Anti-Germans (political current)

Last updated
Anti-German communist protesters in Frankfurt in 2006. The banner reads "Down with Germany/Solidarity with Israel/For Communism!". Anti-German communist protesters in Frankfurt in 2006.jpg
Anti-German communist protesters in Frankfurt in 2006. The banner reads "Down with Germany/Solidarity with Israel/For Communism!".

Anti-German (German : Antideutsch) is the generic name applied to a variety of theoretical and political tendencies within the left mainly in Germany and Austria. The Anti-Germans form one of the main camps within the broader Antifa movement, alongside the Anti-Zionist anti-imperialists, after the two currents split between the 1990s and the early 2000s as a result of their diverging views on Israel. [2] The anti-Germans are a fringe movement within the German left: In 2006 Deutsche Welle estimated the number of anti-Germans to be between 500 and 3,000. [3] The basic standpoint of the anti-Germans includes opposition to German nationalism, a critique of mainstream left anti-capitalist views, which are thought to be simplistic and structurally antisemitic, [4] and a critique of antisemitism, which is considered to be deeply rooted in German cultural history. As a result of this analysis of antisemitism, support for Israel and opposition to Anti-Zionism is a primary unifying factor of the anti-German movement. [5] The critical theory of Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer is often cited by anti-German theorists. [4] : 2 

Contents

Emergence

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 "Fascisation" 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]

Development in the 1990s

Never again Germany graffiti in Vienna, 2009 Nie-wieder-Deutschland.png
Never again Germany graffiti in Vienna, 2009

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. [11] 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] Leading 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]

The outbreak of the Second Intifada provided another focal point for the emerging Anti-German movement. While other left-wing analysis identified Israel as an aggressor to the point they were perceived by the Anti-German movement as supporting Islamist groups such as Hamas, the Anti-German camp called for unconditional solidarity with Israel, explicitly Jews and other non-Arab groups native to the region against pan-Arabist ideology. This resulted in leading Anti-German publications including Konkret and Bahamas to draw links between the antisemitism of Islamist groups and the antisemitism of the Nazis, as both groups upheld the extermination of the Jews as central to their politics. This break with other left-wing positions 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 a modern form of fascism that needed to be stringently opposed. [7]

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 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia was also a focus of opposition for the anti-Germans, as for most of the radical left. Many anti-Germans condemned the war as a repetition of the political constellation of forces during the Second World War, with the Serbs in the role of victim of German imperialism. Some anti-Germans thus issued a call for "unconditional" support for the regime of Slobodan Milošević.[ citation needed ] 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. [12] 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" [12] 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 . [13]

Criticisms

Zionist leftists that are (often against their self-designation) linked to the Antideutsche movement in Germany and Austria have been accused of targeting left-wing German Jews and Austrian Jews. [14] 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." [15] 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?" [16] 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'". [17] Despite accusations of anti-Semitism, there is close collaboration and solidarity between those associated with Antideutsche movement and Zionist leftist Jewish organizations, as e.g. the Autonome Jüdische Gruppe Berlin or the Jüdische österreichische Hochschüler:innen  [ de ] (representing the Jewish students in Austria). [18] [19]

See also

Anti-German banner expressing support for Air Chief Marshal Arthur Harris, who is associated with the area bombing of German cities Antideutsche rassisten.jpg
Anti-German banner expressing support for Air Chief Marshal Arthur Harris, who is associated with the area bombing of German cities

Primary sources

Related Research Articles

New antisemitism is the concept that a new form of antisemitism developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, typically manifesting itself as anti-Zionism. The concept is included in some definitions of antisemitism, such as the working definition of antisemitism and the 3D test of antisemitism. The concept dates to the early 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish Voice for Peace</span> American anti-Zionist advocacy group

Jewish Voice for Peace is an American anti-Zionist left-wing to far-left Jewish advocacy organization that is critical of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, and supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.

Jewish political movements refer to the organized efforts of Jews to build their own political parties or otherwise represent their interest in politics outside the Jewish community. From the time of the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans to the foundation of Israel the Jewish people had no territory, and, until the 19th century they by-and-large were also denied equal rights in the countries in which they lived. Thus, until the 19th century effort for the emancipation of the Jews, almost all Jewish political struggles were internal, and dealt primarily with either religious issues or issues of a particular Jewish community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Self-hating Jew</span> Pejorative towards Jews

The terms "self-hating Jew", "self-loathing Jew", and "auto-antisemite" are pejorative terms used to describe Jewish people whose viewpoints, especially favoring Jewish assimilation, Jewish secularism, limousine liberalism, or anti-Judaism are perceived as reflecting self-hatred.

Jungle World is a left-wing German weekly newspaper published in Berlin, Germany and Austria.

