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Volitve v zvezni parlament Zvezne republike Nemčije septembra 2017 so predstavljale mejnik v povojni zgodovini te države. Prvič po drugi svetovni vojni se je namreč neki desni populistični stranki, Alternativi za Nemčijo, uspelo prebiti v zvezni parlament. Obdobja pred letom 2017 so v Nemčiji zaznamovali predvsem volilni neuspehi tovrstnih strank, kar postavlja Nemčijo v edinstven položaj nasproti drugim evropskim državam, kjer so bile desne populistične stranke prisotne že dlje časa. Magistrska naloga poskuša pojasniti razloge za kasnejši razvoj populizma v Nemčiji in odgovoriti na hipotezo, da je razlog za drugačno pot Nemčije njeno aktivno spopadanje s travmo druge svetovne vojne. Magistrska naloga skuša ta cilj v prvem delu doseči z obravnavo pojmov populizma, liberalne demokracije in demokratičnega nazadovanja. Populizem je predstavljen kot tanka ideologija, ki se razglaša za edinega predstavnika ljudstva proti eliti. Populizem kot tak nima svoje lastne ideologije, lahko nagovarja tako desni kot levi politični pol. Kljub temu pa vsak populizem ne predstavlja grožnje liberalni demokraciji, to prestavlja avtoritarni populizem, medtem ko poskuša emancipatorni populizem ljudem približati demokracijo. Kot možno sredstvo proti demokratičnemu nazadovanju, ki ga povzroča avtoritarni populizem, je predstavljena militantna demokracija, ki pa ne more nuditi celovitega varstva pred zdrsom v avtokracijo. V boju proti avtoritarni retrogresiji najbolj učinkovito vlogo odigra politična kultura, v kateri politične stranke s svojim nesodelovanjem populistom onemogočijo usidranje na oblasti. Ravno to je v Nemčiji odigralo ključno vlogo, v preteklosti je namreč veljalo nenapisano pravilo, t. i. »Josef Strauß dogma«, po katerem v nemškem političnem prostoru ne sme delovati stranka, ki bi bila v svoji usmeritvi bolj desna od bavarske CSU. Z izvolitvijo AfD v zvezni parlament je bilo to nenapisano pravilo prekršeno in je Nemčijo postavilo ob bok drugim evropskim državam. In September 2017, election in the Federal German Parliament represented a milestone in the afterwar history of the country. For the first time after the World War II, a right wing populist party succeeded to enter the Federal Parliament. The periods before 2017 marked electoral defeats of such parties, which positions Germany in a unique place in comparison to the other European countries, in which the right wing populist parties were present already long before. The present master thesis' aim is to clarify reasons for belated occurrence of populism in Germany. The thesis is based on the assumption that the reason for such different developments lay in Germany's active facing with its role in World War II. The master thesis tries to clarify this with the examination of notions such as populism, liberal democracy and democratic backsliding. When speaking about populism, a definition of populism as a thin ideology is used, which claims that it is a sole representative of people against the elite. Populism as such does not have its own ideology and can address both, the right and the left political sphere. Despite lacking its own ideology, not every populism is a threat to liberal democracy the so-called authoritarian populism poses a threat to liberal democracy, while emancipatory populism on the other hand tries to restore the democracy and bring it closer to the people. As a possible remedy against the democratic backsliding that is caused by the authoritarian populism is presented the concept of militant democracy, which, however cannot fully prevent democratic backsliding. In combating authoritarian retrogression, political culture plays the most efficient role, whereby political patries by not collaborating with populist parties prevent their anchoring into the power. In Germany, this played a crucial role, since the so called »Josef Strauß dogma«, a non-written rule, under which there should be no political party with more right agenda than bavarian CSU. With the election of the AfD in the Federal German Parliament, the rule was broken and set Germany in line with other European countries.

Previous studies aimed at explaining populist support emphasize the crucial role of populist attitudes and ideology among the general population. With respect to the role of discontent and grievances as drivers of populist support—often at the heart of theoretical work on populism—however, empirical results are rather mixed. We argue that the apparent contradictions are partly due to insufficient conceptualization of discontent. We distinguish between societal-centered discontent, which is more based on a general, negative subjective assessment of society, and self-centered discontent that expresses a negative assessment of one’s personal situation. In line with our expectations, regression results for Germany confirm that society-centered discontent, but not self-centered discontent, is important for populist party support. Moreover, we find that society-centered discontent also moderates the relation between populist attitudes and populist support. We conclude that beyond ideologies, populism capitalizes on the cultivation of collective—but not individual—discontent.

