Institutional Assessments of Nazi and AfD Ideologies
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/05/25
Racism fueled Nazi ideology and policies. The Nazis viewed the world as being divided up into competing inferior and superior races.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
At its core, the Nazi worldview was racist and biological, positing that the so-called âAryanâ race â primarily the North Europeans â was the superior race of humanity.
Yad Vashem â The World Holocaust Remembrance Center
The German Nazis were decidedly far-Right, not leftwing. To call the Left âNazis,â or frame the German Left as Nazis, when the enormous weight of corpses and contemporary political analyses note the German Nazis as Right-wing, congratulations, you have taken on the tactics of abusers: Gaslighting.
They merely had âSocialistâ in the name. They used the language to co-opt working-class support. Then they aggressively persecuted leftistsâi.e., trade unionists, socialists, communistsâwhile advocating for anti-Communism, authoritarianism, militarism, nationalism, traditionalism, and xenophobia.
Facts of history and the dead matter, not scoring political points for personal gain. To more recent history, German intelligence agencies ranked the AfD with neo-Nazi groups as a Gefahr fĂŒr die Demokratie (danger to democracy).
May 2025âŠ: German intelligence agencies connected the Afd to extreme-right ideology. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) report stressed AfDâs ethnisch-abstammungsmĂ€Ăiges VolksverstĂ€ndnis(ethnically defined concept of âthe peopleâ) as violating democratic order, seeking to exclude entire groups. AfD characterized as a âracist and anti-Muslimâ organization, e.g., slogans like Abschieben schafft Wohnraum(âdeportation creates housingâ) and Jeder Fremde mehr in diesem Land ist einer zu viel (âeach more foreigner is one too manyâ). These are listed as evidence of dehumanizing language. BfV President Thomas Haldenwang called this âa good day for democracy.â A history exists here, too.
March 2022: a Cologne court upheld the BfVâs classification of the AfD and its youth wing as a Beobachtungsobjekt (Verdachtsfall) (suspected extremist organization), finding ausreichende tatsĂ€chliche Anhaltspunkte fĂŒr verfassungsfeindliche Bestrebungenâ âsufficient factual indications of anti-constitutional aims.â The BfV 1,100-page report filled the extremism criteria.
Late 2023: Bavarian prosecutors opened investigations into newly elected AfD MP Daniel Halemba for possible use of Nazi symbols. He previously belonged to a student fraternity raided for Nazi paraphernalia.
December, 2023: Several state Verfassungsschutz offices flagged AfD branches. Saxonyâs domestic intelligence classified the Saxony AfD as gesichert rechtsextremistisch. Saxonyâs VS president Dirk-Martin Christian said, ââŠan der rechtsextremistischen Ausrichtung der AfD Sachsen bestehen keine Zweifel mehrâ(âthere is no longer any doubt about AfD Saxonyâs right-extremist orientationâ) The party held typische völkisch-nationalistische Positionen (âtypical folk-nationalist positionsâ) and used common anti-Semitic conspiracy language. These mirrored Nazi-era rhetoric. Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt earlier flagged local AfD branches as extremist as well.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) called the intelligence review legal and independent, resulting in a 1,100-page internal report being apolitical. The new classification permitted intensified surveillance, including deployment of informants and communication interception.
May, (2024). German courts have penalized AfD members for Nazi-linked speech. The Halle state court convicted Thuringia AfD leader Björn Höcke for using the SA slogan âAlles fĂŒr Deutschland!â
2025: Two Saarland AfD local councillors liked a Facebook post celebrating Hitlerâs birthday. Authorities launched a Volksverhetzung (incitement) probe and party expulsion proceedings.
Leading German politicians likened the AfD to fascism and Nazi extremism. SPD Defense Minister Boris Pistorius warned protesters in 2024: Wer die AfD aus Protest wĂ€hlt, dem mĂŒsse klar sein, dass sie Faschisten wĂ€hlten. (âAnyone who votes AfD out of protest must be aware that they are voting for fascists.â) SPD leader Lars Klingbeil accused AfD co-leader Alice Weidel of heading a rechtsextreme Partei⊠die AfD ist durchsetzt auch mit Nazis in Europa. (âthe AfD is also filled with Nazis in Europe.â) Former SPD head Sigmar Gabriel compared hearing AfD rhetoric to his Nazi-father: Alles, was die [AfD] erzĂ€hlen, habe ich schon gehört â im Zweifel von meinem eigenen Vater, der ⊠ein Nazi war. Green and Linke politicians made similar warnings. Expert commentators warned of Nazi parallels.
German officials and courts drew a direct line between AfD rhetoric and Nazi-style ideology. Official reports cite AfD policy goals, mass deportation slogans to ethno-nationalist immigration stances, as incompatible with Germanyâs constitution.
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