James Petras is a retired Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York and adjunct professor at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada who has published on political issues with particular focus on Latin America and the Middle East, imperialism, globalization, and leftist social movements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Zionism</span> Opposition to Zionism

Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestine—a region partly coinciding with the biblical Land of Israel—was flawed or unjust in some way.

Post-Zionism is the opinion of some Israelis, diaspora Jews and others, particularly in academia, that Zionism fulfilled its ideological mission with the formation of the modern State of Israel in 1948, and that Zionist ideology should therefore be considered at an end. The Jewish right also use the term to refer to the Israeli Left in light of the Oslo Accords of 1993 and 1995. Some critics associate post-Zionism with anti-Zionism; proponents strenuously deny this association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bundism</span> Secular Jewish socialist movement

Bundism was a secular Jewish socialist movement whose first organizational manifestation was the General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, and Russia, founded in the Russian Empire in 1897.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish left</span> Movement of activists whose Judaism informs their support left-wing or liberal causes

The Jewish left consists of Jews who identify with, or support, left-wing or left-liberal causes, consciously as Jews, either as individuals or through organizations. There is no one organization or movement which constitutes the Jewish left, however. Jews have been major forces in the history of the labor movement, the settlement house movement, the women's rights movement, anti-racist and anti-colonialist work, and anti-fascist and anti-capitalist organizations of many forms in Europe, the United States, Australia, Algeria, Iraq, Ethiopia, South Africa, and modern-day Israel. Jews have a history of involvement in anarchism, socialism, Marxism, and Western liberalism. Although the expression "on the left" covers a range of politics, many well-known figures "on the left" have been of Jews who were born into Jewish families and have various degrees of connection to Jewish communities, Jewish culture, Jewish tradition, or the Jewish religion in its many variants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IfNotNow</span> American Jewish advocacy group

IfNotNow is an American Jewish group which opposes the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Its membership demonstrates against politicians, United States policies, and institutions it perceives as supporting occupation, usually seeking to apply pressure through direct action and media appearances. It has been characterized variously as progressive or far-left.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany</span>

Comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany, sometimes called Holocaust inversion, occur frequently in the political discourse of anti-Zionism. Given the legacy of the Holocaust, the legitimacy of and intent behind these accusations are a matter of debate, particularly with regard to their potential nature as a manifestation of antisemitism. Historically, figures like British historian Arnold J. Toynbee have drawn parallels or alleged a relationship between Zionism and Nazism; British professor David Feldman suggests that these comparisons are often rhetorical tools without specific antisemitic intent. French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy argues that such comparisons not only lack historical and moral equivalence, but also risk inciting anti-Jewish sentiment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism</span> Guide on antisemitism

The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA) is a document meant to outline the bounds of antisemitic speech and conduct, particularly with regard to Zionism, Israel and Palestine. Its creation was motivated by a desire to confront antisemitism and by objections to the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism, which critics have said stifles legitimate criticism of the Israeli government and curbs free speech. The drafting of the declaration was initiated in June 2020 under the auspices of the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem by eight coordinators, most of whom were university professors. Upon its completion the declaration was signed by about 200 scholars in various fields and released in March 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isabel Frey</span> Musical artist

Isabel Frey is a Yiddish singer, an ethnomusicologist and a social-justice and peace activist. In 2023, she co-founded the Jewish-Arab peace initiative "Standing Together Vienna". In 2020, she ran for district council in the historically Jewish Leopoldstadt district for the party LINKS Wien in Vienna municipal elections. Her first album, Millennial Bundist, was released in September, 2020, and her second album "Di fliendike pave" in October 2024.

Anti-Palestinianism or anti-Palestinian racism refers to prejudice, collective hatred, and discrimination directed at the Palestinian people for any variety of reasons. Since the mid-20th century, the phenomenon has largely overlapped with anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia due to the fact that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians today are Arabs and Muslims. Historically, however, anti-Palestinianism was more closely identified with European antisemitism, as far-right Europeans detested the Jewish people as undesirable foreigners from Palestine. Modern anti-Palestinianism—that is, xenophobia with regard to the Arab people of Palestine—is most common in Israel, the United States, and Lebanon, among other countries.

Anti-antisemitism is opposition to antisemitism or prejudice against Jews, and just like the history of antisemitism, the history of anti-antisemitism is long and multifaceted. According to historian Omer Bartov, political controversies around antisemitism involve "those who see the world through an antisemitic prism, for whom everything that has gone wrong with the world, or with their personal lives, is the fault of the Jews; and those who see the world through an anti-antisemitic prism, for whom every critical observation of Jews as individuals or as a community, or, most crucially, of the state of Israel, is inherently antisemitic". It is disputed whether or not anti-antisemitism is synonymous with philosemitism, but anti-antisemitism often includes the "imaginary and symbolic idealization of ‘the Jew’" which is similar to philosemitism.

