalists publicly.^[48]

Most contemporary antifa groups were formed after theGerman reunification in 1990, mainly in the early part of the 1990s. In 1990,Autonome Antifa (M) was established inGöttingen.Antifaschistische Aktion Berlin, founded in 1993, became one of the more prominent groups.Antifaschistische Aktion/Bundesweite Organisation [de] was an umbrella organisation at the federal level that coordinated these groups across Germany. Aside from their violent clashes withultra-nationalists, these groups participated in the annualMay Day in Kreuzberg which resulted in large-scale riots in 1987 and which have been characterized by a significant police presence.^[49][50] In 2003,Antifaschistisches Infoblatt joinedAntifa-Net, part of an international network, including the likes of Britain'sSearchlight and Sweden'sExpo magazine.^[51]

Steffen Kailitz notes that "the difference between the autonomist scene and terrorist networks gradually lost importance from the 1990s" and that a number of antifa groups were involved in violent activities from the 1990s.^[52] In October 2016, antifa in Dresden campaigned on the occasion of the anniversary of the reunification of Germany on 3 October for "turning Unity celebrations into a disaster" to protest this display of new German nationalism whilst explicitly not ruling out the use of violence.^[53] Antifa protesters were involved during the2017 G20 Hamburg summit confrontations.^[54][55]

AfterGerman reunification, the antifa movement gradually fractured into three main camps:^[56]

• Anti-imperialists, the largest group, who take ananti-imperialist position and most closely adhere to the traditional position taken within the movement and communist parties generally, tending to view politics in terms of how a country relates to the West and seeinganti-Zionism as part of the anti-fascist struggle.
• Anti-Germans, who emphasize their opposition to Germany as a country,supportIsrael and oppose the anti-imperialist antifa and the mainstream left.
• Those who have no position on Israel or who see it as irrelevant to questions of contemporary anti-fascism in Germany.

Diverging opinions on Israel has caused a split in the movement since the 2000s.^[57] The Antifaschistische Aktion/Bundesweite Organisation dissolved in 2001 and it splintered into different groups and factions as a result of these political differences.

Writing in 1993, political scientistAntonia Grunenberg described "anti-fascism" as a "strange term, that expresses opposition to something, but no political concept" and points out that while all democrats are against fascism, not everyone who is against fascism is a democrat. In this sense, Grunenberg argues that the term obscures the difference between democrats and non-democrats.^[5] Many contemporary antifa groups include their understanding of various forms of oppression or general and loosely defined topics such as homophobia, racism, sexism and war in their understanding of fascism. Frequently, corporate interests, the government and especially the police and military are also included in their understanding of fascism. In German, the termsantifa andanti-fascism are often used interchangeably.^[3] According to political scientist andCDU politicianTim Peters, usage of the termanti-fascism in contemporary Germany is mainly limited to the far-left while the term and ideology are viewed critically by many.^[57]

Many contemporary antifa groups have adopted variants of the aesthetics ofAntifaschistische Aktion. Its two-flag logo was originally designed byMax Gebhard [de] andMax Keilson [de] of the KPD-associatedAssociation of Revolutionary Visual Artists.^[58] While the original logo ofAntifaschistische Aktion featured twored flags representingcommunism andsocialism, contemporary antifa logos since the 1980s usually feature ablack flag representinganarchism andautonomism, in addition to the red flag.^[48]

• 
  1930s logo ofAntifaschistische Aktion
• 
  Logo ofAntifaschistische Aktion
• 
  Logo ofAntifaschistische Aktion on a red flag
• 
  Toilet brush symbol adopted for theHamburg protests
• 
  Red flag of its American counterpart,Antifascist Action

Government of Germany's institutions such as theFederal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and theFederal Agency for Civic Education describe the contemporary antifa movement as part of theextreme left and antifa groups are monitored by the federal office in the context of its legal mandate to combatextremism under the provisions allowed for by the German system of aStreitbare Demokratie ("fortified democracy").^[1][2][3][6]

The Federal Agency for Civic Education claims that antifa groups sometimes call for violence not only against police orskinheads but also against bishops and judges. According to the agency, there are slogans such as "antifascism means attack" not only against the far-right but also against the political system of the Federal Republic of Germany.^[1] Writing for the Federal Agency for Civic Education, extremism expertArmin Pfahl-Traughber, a former director with the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, notes that "even if every convinced democrat is an opponent of fascism,anti-fascism is not per se a democratic position". According to Pfahl-Traughber, one must distinguish between "fascism in a scholarly sense" and "fascism in a far-left extremist sense".^[1]

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution describes the field of "anti-fascism" or "Antifa" as extremist^[3] and includes it and associated groups in itsannual public reports on extremism as part of the topic "far-left extremism".^[6] The federal office further notes that "[t]he field of 'anti-fascism' has for years been a central element of the political activity of far-left extremists, especially violent ones. [...] Far-left extremists within this tradition only superficially claim to fight far-right activities. In reality the focus is the struggle against the liberal democratic basic order, which is smeared as a 'capitalist system' with 'fascist' roots".^[2]

The contemporary antifa or anti-fascist movement in the Federal Republic of Germany has been mentioned in theAnnual Report on the Protection of the Constitution since 1986 as part of the main chapter on "far-left extremism" and was described as a group engaged interrorist acts of violence.^[7] In 1995, public prosecutors inLower Saxonycharged 17 members of antifa with belonging to acriminal organization ("Antifa") and with supporting terrorism as part of a sweeping investigation into antifa by Lower Saxon police and security agencies known as the anti-antifa investigation that started in 1991 until the case was dropped in 1996.^[59] A report by the GermanBundestag from 2018 determined that due to the lack of a formal organizational structure or leadership, it is only possible to prosecute members of antifa on terrorism charges in individual cases.^[60]

According to the 2018 Annual Report on the Protection of the Constitution, antifa's actions againstright-wing extremists included arson, the outing of personal information, vandalism and more rarely causing personal injuries.^[61] In 2020,Die Welt reported that at least 47 organised antifa groups are monitored by German federal and state offices for the protection of the constitution and labelled as "extremist". However, not all monitored groups are mentioned in the federal or state annual reports on the protection of the constitution and the list is therefore not exhaustive.^[62]

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