Deutschland, anti-Deutschland?
The commemorations for the 60th anniversary of the allied bombing of Dresden this February were marred by protests from the left and the right.
Neo-fascists aligned to the German National Party (NPD), buoyed by success in Saxony's Landstag (state) parliament elections, marched with banners deploring the bombing raid as a war crime. They were met by determined protestors representing trade unions, the Social-Democratic Party (SPD) and the former communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). Solid support for the anti-fascists saw the NPD marginalized, a victory for the forces of democracy and tolerance in Germany.
Fascists, former communists and social democrats were joined by an even more exotic political grouping on the streets of Dresden – the anti-Deutschland (anti-German) movement. They marched in a tight formation, waving Soviet and Israeli flags above their heads. Their banners are scarlet red; at first glance a casual observer would assume this is another Marxist grouplet. However, closer observation reveals messages of support for Israel, the bête noire of the far-left.
These three hundred men and women, mostly young, find themselves dwarfed by the neo-fascists and the anti-fascists. This new political formation is unique in the world. If nationalism was the disease which stalked country after country during the twentieth century, laying waste to everyplace it touched from Serbia to China, then this is its nihilistic counterpart.
The anti-Deutschland movement mirrors every aspect of nationalism. Adherents hold that Germany is special amongst the nations, that she has a destiny and that her fate is inevitable. Unlike nationalists they believe that Germany is special for being evil, her destiny is to spread misery and that her fate is to be destroyed by the just.
The movement is built on a heady mixture of Marxism and national guilt. Volker Radke states in his manifesto for the movement, Antideutsch für Einsteiger (Anti-German for Beginners), that both the Federal German Republic (FDR) and German Democratic Republic (GDR) failed to bring many perpetrators of the Holocaust to justice.
For him, justice demanded a system of reparations similar to that imposed after the First World War. He notes regarding the reconstruction of West Germany, "This is historically singular: A nation, which covered a whole continent with war, plundering and genocide, is not punished by its opponents, but rebuilt!"
The breach of the Berlin Wall and the re-unification of the two Germanys were disasters for the anti-Deutschlanders. It marked the inevitable awakening of German chauvinism.
For the anti-Deutschlanders the re-united Germany has four foreign policy objectives. Firstly, the transformation of Eastern Europe into a region subservient to German interests. Secondly, an extension of Germany's ability to fight wars of intervention, as represented by Germany's involvement in the Yugoslav war of 1999. Schroeder's reluctance to become involved in Iraq is seen as an attempt to challenge the global dominance of the United States. Thirdly, anti-Deutschlanders perceive an attempt by Germany to divide Europe into different ethnically pure states. Finally they believe successive German governments have tried to undo the results of the Second World War step by step.
The anti-Deutschland movement is still young, small and relatively uninfluential. They lack a clear political program and are unlikely to enter electoral politics, yet they cannot be underestimated for their ideology provides an interesting alternative in a Germany where both the far-right and far-left are resurgent.
This is a movement which also tries to reach beyond Germany. Mr Radke appeals to countries outside Germany, "Perhaps at least they are able to learn and stop Germany from becoming too powerful again." Ironically such an assessment of Germany might appeal to Britain's own nationalists as well.
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