On March 6, 1932, Ulrich Kersten published an article, “Why the youth of Germany demands political change,” in the New York Times, addressing the grievances among the German youth who were disillusioned by the newly established Weimar Republic, which had become a carnival of political parties and ideologies predicated on the power struggle. The promises of these political parties are no longer appealing to the German youth.
The major contention point has been departure for the political dialogues that restored the rights to live, work, and honor that Germany has been deprived of, belittled by the treaties, and patronized by the other European counterparts.
Attributing the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Communist Party for ridiculing the political opportunity that led to the failure of democratic promise as these parties continued to govern the new system with the old politics of class antagonism in contrast to appealing for national unity. The absence of political will and continued power struggle led the German youth who were enthusiastic about Germany to join the national movements. He writes that what these groups offered was camaraderie that united the German classes, welding them into a coherent unity among all classes, offering a reflection of a new Germany settling the class controversy.
Seizing this atmosphere of animosity against the other Europeans and internal continuing political chaos, the National Socialist German Workers Party gained popularity as a revolutionary party with conservative characteristics as core party principles, which were viewed by the Germans as “hope” that would lead Germany towards the Great German Rejuvenation.
What prevailed in the coming years from the tragedy of their times, engulfed with ethnic nationalism and the Holocaust during the world war killing 60 million people, with unaccounted casualties propped out from the idea of ethnonationalism, settled one account for what these lessons of the 1930s revealed to us: the imminent threat of revolutionary conservatism and its genocidal implications.
The youth in modern Germany do not live in the international settings that existed a century ago, though the grievances share a sense of similarity, questioning the foundational premise of national identity: what does it mean to be a German? Moving the youth to extremist ideologies. This resentment has been the holy grail for the far right, who are enchanting the great German redemption.
The term revolutionary conservatism draws a stark difference from the traditional conservatism that appeals to the “preservation of tradition, religiosity, and norms while appealing to the heterogeneous cultural unity.” Modern conservatives are the political nomads that congregate during the electoral campaign, setting aside the ideological affiliations that render the collective force towards the maintenance of the conservative order by challenging liberalism’s relativism.
Mihai Varga differentiates the revolutionary conservatives from conservatives, where the former maintain an affinity for revolution and identity, while the latter are focused on the restoration of political order, positioning themselves as a counter-movement against what undermines religion, culture, and customs. Following the principle of festina lente, which translates as “make haste slowly,” conservatives traditionally retained the idea of conservation as a primary driver.
With the changing global outlook, a “new right” or “global right” has emerged that is no longer bound by the customs of traditional conservatism that dominated the Western world but offers duality in its pursuit of a global agenda, whereas posturing as a vanguard of white European identity against the new liberal order stretching from multiculturalism to collectivity puts efforts into restricting the inflows of immigration while appealing to the national consciousness and enhancement of the national sovereignty.
The pluralistic nature of the global right has often been overlooked, despite the common characteristics the populists share among them; the diverse interests oscillate the national and transnational positioning, such as the Brothers of Italy. Employing nationalistic strategies in pursuing the international order and national identity-based grievances assisted the far right in formulating the credible promise of the new Weltordnung (World Order), addressing the long-standing agony against the liberal order.
The rise of reactionary right-wing populism, which calls for populist backlash, was common in these accounts. The political backlash against the economic, political, and socio-cultural dimensions of globalization, where the established left and center-left parties, due to ideological positions, were unresponsive to address these fears, was hesitant to address these growing fears, which called for the restoration of national borders and social order. The capability of the Global Right to organize itself into powerful ideational regimes has contributed to cementing the illiberal zeitgeist by the end of the 2020s and now playing it out on the German political landscape.
Returning from this historical episode to modern-day Germany, political realities have been changed, hate speeches have been outlawed, and the German economy is thriving in the European Union, yet a sense of distrust has begun appearing. Such rhetoric again mainstreaming German politics, calls from far-right AFD leader political provocateur Bjorn Hocke in a rally in Thuringia in 2021 reiterated the banned SA stormtroopers “Everything for Germany! Maximilian Karh, the politician, warned on Twitter that immigration will lead to an Umvolkung of the German people, a Nazi term that has close associations with the far-right great replacement conspiracy theory, which was readmitted to ADD after the German election. Christian Lüth, AFD spokesman, stated, “We can always shoot them later; that’s not an issue, or gas them as you wish.”
Despite the AFD expressing open sympathies for agendas that fused with fascist policy positions despite the national outrage, the unprecedented rise of AFD posits the question of the liberal order that has governed German politics for nearly 75 years. The success of AFD in striking a division among the Germans was attributed to the ongoing attack on the democratic consciousness, a direct result of a fragile political reality that disdained listening to the voices of the locals who expressed freedom out of legal fears.