Zionist antisemitism or antisemitic Zionism refers to a phenomenon in which antisemites express support for Zionism and the State of Israel. In some cases, this support may be promoted for explicitly antisemitic reasons. Historically, this type of antisemitism has been most notable among Christian Zionists, who may perpetrate religious antisemitism while being outspoken in their support for Jewish sovereignty in Israel due to their interpretation of Christian eschatology. Similarly, people who identify with the political far-right, particularly in Europe and the United States, may support the Zionist movement because they seek to expel Jews from their country and see Zionism as the least complicated method of achieving this goal and satisfying their racial antisemitism.

Progressive except Palestine is a phrase that refers to organizations or individuals who describe themselves politically as progressive, liberal, or left-wing but who do not express pro-Palestinian sentiment or do not comment on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Pro-Palestinian advocates regard PEP as a type of political hypocrisy and an example of anti-Palestinianism, while critics of the phrase regard it as anti-Israel and a smear against the pro-Israel left.

Zionist as a pejorative or Zio is a term commonly used by "anti-Zionists" as described by academics, political parties and civil rights organizations as antisemitic, including but not limited to the American Jewish Committee (AJC), Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the British Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats.

Antifa is a political movement composed of left-wing and far-left individuals and groups from Israel, who identify as anti-fascist.

References

  1. ↑ Hirsch, Irmel (17 June 2006). "Antifaschistische Demo in Frankfurt" (in German). de.indymedia.org. Retrieved 20 February 2013.
  2. ↑ Peters, Tim (2007). Der Antifaschismus der PDS aus antiextremistischer Sicht [The antifascism of the PDS from an anti-extremist perspective]. Springer. pp. 33–37, 152, 186. ISBN   9783531901268.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Strange Bedfellows: Radical Leftists for Bush". DW. Dw-world.de. 25 August 2006. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 "Verfassungsschutz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen: 'Die Antideutschen – kein vorübergehendes Phänomen'" (PDF) (in German). Retrieved 19 January 2024.
  5. ↑ "A Defense: Why we (the anti-Germans) are pro-Israel". Archived from the original on 2017-05-12.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Moghadam, A.; Wyss, M. (Aug 2018). "Of Anti-Zionists and Antideutsche: The Post-War German Left and Its Relationship with Israel". Democracy and Security. 15: 49–74. doi:10.1080/17419166.2018.1493991. S2CID   149872477.
  7. 1 2 3 Hagen, Patrick. "Die Antideutschen und die Debatte der Linken über Israel" (PDF) (in German). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 February 2005. Retrieved 21 February 2007.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Weinthal, Benjamin (3 August 2007). "Letter from Berlin: The anti-anti-Zionists". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 17 December 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  9. ↑ "Communism, anti-German criticism and Israel". Café critique. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  10. ↑ Harding, Luke (27 August 2006). "Meet the Anti-Germans". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  11. ↑ Aktualisiert, Zuletzt (26 May 2008). "15th anniversary of the arson attack in Solingen: All four perpetrators again today on the loose" (in German). RP Online. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
  12. 1 2 "Aufarbeitungsweltmeister" (PDF) (in German). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 April 2020. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
  13. ↑ Kuras, Peter (July 18, 2023). "The Strange Logic of Germany's Antisemitism Bureaucrats". Jewish Currents. Retrieved 13 August 2024.
  14. ↑ Daniel Denvir with Emily Dische-Becker. "The Cost of Germany's Guilt Politics". jacobin.com. Retrieved 2024-03-24. The anti-Deutsche basically have taken over the field in many universities. And Jews are treated as if they don't really understand the threat posed by left-wing antisemitism, which is one of the things that the anti-Deutsche are obsessed with. It's always through the lens of critiquing the Left from a left position, but in fact it no longer has any elements of any kind of left-wing movement.
  15. ↑ "Germany's pro-Israel Left Has a New Target in the Crosshairs: Jews". Haaretz. Ha'aretz . Retrieved 2022-09-12.
  16. ↑ Frey, Isabel (June 3, 2021). "When 'Antifa' Is the Enemy". Jewish Currents . Retrieved 2022-09-12.
  17. ↑ "The Israelis challenging the German left's anti-Palestinian politics". +972 Magazine. 21 July 2021. Retrieved 2022-09-12.
  18. ↑ "Antifa, Migrantifa, JöH: Aktivismus im Spannungsfeld der "Identitätspolitik"". noodnik.at (in German). 2021-07-07. Retrieved 2024-01-01.
  19. ↑ oe1.orf.at. "Das neue alte Gesicht des Antisemitismus | MO | 10 01 2022 | 13:00". oe1.orf.at (in German). Retrieved 2024-01-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.