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Neue Rechte () is the designation for a right-wing political movement in Germany. It was founded as an opposition to the New Left generation of the 1960s. Its intellectually oriented proponents distance themselves from Old Right Nazism traditions and emphasize similarities between the far-right and the conservative spectrum.
A common denominator of the Neue Rechte is a skeptical or negative stance towards the basic tenets of the German constitution, often in the sense of an ethnic (völkisch) nationalism.
From 1974, the movement disintegrated into numerous splinter groups, some defending the traditional ideas of a German Volksgemeinschaft, some affiliating to the rising ecology movement. Eichberg and his followers continued to fight an 'over-foreignization' (Überfremdung) by the superpowers and advocated a Third 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 German peace movement.
In around 1980, a new tendency arose to approach the ideas of the French Nouvelle Droite and its founder Alain de Benoist. The adherents stressed the perspective of a pan-European 'cultural struggle'; their concepts were embodied by the foundation of the Thule-Seminar as the German branch of the French Groupement de recherche et d'études pour la civilisation européenne (GRECE). In the late 1980s, proponents of a national revolutionary movement attempted to infiltrate right-wing populist parties like The Republicans, while other associated with the national liberal spectrum.
The movement gained a new momentum in the course of German reunification. The rise of right-wing parties as The Republicans led by Franz Schönhuber, the Pro Movement, and the Alternative 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 Italian Alleanza Nazionale and the Lega Nord, the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), the French Front National, the Swiss People's Party (SVP) or the Belgian Vlaams Belang as well as to the US Tea 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.
Several members of the Neue Rechte also refer to theorists like Georges Sorel, Vilfredo Pareto, Robert Michels, Julius Evola, and José Antonio Primo de Rivera seen as Fascism pioneers. Some even base themselves on Marxist philosophers like Antonio Gramsci and his ideas of cultural hegemony.
Textually, the Neue Rechte challenges the principles of the Enlightenment, such as pluralism and social equality underlying the doctrine of human rights. Racist elements are superseded by the concept of ethnopluralism, combining both Neoconservatism and far-right approaches. Ideologists disparage the ideals of the 1968 protests and feminism, they refuse to accept a Multiculturalism society and seek for a strengthened 'national identity'. Therefore, they tend to historical revisionism and to battle against what they call a German 'cult of guilt' with regard to The Holocaust. According to Roger Griffin, the Neue Rechte share the deep cultural pessimism of their precursors in the interwar period. Referring to a völkisch nationalism, the movement seeks refuge not in the restoration of traditional values, but in a 'national rebirth' according to palingenetic concepts. "Der umstrittene Begriff des Faschismus. Interview in: DISS-Journal 13, 2004, p. 13 .
They parallel the French Nouvelle Droite as a political movement, somewhat similar in their general political stance including the Anti-Americanism sentiment advocated by Alain de Benoist. However, the Nouvelle Droite's Neo-Paganism leanings are the opposite to the Christian foundation of many Neue Rechte members, though the movement also comprises occult groups.
