Reading with Volker Weiss - "Das Deutsche Demokratische Reich - How the Far Right Destroys History and Democracy"

In his book "Das Deutsche Demokratische Reich", Volker Weiß offers a historically grounded analysis of the AfD and the far right in Germany today. He traces how the far right seeks to dismantle Western liberalism and impose an alternative reading of history - declaring a cultural civil war that it actively stokes.

At the heart of the argument is the struggle for interpretive control over history and the present, with the aim of pulling Germany out of the Western world. The far right's contradictory, romanticised historical narratives all converge on one goal: a "German Democratic Reich" as a synthesis of the authoritarian systems of Germany's past.

Weiß builds on his bestseller "Die autoritäre Revolte" and examines new methods of cultural warfare in the fields of history and geopolitics. He maps the key currents and actors, drawing comparisons with right-wing milieus in Russia and the United States. The reading takes place ahead of the upcoming Bundestag election.