Re- | Visions of history in right-wing populism and the far right. European and global perspectives

Leibniz Research Alliance “Value of the Past” – Annual Conference 2025

Organisers: Leibniz Research Alliance "Value of the Past", Heinrich Böll Foundation, Max Weber Foundation.

Die Konferenzsprache ist Englisch/The conference language is English.
 

Right-wing populism and the far right have once again become a central political force − in Europe and across the globe. Over the last two decades, right-wing populist and far-right parties have been elected into regional and national parliaments, and have formed governments in an alarming number of countries.

A core element of their politics is the attempt to revise and redefine history. However, there are few comparative works on how right-wing and radical right populists interpret, reinterpret and instrumentalize the past in pan-European and global perspectives.

This is the topic of the annual conference of the Leibniz Research Alliance “Value of the Past” and its cooperation partners: the institutes of the Max Weber Foundation and the Heinrich Böll Foundation. The conference will bring together expertise from different European countries, and it will also look at right-wing populist movements and far-right thinking in the US, India, and Japan.

The following guiding questions will frame the discussion:

• What historical narratives and visions of the past are promoted by right-wing populist and far-right actors in different national and transnational contexts?
• How are right-wing counter-narratives, denialism, apocalyptic thinking, and myth-making strategically employed?
• What role do media and digital platforms play in disseminating right-wing historical interpretations?
• What similarities and differences can be observed in the uses of history among right-wing movements in Europe and beyond?
• How can academia, civil society and politics effectively respond to the appropriation and revision of history by the far right?

On the public opening evening ( 8 September 2025) of the conference, Volker Weiß will deliver a keynote titled "Historical Revisionism Today" (In German with simultaneous translation.)

A public panel discussion will follow, exploring history as a political resource for both right-wing populist and democratic movements:

With: 

• Volker Weiß (historian and journalist)
• Frank Bösch (historian and director of the Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam)
• Constanze Itzel (director of the House of European History Brussel)
• Katja Meier (Member of the Saxon State Parliament and former Saxon State Minister for Justice, Democracy, Europe, and Equality, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)

Conference programme: A preliminary conference programme (as of 11 July 2025) can be found in the appendix below.