Although the European Neue Rechte refrains from political violence, according to Roger GriffinRoger Griffin: Völkischer Nationalismus als Wegbereiter und Fortsetzer des Faschismus: Ein angelsächsischer Blick auf ein nicht nur deutsches Phänomen. in: Heiko Kauffmann, Helmut Kellershohn, Jobst Paul (Hrsg.): Völkische Bande. Dekadenz und Wiedergeburt – Analysen rechter Ideologie. Unrast Verlag, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-89771-737-9, S. 41f 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, the Neue Rechte, according to Griffin, is deliberately moving "into a state of apoliteia beyond party politics, stoically awaiting a new historical conjuncture in which the postponed revolution can be resumed". The militant anti-Americanism of Alain de Benoist, for example, explicitly justifies attacks ("retaliatory measures") on the USA. According to Griffin, the Ordine Nuovo, which is responsible for several terrorist attacks, draws its main inspiration from the works of Julius Evola.Roger Griffin: Völkischer Nationalismus… in: Kauffmann, Kellershohn, Paul (Hrsg.): Völkische Bande…. Unrast Verlag, Münster 2005, S. 41f
According to Volker Weiß, there is hardly any fundamental hostility towards Islam within the Neue Rechte. The reason for the aversion is "merely the presence of Islam in the greater European area". The "real conditions in Teheran, Riyadh, Istanbul or Kabul" play no role for the representatives of the New Right - unlike in universalist thinking.Volker Weiß: Die autoritäre Revolte. Die Neue Rechte und der Untergang des Abendlandes. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2018, S. 214
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 for Neue Rechte positions can be found: e.g. fraternities and displaced persons. Other fields of agitation are neo-paganism and occultism.Roger Griffin: Völkischer Nationalismus… in: Kauffmann, Kellershohn, Paul (Hrsg.): Völkische Bande…. Unrast Verlag, Münster 2005, S. 41f The Dark culture was also courted in the 1990s. The main starting point for this was Neofolk, a style of music in which some artists operate with fascist aesthetics. In addition to musical reviews, the fanzine Sigill (later Zinnober) also published essays on the work of Armin Mohler, Ernst Jünger, Julius Evola and others.
Some Neue Rechte groups refer to pre-Christian or non-Christian European traditions. Neopaganism is "one of their founding figures, and they practice the corresponding cults with devotion", writes Friedrich Paul Heller. The Thule-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.Friedrich Paul Heller: Die Neue Rechte und das Neuheidentum. Auszug aus dem Essay Mythologie und Okkultismus bei den deutschen Rechtsextremen ist aus dem Buch Handbuch Rechtsradikalismus, Thomas Grumke und Bernd Wagner (Hrsg.), Leske + Budrich, 2002.
The historian Walter Laqueur is of the opinion that the Neue Rechte ultimately failed to develop a coherent counter-position to Western-American liberalism.Walter Laqueur: Faschismus. Gestern-heute-morgen. Propyläen Verlag, Berlin, 1997, ISBN 3-549-05602-8, S. 153 The Neue 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 affect centre-right parties, a second wing openly uses terms like "revolution" or "socialism" in political disputes, based on the model of Ernst Niekisch and Strasserism concepts. They have made attempts to build up a Querfront strategy with originally 'left' anti-imperialist and Anti-capitalism circles.
The New Right also refers to pioneers and theorists of fascism such as Julius Evola, Robert Michels, Vilfredo Pareto, José Antonio Primo de Rivera und Georges 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 reference to Gramsci was presented by Alain de Benoist in a fundamental article in the GRECE magazine Elements in 1977 titled "Pour un "gramscisme de droite"", 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", in other words: stigmatized it".Wolfgang Kowalsky, Kulturrevolution?: Die Neue Rechte im neuen Frankreich und ihre Vorläufer, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften 1991, S. 180.James Shields, The Extreme Right in France: From Pétain to Le Pen, Routledge 2007, S. 144 mit Fußnote 3 auf S. 343.
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 the Italian 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“.Steffen Kailitz: Politischer Extremismus in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Wiesbaden 2004, S. 85.
The medium commonly associated with the Neue Rechte is the weekly newspaper Junge 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 magazine Sezession, which is closely linked to Junge Freiheit. Other periodicals affiliated with the Neue Rechte are Nation Europa]] (discontinued in 2009) and its Zuerst! successor. The Studienzentrum Weikersheim founded by the CDU politician Hans Filbinger considers itself a Christian-conservative think tank.
The Bibliothek des Konservatismus (BdK) is another connecting element in the network of the far-right in central Europe. Opened in 2012 and located in Fasanenstraße in Berlin-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 by Caspar von Schrenck-Notzing and his foundation (FKBF). FKBF is running the library. There are 27.000 medias (2014) in the library.
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