The swastika in socialism

More about the book

There is a lot of discussion in the academic literature and media these days about right-wing extremism and its possible causes in modern capitalist systems. What is often forgotten, however, is that right-wing extremism existed in other systems, for example, in the state socialist systems of the former eastern Bloc. This book represents an attempt to address this situation by investigating the nature and causes of right-wing extremism in the former German Democratic Republic. Based on original research in the former GDR state archives and interviews with former right- wing extremists, „The Swastika in Socialism“ reconstructs and discusses the nature of right-wing extremism in the GDR, focusing on the decade 1980-1990. The major aim of the book is to provide a fuller characterisation of the phenomenon in order to understand its existence and development in a self-proclaimed anti-fascist state.