Alternative to what? Looking into Germany’s extreme right-wing radicalisation

Over the past decade Germany has seen a relatively low number of Islamist-attributed or inspired violent attacks, especially in comparison to its Western neighbors. In parallel, however, one increasingly worrisome phenomenon is that of far-right extremism targeting religious and ethnic minorities. The shooting at a shisha-bar in Hanau in February 2020 and the trial of a German officer who posed as a Syrian refugee and allegedly planned to target politicians and human right defenders identified by the extreme-right as ‘enemies’, are only a few of a series of extreme right-wing radicalisation cases targeting minorities. Attacks against migrants and religious minorities have long been downplayed and understudied, despite having significantly increased since 2015 to the point of being identified by academics and practitioners as the most important form of radicalisation in Germany. This chapter draws on 10 interviews conducted in 2020 with radicalisation experts, practitioners, local authorities and police members, as well as on secondary sources such as grey literature, media reports, policy documents and courts’ transcripts, to explore the complexity of right-wing extremist violence in Germany. By focussing on Germany’s growing extreme right wing radicalisation, this chapter aims at contributing to the debateon how non-Islamic religious frameworks (particularly Christian white ideology) has been mobilised and incorporated into the narratives of violent extremist movements, which in turn inform party ideology and feed into a right-wing radicalisation of society at large.