Associated research project

Although commonly understood as opponents of the rule of law, constitutionalism and constitutional rights, in recent years, the German populist and far-right has sought to claim the mantle of the popular struggle for democracy the Basic Law, both historically and in the present. In order to distinguish itself from traditional far right ethnonationalism and avoid being surveilled or possibly banned as a threat to the free democratic order, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has aimed to portray itself as the vehicle for the realization of the promise of the liberal transition of 1989 and the protector of the basic rights of the German Volk.

Positioning itself not as repudiation of the post-socialist liberal democratic transition, but as its natural heir the AfD and others in the far-right have sought to position any effort by to hinder the party in the name of preserving constitutional democracy as an extremist threat by the far-left, which threatens the rights of Germans and endangers the democratic transition from state socialism.

This surface level commitment to constitutionalism also acts to cover völkisch legal theories that claim the rights of the Basic Law should apply only to members of the German Volk and see human rights protections as foreign interventions in the constitutional order imposed by globalist elites from Berlin, Karlsruhe or Brussels.

The project is part of the joint project „Towards Illiberal Constitutionalism in East Central Europe: Historical Analysis in Comparative and Transnational Perspectives“ with partners in Prague, Warsaw, Jena and Budapest, funded by the VW Foundation.