This is a list of German far-right publishers (post-1945). In post-World War II Germany, after the defeat of the Nazis and Nazi Germany, the far-right was outlawed by the Allied occupation forces, preventing political continuity of the Nazi Party in a new, post-war form. In West Germany, reformed far-right parties were able to reestablish a foot hold in the national parliament in the early years of the new Federal Republic, courtesy in part to the post-war issues the new country faced. With the recovery of the German economy, the Wirtschaftswunder, the far-right declined in appeal. The far-right, from the 1960s, was characterised by fragmentation and infighting. Following the German reunification, in the early 1990s, the far-right has regained strength and become more of a threat to the democratic Germany again.[1][2]
In East Germany, a communist country, the far-right was declared extinct by the government despite the fact that a quarter of all members of the ruling communist party, in 1954, had formerly been members of the Nazi Party. Despite the official line, racism and far-right ideology existed and, towards the end of the country's existence in the late 1980s, increased. It was however swept under the carpet by the ruling authorities as ordinary violence and hooliganism rather than being allowed to be seen as a resurface of far-right ideology.[3]
The German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the far-right (German: Rechtsextremismus) as a movement against the equality of all people as guaranteed by the German constitution, and as enemies of the democratic nature of the German state. Their aim is to establish an authoritarian state, modelled on the Führerprinzip. The far-right places undue value on race and ethnicity which results in xenophobia and racism. Antisemitism is a core principal of their ideology.[4] Far-right publications generally glorify Germany's Nazi past and the armed forces of the era, the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS, offering historically revisionist publications and attempting to promote the myth of the "Clean Wehrmacht" and "Clean Waffen-SS". Far-right publishers are however careful to not out-rightly deny or trivialise the Holocaust as this is a criminal offence in Germany, and many have been prosecuted for such offences in the past.[5]
The German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, as of 2017, classifies three political parties as far-right, the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), Die Rechte and Der III. Weg, with a combined membership of 6,050.[6]
The far-right print media in Germany is predominantly organised in the Gesellschaft für freie Publizistik, GfP, the largest far-right association of publishers, authors and book sellers, which was formed by former SS officers and Nazi officials in 1960.[7] The number of far-right publishers in Germany independent of political parties has declined from 45 in 2001 to 30 in 2016.[5]
Far-right publishers
editMajor far-right publishers:[8]
| Name | Location | Est | Dis | Key people | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adoria-Verlag | Oberhausen | Dankwart Strauch (also involved in the Winkelried-Verlag) | Mainly publishes World War II related material about the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS | |||
| Arndt Verlag | Kiel | 1963 | Active | Dietmar Munier (formerly an official in the NPD) | see Verlagsgruppe Lesen & Schenken | [8][9] |
| Bonus-Verlag | Selent | see Verlagsgruppe Lesen & Schenken | [8] | |||
| Deutsche Stimme Verlag | Riesa | 1976 | Active | Owned by the NPD, historically commercially successful but has declined in recent yearsPublisher of the Deutsche Stimme | [8][10] | |
| Druckschriften-und Zeitungsverlag | Munich | 1958 | Active | Gerhard FreyRegine Frey since his death in 2013 | Publisher of Germany's longest-running far-right newspaper, the National Zeitung | [8] |
| Druffel-Verlag | 1952 | 1991 | Helmut Sündermann (former Secretary of state in the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda) | Druffel-Verlag, together with Türmer-Verlag and Vowinckel-Verlag, formed the Verlagsgesellschaft Berg in 1991 | [8] | |
| Edition Zeitgeschichte | see Verlagsgruppe Lesen & Schenken | [8] | ||||
| Grabert Verlag | Tübingen | 1953 | 2013 | Herbert Grabert (former high ranking Nazi official) | Originally formed as the Verlag der deutschen Hochschullehrerzeitung, renamed in 1974Taken over by the Hohenrain Verlag GmbH in 2013Grabert was one of the oldest and most important far-right independent publishers in Germany | [8] |
| Hohenrain Verlag | Tübingen | 1985 | Active | Grabert family | Formed as an offshoot of the Grabert Verlag in 1985 which it took over in 2013Revisionist and Holocaust-questioning publicationsPublisher of the Euro-Kurier and Deutschland in Geschichte und Gegenwart | [8] |
| Junge Freiheit Verlag | Berlin | 1990 | Active | Dieter Stein | Part of the Neue RechtePublisher of the Junge Freiheit | [8] |
| Kopp Verlag | Rottenburg | 1993 | Active | Jochen Kopp | Mainly publishes books dealing with conspiracy theories, propagates a racist world view, commercially one of the most successful far-right publishers | [8] |
