German far-right leader accused of evoking Adolf Hitler’s rhetoric
Historians say Alexander Gauland’s piece has striking parallels to 1933 Hitler speech
German historians and have condemned an article written by a far-right leader for its “striking parallels” to the words of Adolf Hitler.
Alexander Gauland’s opinion piece in the conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung attacked a “globalised class” that he said was detached from the lives of ordinary people and threatened German and European identity.
Historians specialising in the Nazi era were quick to jump on the column, saying it was written in a very similar style to an address Hitler gave to the workers of Siemensstadt in Berlin in November 1933, when he took aim at a “small, rootless, international clique”.
Gauland, co-leader of the anti-immigration AfD, wrote that members of the “globalised class” held positions in mainstream organisations, including academia, the media, international corporations, NGOs and politics.
They live, he wrote, “almost exclusively in big cities, speak fluent English, and when they move from Berlin to London or Singapore for jobs, they find similar flats, houses, restaurants, shops and private schools everywhere”.
He said members of the group socialised only among themselves, were “culturally colourful” and had no attachment to their homelands.