Anti-German (German: Antideutsch) is the generic name applied to a variety of theoretical and political tendencies within the left mainly in Germany and Austria. The Anti-Germans form one of the main camps within the broader Antifa movement, alongside the Anti-Zionist anti-imperialists, after the two currents split between the 1990s and the early 2000s as a result of their diverging views on Israel. The anti-Germans are a fringe movement within the German left: In 2006 Deutsche Welle estimated the number of anti-Germans to be between 500 and 3,000. The basic standpoint of the anti-Germans includes opposition to German nationalism, a critique of mainstream left anti-capitalist views, which are thought to be simplistic and structurally antisemitic, and a critique of antisemitism, which is considered to be deeply rooted in German cultural history. As a result of this analysis of antisemitism, support for Israel and opposition to Anti-Zionism is a primary unifying factor of the anti-German movement. The critical theory of Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer is often cited by anti-German theorists.

  • Lord_ofThe_FLIES [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    What do you mean by antisemitism on the left? What form did it take and how were anti imperialists part of it?

    • JuneFall [none/use name]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Those are two very different questions. Antisemitism on the left at that time could include stuff like:

      • philosemitism

      • reductive/regressive Marxism "the Jews are merchants therefore not a productive class" and therefore not workers

      • denial of continuity between repression before 1945 and after

      • ignoring jewish victims

      • within the Left (that was earlier, but there is a continuity, the RAF selected jewish from non jewish passengers during air plane kidnappings which is a bad look) selecting which Jew is good and which not

      • the regular antisemitism and antisemitic stereotypes

      • "the jews always make trouble" was something I did not seldomly hear from left people even organized Marxists

      • complete disregard for Jewish life in general and in Germany specifically

      • judging main contradictions of capitalism to be more important than the "Jewish question"

      • ignoring Jewish positions and completely disregarding Jewish socialists in Israel

      • accepting to work together with people that aren't only anti zionist, but openly antisemitic including with people that do holocaust denial, etc.

      • (added) of course the acting as if Jews are homogeneous belongs on the list, too

      To name a few. Disregard for safety of Jews that emigrated, too. Where is after the fall of the Soviet Union a safe place for Jews? Certainly it wasn't Germany.

      Disclaimer: Anti-Imp is a label, not a true description of the groups.