In recent years, research found that populism employed a new strategy by using nostalgia, a sentimental longing for the past, as a communication tool to persuade citizens to support their political agendas. In populist campaigns, nostalgia is used to affectively link (alleged) crises with longing for a cherished past. In this article, we applied a mixed-methods approach to understand how populists exploit nostalgia in their communication and how nostalgic rhetoric has the potential to persuade people to support their claims. In Study 1, we conducted a case study based on a qualitative content analysis of Alternative for Germany’s (AfD) online election campaign in the 2019 Thuringia election in East Germany. The analysis revealed that the campaign was built around the nostalgic narrative of the 1989 peaceful revolution as a proud historical moment for former German Democratic Republic citizens while at the same time creating a sense of crisis supposedly caused by false post-reunification politics. To further investigate the persuasiveness of nostalgia, Study 2 used a statement from the campaign and found that participants tended to agree more with populist statements if they contained nostalgic rhetoric (compared to non-nostalgic populist and control rhetoric). These findings suggest that right-wing populists can effectively exploit nostalgia and that it may ‘sugarcoat’ populist messages.

Received 29 March 2020. Accepted 4 August 2020. Published online 9 July 2021. 75 years have passed since the liberation of Auschwitz, but racism, nationalism and xenophobia (including anti-Semitism) are still widespread; in fact, due to an increasingly solipsistic policy of international leaders, hostility against those who don’t match race, religion, culture or sexual orientation is even experiencing a renaissance. Fake news start to replace facts. In Germany, politicians of the (democratically elected) right-wing party AfD [Alternative for Germany] publicly question the significance of the Holocaust. According to the polls, around 33% of European youths have little or no knowledge about the attempted annihilation of Jews during World War II. In order to prevent the return of barbarism it is essential to remember and understand the characteristics that actually led to barbarism in the first place. Peter Weiss’ play Die Ermittlung: Oratorium in 11 Gesängen [The Investigation. Oratorio in 11 Songs] written in 1965, takes a very thorough look at what Auschwitz was, how it had been made possible and how it survived in society even after the war. The following article examines the play and its context in literature and films on the Holocaust, paying particular attention to the possibility of explaining the, as Elie Wiesel has put it, “unexplainable” and converting it into a teaching experience for current generations.

This thesis deals with the phenomena of Austrian and German populism that is represented by two political parties - Freedom Party of Austria (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ) and Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD). The work focuses mainly on political manifestos that were published in the run up to the elections to German Bundestag and Austrian National Council that were held in July and September 2017. For the both of the parties the elections in 2017 meant a significant success and a rise of votes. While Freedom Party of Austria is an established part of National Council, Alternative for Germany managed for the time the 5 % electoral threshold which is required to become entitled in the Bundestag after being established in 2013. The main aim of this thesis is to analyse their manifestos and decide whether the anti-establishment positions, xenophobic and racist narratives and the emphasis on traditional values are included. Firstly, the theoretical part explains the term of populism, its characteristics and define the examined thematic fields. Subsequently, the analyse focuses on the content of the programmes and their comparison. The result of the research shows that both parties can be definitely described as populistic and that all searched fields are included....

In recent decades, we have witnessed a sharp increase in the preferences of populist parties across Europe. These parties gain votes not only in the east, but also in the west. In many countries, populists participate in the government. This trend also affected the German- speaking countries. This bachelor thesis deals with populist parties in German-speaking countries on the example of Alternative for Germany and Freedom Party of Austria. Although they may appear to be two completely different parties, the topics of their programmes in recent years has been approaching. It seems to be a direct call to question the similarity of these two parties, considering their history, development and topics. The aim of the thesis is to characterize the Alternative for Germany and the Freedom Party of Austria from the point of view of the history and ideology of the parties, using the compilation of research findings in the field of (right-wing) populism. The thesis also deals with the parties programmes from the years 2013 and 2017, whose analysis focuses mainly on the following issues: European politics, economic policy, social policy, immigration and integration policy and the introduction of direct democracy. The result of the electoral programmes analysis is an overview of thematic intersections of the...