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Querfront (lit. 'cross-front') is a German term originating in Weimar politics and referring to the cooperation between the far-right and far-left, or nationalist and socialist ideologies, as well as the combination of their positions.[1] It is primarily understood as a strategy to unite forces in an effort to gain power. The term was first, and most prominently, used in the Weimar Republic, where it referred to the cooperation between conservative revolutionaries and the far-left.

The term sees adoption as a descriptor, or outright stated strategy, in modern-day Germany. Some have however criticized the modern usage as inaccurate from a historical perspective.[1][2]

History

Some factions and members in the KPD and KAPD, who rejected the Treaty of Versailles, were ready to align themselves with dissident nationalist groups in the German army in order to garner more support.[3] These members, primarily Heinrich Laufenberg and Fritz Wolffheim, were at the time described as "National Bolsheviks", but would retroactively also be cited as examples of the Querfront strategy.[4] Later, explicit National Bolsheviks such as Ernst Niekisch and Karl Otto Paetel would emerge, which directly supported the combination of nationalist and socialist ideologies. Paetel explicitly engaged in this strategy, stating the goal of his organizations, first the Arbeitsring junge Front, and later the Group of Social Revolutionary Nationalists, to bring together radicals of left and right in pursuit of a "third way" between the NSDAP and the KPD, encompassing both nationalism and socialist economics.[5]

Chancellor of the Weimar Republic between 1932 and 1933, Kurt von Schleicher, is credited with the first practical use of the strategy, in part characterizing the term, seeking to create a Querfront as a support base for his chancellorship through attempting to split off the Strasserist segment of the Nazi Party in order to merge it with the trade unions as way of forcing Hitler to support his government.[2][6] This plan however failed, and it is disputed if Schleicher was actually serious about his proposal.[7]

Modern examples and usage

In an February 1989 interview with the magazine Tempo in February 1989, the leader of the German neo-Nazi scene at the time, Michael Kühnen, was asked why anarchists and neo-Nazis did not band together to fight the state, in response he stated: "There are a number of reasons for acting together: both the Autonomists and the National Socialists despise the bourgeois order. Both hate its decadence and fight against democracy. After we have gotten rid of this pig system, we can squabble about which order is superior."[8]

The Kampfbund Deutscher Sozialisten (1999-2008) was founded with the explicit aim of uniting the political left and right via the Querfront strategy, wanting to eliminate differences between the two sides and serve as a "Discussion and combat forum on the basis of the collective commitment to Volk [nation] and homeland".[9][10][11] The strategy has failed the group overall, it being able to attract few actual leftists and being described by a former member, Axel Reitz, as "nothing more than the usual neo-nazi group", which lead to its dissolution in 2008. Despite this overall failure however, the Berlin sector of the organization lead by Michael Koth, a former communist activist who lead his own Querfront group before the KDS known as the Workers' Party of Germany (PdAD), was said to have a far more national bolshevik lean, taking influences from both Juche and the former SED.[12]

During the COVID-19 protests in Germany, some publications have used the term to refer to left-wing and right-wing cooperation on demonstrations.[13] David Begrich however argued in the newspaper taz, that the term was misused in the situation since, while the left and right had cooperated, their generally opposing ideals remained separate and didn't combine or move towards approaching each other.[1][14]

Former prominent politician Sahra Wagenknecht (formerly Left Party, now BSW, her own organization) has on some occasions been accused of running on a Querfront strategy through her idea of "conservative socialism".[15][16][17] This accusation became most prominent after the Berlin peace rally on 14 February 2023 organized by Wagenknecht and feminist Alice Schwarzer, which called for negotiations and a stop of military support to Ukraine, since many supporters of Russia and the far-right were in attendance.[17][18] A 2023 article in The Washington Post additionally suggested that the Kremlin is trying to establish a German anti-war coalition between Wagenknecht and the Alternative for Germany based on the Querfront model.[19][20][21]

The term Querfront is also used to refer to the far-right taking on, or rather more explicitly talking about, left-wing issues such as anti-capitalism, or taking on left-wing strategies as seen in the Autonomous Nationalists.[2]

Modern Querfront media

In Germany, a number of media outlets were founded in the 2000s that followed Querfront ideologies. Many of them defame those who work according to journalistic standards as “mainstream media” and use the term “alternative media” for themselves. According to a study by Wolfgang Storz from 2015, the heterogeneous actors consisting of right-wing populists, conspiracy theorists and anti-Semites used their exclusion offensively. It contributes to establishing identity and increasing attention.

