Anti-Germans (political Current) - The Development of The Anti-German Current in The 1990s

The Development of The Anti-German Current in The 1990s

The notion of a revival of German nationalism and racism as a result of the reunification seemed to confirm itself over the course of the 1990s, as shown by such events as the pogrom in the town of Rostock-Lichtenhagen (Rostock) and a murderous attack on a Turkish family in the West German town of Solingen. As a result of this populist wave of xenophobia and violence against foreigners, the German political establishment responded with an increased wave of repression against immigrants and a tightening of Germany's hitherto liberal asylum laws.

Throughout the 1990s, elements of the Anti-German critique of the German mainstream society found their way into the broader left, especially the then-popular Antifa movement, which was the dominant organizational expression of radical leftist youth politics in the 1990s.

In 1995, the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Dresden, Anti-Germans praised the bombing on the grounds that so many of the city's civilians had supported Nazism. James points to this as an example of a shift towards support for the United States that became more pronounced after 9/11. Similar demonstrations are annually held, the slogans “Bomber Harris, do it again!” and “Deutsche Täter sind keine Opfer!” (“German perpetrators are no victims!”) have become common.

The 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia was also a focus of opposition for the Anti-Germans, as for most of the radical left. Many Anti-Germans condemned the war as a repetition of the political constellation of forces during the Second World War, with the Serbs in the role of victim of German imperialism. Some Anti-Germans thus issued a call for "unconditional" support for the regime of Slobodan Milošević. The reasons the German government gave to legitimize the war - from an Anti-German perspective - marked a turning point in the discourse of governmental history-policy. The war was not justified "despite but because of Auschwitz". This judgment is often combined with the analysis of the genesis of a new national self as the "Aufarbeitungsweltmeister" (world champion in mastering of the past) or "Weltmeister der Vergangenheitsbewältigung". This led to a break between "Anti-Germans" and so-called "Anti-Nationalists", the latter criticising nationalism more generally, which was intensified in September 2000 when the Second Intifada began: The Anti-Germans supported Israel while the PLO was supported by the Anti-Nationalists.