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37-585: The party was founded in 2012 by the neo-Nazi Christian Worch , along with many members of the German People's Union (DVU) in protest against the merger of their party into the National Democratic Party (NPD). In May 2012 circles of the dissolved DVU announced the establishment of a new party in competition with the NPD was planned. In June 2012, articles of association and the party program were forwarded to

74-491: A federal party conference; At the same time, the party added in its name the wording "Party for Referendum, Sovereignty and Homeland Protection". For the European elections in 2019, The Right has chosen the imprisoned, repeatedly sentenced 90-year-old Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck as its top candidate. Christian Worch Christian Worch (born 14 March 1956) is a prominent German neo-Nazi activist and chairman of

111-504: A specific political movement, but primarily as the final stage of capitalism and the KPD's anti-fascism was therefore synonymous with anti-capitalism . Throughout this period, the KPD regarded the centre-left SPD as its main adversary. Thälmann "took his instructions from Stalin and his hatred of the SPD was essentially ideological". In his sympathetic history of Antifaschistische Aktion , published by

148-589: A united front against Nazis was not needed and that a Nazi dictatorship would ultimately crumble due to flawed economic policies and lead the KPD to power in Germany when the people realised that their economic policies were superior. The relationship between the KPD and the SPD was characterised by mutual hostility. The SPD had itself adopted the position that both the Nazis and the KPD posed an equal danger to liberal democracy and SPD leader Kurt Schumacher famously described

185-550: A variety of different movements, groups and individuals in Germany as well as other countries which widely adopted variants of its aesthetics and some of its tactics. Known as the wider antifa movement, the contemporary antifa groups have no direct organisational connection to Antifaschistische Aktion . The contemporary antifa movement has its roots in the West German Außerparlamentarische Opposition left-wing student movement and largely adopted

222-634: Is a political movement in Germany composed of multiple far-left , autonomous , militant groups and individuals who describe themselves as anti-fascist . According to the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Federal Agency for Civic Education , the use of the epithet fascist against opponents and the view of capitalism as a form of fascism are central to

259-1042: Is known as one of the main organizers of the Rudolf Hess Memorial March , which takes place once a year in Wunsiedel , Bavaria , where the remains of Rudolf Hess were formerly buried, and is one of the most important events for European neo-Nazis. Antifa (Germany) Central Europe Germany Italy Spain ( Spanish Civil War ) Albania Austria Baltic states Belgium Bulgaria Burma Czechia Denmark France Germany Greece Italy Japan Jewish Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Poland Romania Slovakia Spain Soviet Union Yugoslavia Germany Italy Netherlands Portugal Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States Antifa ( German pronunciation: [ˈantifa] )

296-541: The Aktionsfront Nationaler Sozialisten (ANS, Action Front of National Socialists) in 1977. Worch and Kühnen were also close to the now-banned Wiking-Jugend (Viking Youth). Kühnen was arrested in 1979 and Worch took over leadership of the ANS. In 1980 he was convicted, receiving a three-year prison sentence, despite being defended by Jürgen Rieger during his trial. In 1983, the organization, now known as

333-468: The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Federal Agency for Civic Education describe the contemporary antifa movement as part of the extreme left and as partially violent. Antifa groups are monitored by the federal office in the context of its legal mandate to combat extremism . The federal office states that the underlying goal of the antifa movement is "the struggle against

370-581: The Soviet Union , where the epithets fascist and fascism were primarily and widely used to describe capitalist society in general and virtually any anti-Soviet or anti-Stalinist activity or opinion. This usage was also adopted by communist parties affiliated with the Comintern such as the KPD. During the Comintern's Third Period (1928–1931), the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)

407-547: The Weimar Republic . While also opposed to the Nazis, the KPD regarded the Nazi Party as a less sophisticated and thus less dangerous fascist party than the SPD. In December 1931, KPD leader Ernst Thälmann declared that "some Nazi trees must not be allowed to overshadow a forest" of the SPD. In 1931, the KPD under the leadership of Ernst Thälmann internally used the slogan " After Hitler, our turn! ", strongly believing that

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444-495: The liberal democratic basic order " and capitalism. In the 1980s, the movement was accused by German authorities of engaging in terrorist acts of violence. Antifaschistische Aktion was established by the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) based on the principle of a communist front and its establishment was announced in the party's newspaper Die Rote Fahne ( The Red Flag ) in 1932. It functioned as an integral part of

481-752: The ANS/NA ( Aktionsfront Nationaler Sozialisten/Nationale Aktivisten , Action Front of National Socialists/National Activists) was banned, so Worch joined the Free German Workers' Party (FAP) and became vice-chairman. As the Nationale Liste (National List) was founded in 1989, he became active in its executive committee. He edited its magazine, Index , until September 1991 and was especially active in anti- Antifa work. In this campaign, lists of names and addresses of left-wing and anti-fascist activists and organizations were published; this led to attacks on some of

