In a guest article in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Prof Dr Ulrich Schlie comments on the AfD's recent successes. Comparisons with the downfall of the Weimar Republic are not very useful - the anti-republican society of the 1930s was too different from today's society. The AfD itself has also provided little evidence so far to accuse it of defending National Socialism. The real scandal, however, is the AfD's inability to properly honour the memory of the victims of National Socialism and the indecent attempt to instrumentalise it for its own political purposes instead.
Hitler's long shadow: Prof Dr Schlie in the NZZ on the rise of the AfD Hitler's long shadow: Prof Dr Schlie in the NZZ on the rise of the AfD
The AfD's electoral success in the state elections in Thuringia and Saxony raises questions of concern. However, the rise of the AfD cannot be equated with the downfall of the first German democracy in 1933: Berlin is not Weimar.
Prof. Dr. Schlie in der NZZ zum Aufstieg der AfD
© Neue Zürcher Zeitung
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Link to the article (in German)
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schlie is Director of the Centre for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS) and Henry Kissinger Professor for Security and Strategy Research at the Institute for Political Science and Sociology.