| Landwehr-Verlag | see Verlagsgruppe Lesen & Schenken | [8] | ||||
| Nation Europa Verlag | Coburg | 1951 | 2010 | Formed by Arthur Ehrhardt (former SS-Sturmbannführer and chief of the Bandenbekämpfung at the Führer Headquarters) | Best known for its publication Nation & EuropaTaken over by the Arndt-Verlag in 2010 | [8][11] |
| Orion-Heimreiter-Verlag | 1983 | Ernst Frank (Brother of Karl Hermann Frank, a high-ranking Nazi official in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia) | see Verlagsgruppe Lesen & Schenken | [8][12] | ||
| Pour le Mérite-Verlag | see Verlagsgruppe Lesen & Schenken | [8] | ||||
| Schild-Verlag | Zweibrücken | 1949 | 2004 | Taken over by the VDM Heinz Nickel in 2004 | ||
| Türmer-Verlag | see Verlagsgesellschaft Berg | |||||
| VDM Heinz Nickel | Zweibrücken | 1986 | Active | Heinz Nickel | Publisher of historical revisionist books about World War IITook over the Schild-Verlag in 2004 | |
| Verlag Antaios | Steigra | 2000 | Active | Götz Kubitschek | One of the most important publishers of the New Right in Germany | [8] |
| Verlag Bublies | Beltheim | 1979 | [13] | |||
| Verlag Hohe Warte | Pähl | Operated by the xenophobic and antisemitic Bundes für Gotterkenntnis (Ludendorff) e.V., named after Mathilde Ludendorff, dubbed the Great-Grandmother of German antisemitismPublisher of Mensch und Maß | [8] | |||
| Verlagsgesellschaft Berg | Gilching | 1991 | Active | Gert Sudholt (executive director, had previously been found guilty of Volksverhetzung (Incitement to hatred) and jailed, also leader the GfP for many years) | Merger of the publishers Druffel-Verlag, Türmer-Verlag and Vowinckel-VerlagOne of the largest independent far-right publishers in Germany, manly publishing revisionist historical materialPublisher of Deutsche Geschichte and Deutsche Annalen | [8] |
| Verlagsgruppe Lesen & Schenken | Martensrade | Active | Dietmar Munier (formerly an official in the NPD) | One of the largest far-right publishers in GermanyThe group consists of the following publishers:
Publications:
Production company:
It mainly publishes revisionist material that glorifies the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS |
[8] | |
| Vowinckel-Verlag | see Verlagsgesellschaft Berg | |||||
| Winkelried-Verlag | Leisnig | Active | Dankwart Strauch (Owner since 2014, is also involved in the Adoria-Verlag) | Formed as the Buchdienst Kaden, predominantly publishes material glorifying the Nazi era and Waffen-SS, publishing books by, among others, David Irving and Erich Ludendorff | [8] |
Further reading
edit- Öden, Emmelie (2017). Rechtsextreme Verlage in Deutschland: Eine aktuelle Bestandsaufnahme [Far-right publishers in Germany: A current inventory]. Mainzer Buchwissenschaft. ISBN 978-3945883570.
References
edit- ^ Stöss, Richard (12 September 2006). "Geschichte des Rechtsextremismus" [History of the far-right]. Federal Agency for Civic Education (in German). Retrieved 1 December 2018.
- ^ Hoser, Paul. "Rechtsextremismus" [The Far-right]. Historisches Lexikon Bayerns (in German). Retrieved 1 December 2018.
- ^ Wagner, Bernd (2 January 2018). "Vertuschte Gefahr: Die Stasi & Neonazis" [Hidden danger: The Stasi and Neo-Nazis]. Federal Agency for Civic Education (in German). Retrieved 1 December 2018.
- ^ "Rechtsextremismus" [The Far-right]. Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (in German). Retrieved 30 November 2018.
- ^ a b Pfeiffer, Thomas (19 December 2016). "Das Kapillarsystem – Geschichte und Entwicklung der rechtsextremistischen Presse" [History and development of the far-right press]. Federal Agency for Civic Education (in German). Retrieved 1 December 2018.
- ^ "Rechtsextremistische Parteien" [Far-right Parties]. Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (in German). Retrieved 30 November 2018.
- ^ Maegerle, Anton (23 December 2016). "Was liest der rechte Rand? Der Blätterwald" [What does the right edge read? Publications]. Federal Agency for Civic Education (in German). Retrieved 30 November 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Maegerle, Anton (21 December 2016). "Was liest der rechte Rand? Der Bücherschrank" [What does the right edge read? Publishers]. Federal Agency for Civic Education (in German). Retrieved 30 November 2018.
- ^ Thomas Grumke, Bernd Wagner (2002). "Arndt-Verlag". Handbuch Rechtsradikalismus [Pocketbook of the far-right]. Leske + Budrich.
- ^ Thomas Grumke, Bernd Wagner (2002). "Deutsche Stimme Verlag". Handbuch Rechtsradikalismus [Pocketbook of the far-right]. Leske + Budrich.
- ^ Thomas Grumke, Bernd Wagner (2002). "Nation Europa Verlag". Handbuch Rechtsradikalismus [Pocketbook of the far-right]. Leske + Budrich.
- ^ Sarkowicz, Hans (9 January 1987). "Die alte Rechte auf neuen Wegen" [The old right on a new path]. Die Zeit (in German). Retrieved 3 December 2018.
- ^ "Neue Rechte und alte linke lieder" [The new right and old left songs]. belltower.news (Amadeu Antonio Foundation) (in German). 28 March 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2018.