518-515: The Association for the Promotion of Antifascist Culture, Bernd Langer notes that "antifascism was always a fundamentally anti-capitalist strategy" and that "communists always took antifascism to mean anti-capitalism. Therefore all other parties were fascist in the opinion of the KPD, and especially the SPD". A 1931 KPD resolution described the SPD, referred to as "social fascists", as the "main pillar of

555-837: The Federal Returning Officer for examination. On 13 October 2012 the second federal convention of The Right took place in Ludwigshafen on the Rhine. In January 2013, the Public Prosecutor's Office in Dortmund concluded that the founding of the North Rhine-Westphalian State Association was insufficient reason for a preliminary investigation. It examined a violation in August 2012 of the prohibition of association for

592-612: The German national community." Worch held a counter-speech and rejected the request for legal and political reasons. The majority of the members followed the Thuringian state association and not Worch. Worch then resigned and left the party. Dutch Neo-Nazi and Hitler lookalike Stefan Wijkamp was a former board member for the party. Worch's successor was the multiply convicted Dortmund neo-Nazi squad Christoph Drewer. On 1 April 2018, Bruck and Sascha Krolzig were elected as federal co-chairmen at

629-724: The KPD as "red-painted Nazis" in 1930. The SPD-dominated Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold described itself as a "protection organization of the Republic and democracy in the fight against the swastika and the Soviet star" and both the Reichsbanner and the Iron Front opposed both the Nazis and the "anti-fascist" KPD. In 1929, the KPD's paramilitary organisation, Roter Frontkämpferbund (Alliance of Red Front-Fighters), an effective predecessor of Antifaschistische Aktion , had been banned as extremist by

666-506: The KPD during its entire existence from 1932 to 1933. A member of the Comintern , the KPD under the leadership of Ernst Thälmann was loyal to the Soviet government headed by Joseph Stalin to the extent that the party had been directly controlled and funded by the Soviet leadership in Moscow since 1928. The KPD described Antifaschistische Aktion as a "red united front under the leadership of

703-639: The National Resistance Dortmund ( Nationaler Widerstand Dortmund , NWDO). The "hard core" of the NWDO (Dennis Giemsch, Michael Brück and Siegfried Borchardt ) had created a party on 15 September 2012. On 5 July 2014, the 5th Federal Party Congress took place in Hamm (NRW) , where Christian Worch was once again elected Federal Chairman. Ingeborg Lobocki resigned as Deputy Chairman and Treasurer for health reasons, replaced by Tatjana Berner. On 13 January 2016, it

740-481: The Nazi régime . Communists tended to make up at least half of the committees. In the western zones, these anti-fascist committees began to recede by the late summer of 1945, marginalized by Allied bans on political organization and by re-emerging divisions between communists and others and the emerging state doctrine of anti-communism in what became West Germany . In East Germany , the antifa groups were absorbed into

777-483: The SPD. It featured a large Antifaschistische Aktion logo flanked by imagery that showed the KPD fighting the capitalists next to imagery openly mocking the SPD. After the forced dissolution in the wake of the Machtergreifung in 1933, the movement went underground. Theodore Draper argued that "the so-called theory of social fascism and the practice based on it constituted one of the chief factors contributing to

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814-760: The aesthetics of the first movement while being ideologically somewhat dissimilar. The first antifa groups in this tradition were founded by the Maoist Communist League in the early 1970s. From the late 1980s, West Germany's squatter scene and left-wing autonomism movement were the main contributors to the new antifa movement and in contrast to the earlier movement had a more anarcho-communist leaning. The contemporary movement has splintered into different groups and factions, including one anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist faction and one anti-German faction who strongly oppose each other, mainly over their views on Israel . German government institutions such as

851-443: The dictatorship of Capital". Consequently, anti-fascism and anti-fascist action in the language of the KPD also included the struggle against the social democrats. In the early 1930s, the KPD had stated that "fighting fascism means fighting the SPD just as much as it means fighting Hitler and the parties of Brüning ". While some KPD members initially believed Antifaschistische Aktion should include other leftists, this opinion

888-696: The far-right political party Die Rechte . In 1974, Worch started a militant group called the Hansabande in Hamburg , along with Michael Kühnen . The group defaced Jewish graveyards , assaulted leftists and foreigners, and denied the Holocaust . Worch took part in one especially well-known campaign under the motto "I am an ass to believe that Jews were gassed in Germany" ( Ich Esel glaube, dass in Deutschland Juden vergast worden sind ). The group gradually became