Main Querfront-outlets are:

  • Compact, the far-right German magazine founded by former left-wing activist Jürgen Elsässer has variously been described as a "Querfront-Magazine".[22][23][24][25]
  • Nachdenkseiten ("Think about papers"), originally planned as a left-wing alternative, the German-language blog has been one of the most important parts of Querfront media since 2015. The blog spreads conspiracy theories, for example about the war in Ukraine since 2014 or the COVID-19 pandemic. The editor is the former SPD politician Albrecht Müller, who also provides numerous contributions.
  • Manova News, formerly known as Rubikon, is a German right-wing online blog, noted for spreading conspiracy ideologies.[26][27][28] The motto of the blog is “Magazine for Freedom and Peace, Environment and Human Rights”. Its editor-in-chief is Roland Rottenfußer.[29]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Peter, Erik (21 May 2020). "Rechte Ideologie auf Hygienedemos: Links und rechts vereint auf Demos?". Die Tageszeitung: taz (in German). ISSN 0931-9085. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 "Querfront | Brandenburgische Landeszentrale für politische Bildung". www.politische-bildung-brandenburg.de. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  3. ↑ Pierre Broué, Ian Birchall, Eric D. Weitz, John Archer, The German Revolution, 1917–1923, Haymarket Books, 2006, pp. 325–326.
  4. ↑ Timothy S. Brown, Weimar Radicals: Nazis and Communists Between Authenticity and Performance, Berghahn Books, 2009, p. 95.
  5. ↑ Brown, Weimar Radicals, pp. 32
  6. ↑ Henry Ashby Turner (1996). Hitler's thirty days to power. Internet Archive. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0-201-40714-3.
  7. ↑ Turner, Henry Ashby (2008). "The Myth of Chancellor Von Schleicher's Querfront Strategy". Central European History. 41 (4): 673–681. ISSN 0008-9389. JSTOR 20457400.
  8. ↑ "Ich, Kühnen – Deutschlands gefürchtetster Nazi erklärt sich". waahr.de (in German). 26 November 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  9. ↑ "Verfassungsschutzbericht NRW 1999" (PDF).
  10. ↑ "Wer sind wir - Langener Erklärung". 7 April 2005. Archived from the original on 9 February 2008. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
  11. ↑ Grumke, Thomas; Wagner, Bernd (8 March 2013). Handbuch Rechtsradikalismus: Personen — Organisationen — Netzwerke vom Neonazismus bis in die Mitte der Gesellschaft (in German). Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-322-97559-1.
  12. ↑ "Verfassungsschutzbericht Berlin 2005" (PDF).
  13. ↑ Hurtz, Simon (12 May 2020). "Corona-Querfront: Feindbilder und Verschwörungsmythen". Süddeutsche.de (in German). Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  14. ↑ Zantke, Michael. "Ein Jebsen macht noch keine Querfront". jungle.world (in German). Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  15. ↑ Schmoll, Thomas. "Wagenknecht, die Ein-Frau-Querfront ohne Mehrheit". n-tv.de (in German). Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  16. ↑ Vorreyer, Thomas. "Wagenknecht auf "Friedensdemo": "Sie haben Angst vor uns"". tagesschau.de (in German). Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  17. 1 2 Stöcker, Christian (26 February 2023). "Kundgebung in Berlin: Querfront ja, aber bitte diskret! - Kolumne". Der Spiegel (in German). ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  18. ↑ "Germany: Left Party, Wagenknecht clash after 'peace' rally – DW – 02/27/2023". dw.com. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  19. ↑ "Kremlin tries to build antiwar coalition in Germany, documents show". Washington Post. 21 April 2023. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  20. ↑ Hesse, Sebastian. "US-Medien: Kreml-Plan für deutsche "Querfront"?". tagesschau.de (in German). Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  21. ↑ "Geheimdokumente: Kreml will Querfront aus AfD und Wagenknecht-Lager". Berliner Zeitung (in German). 21 April 2023. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  22. ↑ "Q wie Querfront: Über die Allianz der Populisten - mit Volker Weiß" (in German). Heinrich Böll Foundation. 25 January 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  23. ↑ Thomas Vitzthum (1 September 2015). "Anti-Kapitalismus: Linker Publizist von der NPD für "Volksfront" gelobt". Die Welt (in German). Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  24. ↑ "Reichsbürger, Neonazis und Antisemiten - Querfront kapert Friedensdemonstrationen". Störungsmelder (in German). 16 April 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  25. ↑ Erik Peter (16 April 2014). "Neurechte "Friedensbewegung": Im Kampf gegen die Medien-Mafia". Die Tageszeitung (in German). Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  26. ↑ Hurtz, Simon (11 May 2020). "Falsch, aber faszinierend". Süddeutsche.de (in German). Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  27. ↑ deutschlandfunk.de. "Das Magazin "Rubikon" - Journalistischer Grenzgänger". Deutschlandfunk (in German). Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  28. ↑ "Rubikon News: Ein Querfront-Magazin?". Belltower.News (in German). 20 January 2022. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  29. ↑ https://www.rubikon.news/autoren/roland-rottenfusser

Literature

  • Bozic, Ivo: Die Querfront als weltpolitisches Phänomen. In: Markus Liske, Manja Präkels (2015). Vorsicht Volk!, oder, Bewegungen im Wahn?. Verbrecher Verlag. ISBN 9783957321213
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