Germany Then and Now Resemble Each Other

In the early years of the Weimar Republic, during the 1920s and the early 1930s in Germany, power was held by the Social Democrats. Nevertheless, the far-left caused unrest and incited workers to go on strikes. Eventually, they even attempted a violent revolution, inspired by Vladimir Lenin.

As a result of all this, a backlash arose among the German populace, which was temporarily interrupted when moderate parties formed governments in the mid-1920s. However, the far-left increased its popularity towards the end of the decade, as the runaway inflation caused by war reparations made life increasingly difficult for the people.

For the same reasons and due to the unrest caused by the far-left, national socialism—or the Nazi Party—also gained traction, ultimately taking power in January 1933. This led the country, after various developments, into two interlinked catastrophes: the Second World War and the Holocaust.

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This came to my mind when I read that in Germany, thousands of leftist protesters gathered on Saturday in front of the party congress of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. As a result, the start of the congress was delayed by two hours because the protesters blocked party members from entering the venue.

A large police presence was also on-site, dispersing a sit-in protest that had partially blocked an intersection. They also intervened to stop acts of violence, as some protesters launched fireworks at the police.

It would be worth asking these protesters whether they have any understanding of what happened in Germany between the world wars, and whether they realize that their current actions bear an unsettling resemblance to the behavior of the German left during the Weimar Republic era, which, as a backlash, resulted in the rise of the Nazi regime.

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The Role of Ukraine Aid in the Elections of Thuringia and Saxony, Germany

The state elections in Thuringia and Saxony of Germany ended in success for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the BSW party. The former party is considered conservative, right-wing, and nationalist. The latter, on the other hand, is a conservative, nationalist and socialist party.

Many media outlets have emphasized that the election victories of these parties were due to opposition to both immigration and Germany's support for Ukraine. Fortunately, there is also data on this matter.

According to this data, voting in Thuringia was primarily driven by the following reasons: 1. crime and internal security, 2. social security, and 3. immigration. In other words, the war in Ukraine had little impact on Thuringians' voting behavior.

Similarly, in Saxony, voting was mainly influenced by the following reasons: 1. social security, 2. crime and internal security, and 3. immigration. There have also been reports on voting reasons by party. For AfD voters, the three most important voting motives were the same, except that social security was replaced by economic development. Thus, support for Ukraine was not a significant criterion for party choice in general, nor for AfD voters.

However, it did have some relevance, at least in Saxony, where among BSW voters, it ranked as the second most important voting reason after social security, and ahead of crime and internal security. In other words, the desire to cut off Germany's aid to Ukraine was only important to voters of the party built on national socialism in Germany.

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