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Neue Rechte (English:New Right) is the designation for aright-wing political movement inGermany. It was founded as an opposition to theNew Left generation of the 1960s. Its intellectually oriented proponents distance themselves from Old RightNazi traditions and emphasize similarities between thefar-right and theconservative spectrum.
A common denominator of theNeue Rechte is a skeptical or negative stance towards the basic tenets of theGerman constitution, often in the sense of anethnic (völkisch) nationalism.
The termNew Right emerged in theFederal Republic of Germany in the 1960s as a self-designation and as a synonym for the "Young Right." When the far-rightNational Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) was founded in 1964, its younger members began to call themselvesJunge Rechte; this was in order to differ from Nazi models and to counter theGerman student movement. Contrary to their hopes, the NPD failed to enter theBundestag parliament in the1969 federal elections, whereafter they initiated a far-right renewal movement. In 1972,Henning Eichberg drafted the policy declaration of theAktion Neue Rechte offshoot, conveying ideas of an 'anti-imperialistic liberation nationalism', which included the expulsion of theAllied 'occupying forces' to pave the way for German unification and national rebirth.
From 1974, the movement disintegrated into numerous splinter groups, some defending the traditional ideas of a GermanVolksgemeinschaft, some affiliating to the risingecology movement. Eichberg and his followers continued to fight an 'over-foreignization' (Überfremdung) by the superpowers and advocated aThird Position in opposition to both capitalism and communism. They made attempts to build up ties to left-wing sectarian and ecological groups, as well as to the Germanpeace movement.
In around 1980, a new tendency arose to approach the ideas of the FrenchNouvelle Droite and its founderAlain de Benoist. The adherents stressed the perspective of a pan-European 'cultural struggle'; their concepts were embodied by the foundation of theThule-Seminar as the German branch of the FrenchGroupement de recherche et d'études pour la civilisation européenne (GRECE). In the late 1980s, proponents of a national revolutionary movement attempted to infiltrateright-wing populist parties likeThe Republicans, while other associated with thenational liberal spectrum.
The movement gained a new momentum in the course ofGerman reunification. The rise of right-wing parties as The Republicans led byFranz Schönhuber, thePro Movement, and theAlternative for Germany (AfD) is a matter of ongoing debate among German political scientists. They draw parallels to the success of European parties such as the ItalianAlleanza Nazionale and theLega Nord, theFreedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), the FrenchFront National, theSwiss People's Party (SVP) or the BelgianVlaams Belang as well as to the USTea Party movement. The programmatic statements of 'New Right' parties span from neoliberal to far-right elements and thereby have become compatible to conservative and liberal circles.
Historically, theNeue Rechte is linked to the positions of right-wing ideologues in theWeimar Republic, later summarized under the heading 'Conservative Revolution' by writers likeArmin Mohler. These forces included such people asArthur Moeller van den Bruck (Das Dritte Reich),Carl Schmitt,Edgar Julius Jung,Ernst Jünger,Oswald Spengler (The Decline of the West) andErnst von Salomon. During theinterwar period, they openly rejectedMarxism as well as liberalism and theparliamentary system in favour of anauthoritarian regime and a GermanSonderweg. Their views towards rising Nazism remained ambivalent, nevertheless they contributed to the fierce political infighting that preceded theNazi seizure of power in 1933.
Several members of theNeue Rechte also refer to theorists likeGeorges Sorel,Vilfredo Pareto,Robert Michels,Julius Evola, andJosé Antonio Primo de Rivera seen asfascist pioneers. Some even base themselves on Marxist philosophers likeAntonio Gramsci and his ideas ofcultural hegemony.