925-406: The fascists gained ground and calls for a united front by Leon Trotsky , August Thalheimer and other left leaders became more urgent. It was in this context that the KPD began to emphasise the specific threat of Nazism, leading to the formation of Antifaschistische Aktion and later the turn away from the "social fascism" doctrine. The 1932 congress organised by KPD dedicated energy to attacking

962-417: The governing SPD. In December 1929, the KPD founded Antifaschistische Junge Garde as a successor to Roter Frontkämpferbund , which was banned. Despite this animosity between party leaderships, on the ground there was considerable co-operation against the Nazis between rank and file activists of the KPD, SPD and other left groups such as in local anti-fascist committees and militias, particularly in 1932 as

999-651: The heritage of the governing SED along with the KPD itself. Eckhard Jesse notes that anti-fascism was ubiquitous in the language of the SED and used to justify repression such as the crackdown on the East German uprising of 1953 . Anti-fascism generally meant the struggle against the Western world and NATO in general and against the western-backed West Germany and its main ally the United States in particular which were seen as

1036-451: The movement. The antifa movement has existed in different eras and incarnations, dating back to Antifaschistische Aktion , from which the moniker antifa came. It was set up by the then- Stalinist Communist Party of Germany (KPD) during the late history of the Weimar Republic . After the forced dissolution in the wake of Machtergreifung in 1933, the movement went underground. In the postwar era, Antifaschistische Aktion inspired

1073-595: The new Stalinist state. In the Soviet occupation zone which later became East Germany, the Soviet occupation authorities pressured the KPD and the remaining Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) to merge into the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) while those within the SPD who resisted the Stalinization were persecuted and often fled to the western zones. The repression in the Soviet occupation zone and

1110-537: The only anti-fascist party, the KPD". The KPD had proclaimed that it was "the only anti-fascist party" during the elections of 1930. Unlike the situation in Italy, no party regarded itself as "fascist" in Weimar-era Germany. Central to Antifaschistische Aktion was the use of the epithet fascist . According to Norman Davies , the concept of " anti-fascism " as used by the KPD originated as an ideological construct of

1147-477: The onset of the Cold War quickly exacerbated the conflict between the SED and the SPD. The term anti-fascism was widely used by Marxist–Leninists to smear their opponents, including democratic socialists , social democrats and other anti-Stalinist leftists . Anti-fascism was part of the official ideology and language of the communist state and Antifaschistische Aktion was considered an important part of

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1184-541: The people listed. Worch was one of the main initiators of the campaign. After Kühnen died in 1991, Worch, along with Winfried Arnulf Priem and Gottfried Küssel , took over the Gesinnungsgemeinschaft der Neuen Front (GdNF); this led to him receiving a two-year suspended sentence in 1994. He had to serve this jail time beginning in February 1996 because he continued the ANS/NA despite its having been banned, but he

1221-495: The victory of German fascism in January 1933". After the defeat of Nazi Germany , groups called Antifaschistische Aktion , Antifaschistische Ausschüsse , or Antifaschistische Kommittees , all typically abbreviated to antifa , spontaneously re-emerged in Germany in 1944, mainly involving veterans of pre-war KPD , KPO and SPD politics as well as some members of other democratic political parties and Christians who opposed

1258-526: Was announced that the party's websites were deleted from the Facebook social network for violations of the company's Terms of Service . On 28 October 2017, Worch was confirmed as chairman at the federal party convention with 78.4% of the votes. Subsequently, however, the Thuringian State Association demanded that the federal party should decide "that the party is fully committed to the rights of

1295-443: Was included by the KPD in the category of "fascists" based on the theory of " social fascism " proclaimed by Stalin and supported by the Comintern in the early 1930s, according to which social democracy was a variant of fascism and even more dangerous and insidious than open fascism. The KPD doctrine held that the communist party was "the only anti-fascist party" while all other parties were "fascist". The KPD did not view fascism as

1332-418: Was quickly suppressed by the KPD leadership which made it clear that Antifaschistische Aktion would also oppose the SPD and that "Anti-Fascist Action means untiring daily exposure of the shameless, treacherous role of the SPD and ADGB leaders who are the direct filthy helpers of fascism". Occasionally, the KPD cooperated with the Nazis in attacking the SPD and both sought to destroy the liberal democracy of

1369-469: Was released early in 1997. For a short time in the 1990s, Worch had close relations with the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) and was a link between neo-Nazi groups and the NPD. In an interview, he defended his collaboration with the party, saying that "the NPD is as a party, of course, only a means to propagate our worldview". However, he has since distanced himself from the party. Worch also collaborates with Gary Lauck 's NSDAP/AO (1972) , and

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