Research project
General Abstract
International far-right festivals and conferences may seem like a modern phenomenon, but they have taken place in Western Europe since 1951. How did these large-scale events galvanize participants and strengthen the movement? By addressing this unanswered question, the project provides new insights into the growth and mobilization of the far right in the post-war period.
Scientific Abstract
Public events and ritualized practices play a key role in the mobilization of political movements. However, existing scholarship overlooked this role in explaining the mobilization of the post-war far right, focusing on the adaptation and dissemination of far-right ideas instead.
This project shifts focus to the practices and behaviors at far-right public events to explain far-right mobilization across Western Europe in 1951-1981, a period of denazification and stigmatization of the far right. It examines three key annual event series that drew large, diverse, and international crowds: the Lippoldsberger Dichtertage, IJzerbedevaarten, and Nationaleuropäischer Jugendkongresse. It introduces the concept of transnational far-right movement culture and argues that far-right events served as ‘stages’ where this movement culture was created, enacted, and spread across groups and borders. For each event, the project examines the performed narratives, staged rituals and symbols, and experiences that participants shared within their networks, highlighting the cultural dynamics that sustained long-term far-right mobilization.
The project's cultural and transnational approach advances the field of historical far-right studies and aims to enrich dominant theories of mobilization. The project will offer crucial bottom-up insights into the movement culture and long-term mobilization that continue to shape today's illiberal and sometimes anti-democratic far right.