Textually, theNeue Rechte challenges the principles of theEnlightenment, such aspluralism andsocial equality underlying the doctrine ofhuman rights. Racist elements are superseded by the concept ofethnopluralism, combining bothneoconservative and far-right approaches. Ideologists disparage the ideals of the1968 protests andfeminism, they refuse to accept amulticultural society and seek for a strengthened 'national identity'. Therefore, they tend tohistorical revisionism and to battle against what they call a German 'cult of guilt' with regard to theHolocaust. According toRoger Griffin, theNeue Rechte share the deepcultural pessimism of their precursors in the interwar period. Referring to avölkisch nationalism, the movement seeks refuge not in the restoration of traditional values, but in a 'national rebirth' according topalingenetic concepts.[1]
They parallel the FrenchNouvelle Droite as a political movement, somewhat similar in their general political stance including theAnti-American sentiment advocated by Alain de Benoist. However, theNouvelle Droite'sneo-pagan leanings are the opposite to the Christian foundation of manyNeue Rechte members, though the movement also comprisesoccult groups.
Although the EuropeanNeue Rechte refrains from political violence, according to Roger Griffin[2] it "clearly embodies a form of palingenetic ultranationalism and has earned the label 'fascist'". Aware that no more mass political movements can be formed after 1945, theNeue Rechte, according to Griffin, is deliberately moving "into a state ofapoliteia beyond party politics, stoically awaiting a new historical conjuncture in which the postponed revolution can be resumed". The militantanti-Americanism ofAlain de Benoist, for example, explicitly justifies attacks ("retaliatory measures") on the USA. According to Griffin, theOrdine Nuovo, which is responsible for several terrorist attacks, draws its main inspiration from the works of Julius Evola.[2]
According toVolker Weiß, there is hardly any fundamental hostility towardsIslam within theNeue Rechte. The reason for the aversion is "merely the presence of Islam in the greater European area". The "real conditions inTeheran,Riyadh,Istanbul orKabul" play no role for the representatives of the New Right - unlike inuniversalist thinking.[3]
According to Griffin, the preferred target groups of the New Right's "culture war" are segments of society in which young people who have a certain tolerance forNeue Rechte positions can be found, e.g.fraternities and displaced persons. Other fields of agitation areneo-paganism andoccultism.[2] TheDark culture was also courted in the 1990s.[4] The main starting point for this wasNeofolk, a style of music in which some artists operate with fascist aesthetics.[5] In addition to musical reviews, the fanzineSigill (laterZinnober) also published essays on the work ofArmin Mohler,Ernst Jünger,Julius Evola and others.[6]
SomeNeue Rechte groups refer to pre-Christian or non-Christian European traditions. According to Friedrich Paul Heller,neopaganism is "one of their founding figures, and they practice the corresponding cults with devotion". TheThule-Seminar, for example, sees a "European rebirth". According to Heller, it is not the number of members that is decisive here, but their role as cues. They had an impact on the music scene and esotericism.[7]
The historianWalter Laqueur is of the opinion that theNeue Rechte ultimately failed to develop a coherent counter-position to Western-Americanliberalism.[8] TheNeue Rechte movement has not achieved an integrated opposite position to Western liberalism: while a main neoconservative tendency strongly refers to pre-war traditions and even affectcentre-right parties, a second wing openly uses terms like "revolution" or "socialism" in political disputes, based on the model ofErnst Niekisch andStrasserist concepts. They have made attempts to build up aQuerfront strategy with originally 'left' anti-imperialist andanti-capitalist circles.
Representatives of the German New Right often refer to certain thinkers of theWeimar Republic. Since a dissertation byArmin Mohler in 1949, these have been summarized in the collective term "Conservative Revolution", which many on the New Right have taken up and updated. Mohler's dissertation is still considered a standard work by supporters of the New Right.[9] Representatives of this movement include thinkers who rejectedhuman rights,liberalism,Marxism andparliamentary democracy between the world wars, such asArthur Moeller van den Bruck,Ernst Jünger,Edgar Julius Jung,Ernst von Salomon, andCarl Schmitt. Their opposing positions were inconsistent, but tended towards authoritarian state models and a German "special path" in relation to Western civilization. Their relationship to National Socialism is controversial; most of them were not active National Socialists, some distanced themselves from them and some were persecuted after 1933, while others affirmed and supported the Nazi state. Historians such asKurt Sontheimer emphasize the ideological and practical similarities, which favoured and helped prepare the rise of theNSDAP.
