Germany’s AfD Party Moves Closer to Neo-Nazism

A few years ago, it would have been unthinkable that a member of the Bundestag would make such a statement:

The co-leader of the far-right nationalist Alternative for Germany party (AfD) came under fire for dismissing the Nazi era as a “speck of bird poop in more than 1,000 years of successful German history”.

Alexander Gauland told the party’s youth movement on Saturday that Germans must take responsibility for 12 years of rule by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party, but claimed it is only a small part of Germany’s history.

To dismiss the greatest crime of modern history – the Holocaust – as nothing more than bird poop should result in his immediate removal from parliament.  But the mere fact that Gauland felt comfortable making the statement in public says something about the state of German politics.

I remember reading the British historian A.J.P. Taylor’s 1945 book The Course of German History wherein he described the Third Reich as a the culmination of 1,000 years of Germany history. 

Meanwhile, the AfD’s youth organization seems to be recycling Nazi logos to attract new members:

Links das Logo der AfD Jugendorganisation „Junge Alternative“ (JA). Rechts das Logo der paramilitärischen NSDAP-Terrorbande „Sturmabteilung“ (SA).

Das ist weder Satire, noch Zufall, noch Dummheit, noch Provokation:
Das muss man nicht erklären, das ist genau so gemeint! pic.twitter.com/lPOZQpPezj

— Jan Böhmermann 🤨 (@janboehm) June 3, 2018