The freedom underscores not the classical knowledge of liberalism that states “an absence of tyranny complimented with the protection of rights”; in the current settings in Germany, it manifests as “promotion of the native culture,” “protection of speech,” and “reservations of employment opportunities for the locals,” which, in a real sense, have been the lines that have shaped the German political reality.
The exploitation of the question of leitkultur, which has been an inalienable concept throughout German society, has gained widespread support among the right-wing parties. The most noticeable synopsis of leitkultur in action was the shift in voting patterns in the 2025 German federal elections, with the formation of a cross-class coalition as the direct result of the weakening social fabric of Western civilization amid globalization.
Once perceived as a distant and improbable concern, the threat has now crystallized into an undeniable reality: a party formed a decade ago, fueled by the most beleaguered views, has risen to prominence in the German political arena as German Bundestag results came in February 2025.
Alternative for Deutschland has received the endorsement of US tech billionaire Elon Musk, and Global Right received 20.8 percent of the vote share, comprising 10.4 million voters, doubling the seats in the Bundestag, standing with 151 seats as the second-largest party. With jubilation, the AFD has hailed this mandate as a referendum over the traditional incumbent political reality of Germany that has not heard the angst of the German population on various issues such as immigration, domestic terrorism, and economic stagnation, which continues with funding for the conflict in Ukraine.
The AFD has made a beginning of an era that few have anticipated, but to the extent unpredicted, Germany has entered into a pivotal moment that will not only define what lies ahead but reinvent what has been left behind, altering the legacies, amending the power dynamics, and mainstreaming the ideas as a core part of jurisprudence. The AFD is set to march on Berlin. The AFD in party factions such as the Flügel-faction and admiration for the “remigration” agenda insinuates the core of revolutionary conservatism, which is to national socialism what Trotskyism was to Stalinist communism, as Armin Mohler wrote in 1954.
The AFD camp has hailed this mandate as a referendum over the traditional ongoing political reality of Germany that has been deaf to hear the outcries of the German population: “When the system becomes inconsistent with the social reality, radical changes become a necessity that surfaced in the 2025 German elections.” A disunited left that has stifled internal policy positions and inadequate measures to curb the surge of antisemitism followed by unchecked immigration has foiled the defense of “cordon sanitaire,” a term used for a coalition of left and moderate parties coming together to block the far right from receiving power.
By the end of the elections, Germany had succeeded in averting the national political tragedy by electing CDU/CSU Friedrich Merz as chancellor, but he inherited a divided house that split on immigration, national security, and ideological differences. This conservative triumph is the massive political upheaval sweeping Europe. This development is worrisome for the non-German diaspora residing in Germany, as such far-right rhetoric in coming years might reecho at a higher degree, which prioritizes national ethnic consciousness rather than the development of all citizens, which might result in a surge of the already high anti-immigrant sentiments.
With the decline of the Social Democratic Party of Germany in recent times, the right-wing hordes swept a more extensive support base that was historically viewed as a strong bloc of the central and left-wing parties in the eastern part of Germany, marking massive gains in the German parliamentary elections. These developments are the result of institutional distrust, economic stagnation, and security concerns after a surge of migrant attacks, begging the question, “Will the political trajectory of Germany reaffirm the liberal order or descend Berlin into a choice between the leftist dilemmas and the far-right promissory, marking a shift of ages in German politics?
AFD, with its ideological pragmatic underpinnings, reflects a future that has been lineage on a moral policy-based order that advocates for ethnopluralism, while the second lineage, with its reservation, calls for European rejuvenation by forming alliances with far-right European parties, which further makes it a predicament to challenge the left and center-left parties.
To gain prominence among the Germans, it demands a new “left rejuvenation” that redirects the political focus from the historical guilt that destroys all roots of heritage and brings back the initial chaos and promiscuity. The lessons of history must be referenced in building a better collective future that is vested in legitimate representation of national consciousness rather than continuation of the stringent adherence to ideological inclinations that alienate one from one’s own identity.
If the German left and center-left parties render a revision of the ideological position, making it compatible to address the socio-cultural grievances of the German populace, with the maintenance of liberalism while embracing republican principles. Addressing the grievances will regain the trust of the German population that has been disillusioned by the left’s political and ideological proclamations. This will also strengthen the “cordon sanitaire” politics, averting the German tragedy of the 21st century. Cordon sanitaire politics refers to a political situation in which center and left parties strategically vote to bar the far-right parties and avert the situation in which Germany will witness a far-right chancellor in the German Bundestag. As Leo Strauss stated, “National isn’t the political concept … … nation is the highest expression of the sense of belonging, a sense of freedom, and defending the roots of a culture.”
The revolutionary conservatism of AFD attempts to forge a reconnection of the European Christian heritage with the modern political landscape through a dismantling of the liberal ethos and institutional structure , excluding non-Germans while prioritizing moral conservatism and economic liberalism, defining the socio-political spaces and economic realities of Germany in the coming years.
