Contemporary right-wing extremism in West Germany

Abstract

Abstract The sudden rise of the extreme right-wing party ‘The Republicans’ in the late 1980s in the Federal Republic of Germany has attracted high attention within and outside Germany. After a few remarks on the definition and history of right-wing extremism in the Federal Republic of Germany, the paper gives an overview of the Republicans’ genesis, organization, membership, platforms and style of electoral campaigns. The final part concentrates on the empirical test of hypotheses deduced from various theoretical approaches to explain support for extreme right-wing parties. The results of this analysis indicate that a considerable part of the Republicans’ electorate does not have an extreme right-wing ideology but consists of protest voters. The party has benefited from socioeconomically and politically motivated dissatisfaction and feelings of threat. At the same time, the established parties have failed to respond adequately to these problems.

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