Global crises, local retreats – exits from democracy as an act of radicalization

In recent years, Germany has witnessed a dynamic development of völkisch settlement movements. Right-wing extremists with a völkisch ideology are settling in rural and sparsely populated areas, far from large cities, in order to live in a biologically based "community of people", far from outside influences. Since recently a public campaign calls on people to leave Western Germany and settle in rural areas of Eastern Germany. There, the world is presented as better: a low percentage of foreigners, higher approval ratings for right-wing parties, favorable real estate prices and especially a white population - they stage the perfect spot to save the German people from the so-called "great replacement“. This is by no means a retreat into the private sphere, which could be mistaken for apolitical detachment. Rather, it is a kind of political and social secessionism, characterized by a pattern of action of conscious dissociation from a modern society understood as hostile. This is coupled with the choice of breaking with the prevailing political system. Based on the results of a local case study in 2022, the presentation will examine how völkisch settlers attempt to establish anti-democratic parallel structures and how they relate to the local culture and population.