How can one stay grounded in these new authoritarian times? By refusing to be convinced that misanthropy, racism and fascism are just different opinions. In this book, Ilko-Sascha Kowalchuk examines the mechanisms of the shift to the right.It shows how and why East Germany's past is downplayed, how East German nationalism undermines democracy, and why enemies of freedom are often Putin's friends. His lessons on populism show how to counter this and thwart the plans of extremists. Because supporters of democracy and freedom still represent the majority until now.
Despite all its problems, Germany remains one of the most politically stable, socially secure, economically strong, and socially free countries in the world.But populists present a very different picture, conjuring images of degradation and glorifying authoritarian regimes. In this book, Elko-Sascha Kowalczuk examines developments in East Germany and shows how the poison of the enemies of freedom penetrates society: by distorting the present and glorifying the past. The history of the German Democratic Republic, in particular, is a battlefield in which the struggle revolves around the acceptance of authoritarian state ideologies.