The New Right also refers to pioneers and theorists offascism such asJulius Evola,Robert Michels,Vilfredo Pareto,José Antonio Primo de Rivera undGeorges Sorel. The weekly newspaper Junge Freiheit, which historians and political scientists classify as an organ of the New Right, has dedicated a series of articles to these and similar thinkers and regularly reviews books about them.
The New Right not only refers to representatives of the "Conservative Revolution", but also to a Marxist intellectual,Antonio Gramsci.[10] His ideas on the achievement ofcultural hegemony are used instrumentally as power techniques – without further consideration of his Marxist ideas and ideals.[11]
The reference to Gramsci was presented by Alain de Benoist in a fundamental article in the GRECE magazineElements in 1977 titled"Pour un 'gramscisme de droite'" ["For a right-wing 'Gramscism'"], which was finally adopted as part of a new-right strategy at a GRECE conference in Paris in November 1981. This reference was intended to bring about self-sanctioning and was aimed at the appropriation of recognition by recognized intellectuals in order to bring about social acceptance. However, this reference was also a symbolic attribute, according to historian Wolfgang Kowalsky, "which made it possible to break the anti-fascist consensus that had assigned every right-wing extremist position since 1945 a socio-political place'hors statut' [out of status], in other words: stigmatized it".[12][13]
As there are currently no historical conditions, such as a mass movement, for a desired turnaround, the most important tactical approach of the New Right is the claim to achieve "discourse sovereignty" in social debates and cultural hegemony. This principle was first described by the Marxist theorist of theItalian Communist Party,Antonio Gramsci. He analyzed that social hegemony also functions in this way in the existing system: If one wants to achieve such hegemony, one must strive to infiltrate the elite discourse through journalistic activities, participate in clubs, associations and cultural institutions and on this basis bring ideological content into the social discussion, ultimately creating acceptance for it and dominating public opinion in the long term. Once this goal has been achieved, society is "ripe" for an overthrow of the status quo through an increasing number of electoral shares and parliamentary seats until government responsibility is assumed. This strategy also appears interesting to the New Right: "It is generally regarded as an essential new element of the 'New Right' that it refers to the Italian communist Antonio Gramsci and strives to achieve 'cultural hegemony' in order to overturn political conditions on this basis".[14]
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Well-known scholars and influential figures of theNeue Rechte beside Henning Eichberg and Armin Mohler includeGerd-Klaus Kaltenbrunner,Hans-Dietrich Sander [de],Robert Hepp [de],Caspar von Schrenck-Notzing,Karlheinz Weissmann andGötz Kubitschek.
The medium commonly associated with theNeue Rechte is the weekly newspaperJunge Freiheit founded in 1986. However, its chief editor Dieter Stein, a former member of The Republicans, denounces the term and instead advocates a more traditionally Christian, yet decidedly nationalist and democratic conservatism. Yet the term is frequently used as a self-description by the bi-monthly magazineSezession, which is closely linked toJunge Freiheit. Other periodicals affiliated with theNeue Rechte areNation und Europa (discontinued in 2009) and itsZuerst! successor. TheStudienzentrum Weikersheim founded by theCDU politicianHans Filbinger considers itself a Christian-conservativethink tank.
TheBibliothek des Konservatismus (BdK) is another connecting element in the network of the far-right in central Europe. Opened in 2012 and located inFasanenstraße inBerlin-Charlottenburg, the main focus of the library is conservative and far-right literature. It is the first library with this content in Germany and was founded byCaspar von Schrenck-Notzing and his foundationFörderstiftung Konservative Bildung und Forschung [de] (FKBF), which continues to administer it. As of 2014[update] there were 27,000 items in the library.
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