ExtremismTrump's “Antifa” Accusations Spark Debate in Germany, the Movement's Birthplace
After Donald Trump claimed most protesters in the U.S. were “antifa,” Germany’s Social Democrats rushed to declare solidarity with the movement. But which movement? And why did other politicians object? What the word means is simple enough in German. Antifa is short for antifaschistisch, or anti-Fascist. In the most literal sense, one might hope this label could apply to almost all modern German people and politicians. But does antifa refer to all those opposed to fascism, or does it refer only to black-clad anarchists and leftists staring down German police in the streets?
Quite a few people, not least the president of the United States, seem a little confused as to precisely what “antifa” is. Unlike many of the gaps in Donald Trump’s knowledge, there are some reasonable historical justifications for this particular confusion.
In Germany, politicians and the public have been wrestling with the term for around a century now – without coming any closer to an uncontested definition.
What the word means is simple enough in German. Antifa is short for antifaschistisch, or anti-Fascist. In the most literal sense, one might hope this label could apply to almost all modern German people and politicians. But does antifa refer to all those opposed to fascism, or does it refer only to black-clad anarchists and leftists staring down German police in the streets? The last large-scale German confrontation involving antifa protesters was in Hamburg at the 2017 G20 summit.
Roots in Weimar-Era Communism, Disparate Modern Movement
The word anitfa’s true meaning has been complex in Germany ever since the Stalinist Communist Party of Germany (KPD) adopted the phrase and the distinctive two-flag logo for the 1932 election campaign. They had been pressing for cross-party “antifaschistische Aktion” (anti-Fascist action) since the early 1920s.
The KPD portrayed themselves as the only truly “anti-Fascist” party in Weimar Germany’s last free election, which Adolf Hitler’s NSDAP would not win outright but which nevertheless handed them the keys to power. The inability of the KPD, the Social Democrats and other democratic forces to work together, despite securing more combined votes than the NSDAP, famously helped enable Hitler to take control of Germany. Before long, the Nazis would systematically dismantle and outlaw both the largest left-of-center parties.
Many of the leading lights of Germany’s interwar KPD would go on to rule communist East Germany (the GDR) during the Cold War. East Germany’s ruling party, the SED, would use “anti-Fascist” almost as a synonym for socialist when talking about their government. Even Bernd Langer, author of a sympathetic history of the antifa movement in Germany, notes that anti-capitalism was always understood as a core component of the movement among its more fervent supporters.
