Defeat and New Beginning: Right-wing Parties and Right-Wing Politics in Early Postwar Germany

Defeat and New Beginning: Right-wing Parties and Right-Wing Politics in Early Postwar Germany
lecture and discussion
With Dr. Dominik Rigoll (historian at the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam)
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In May 1945, the Second World War ended in Europe – a turning point that marked not only the end of Nazi tyranny, but also the difficult beginning of a new democratic beginning in Germany. In retrospect, the early years of the Federal Republic of Germany often appear as a success story of a young democracy that quickly stabilized. But which political forces actually influenced this process?

In this context, Dominik Rigoll examines the newly formed right-wing and right-wing extremist small parties. These parties, which formed after 1945 in the western occupation zones and the young Federal Republic, are generally considered politically failed and historically irrelevant. However, the lecture demonstrates that these parties, whose acronyms are largely forgotten today, despite their relative weakness, shaped the democratic reconstruction in the states and later also the emerging Bonn democracy in many ways as early as 1946.

The event invites us to reflect on continuities and ruptures—on political forces that are often considered marginal, yet have had a greater impact than they first appear. A look at the postwar period and its significance for our present.

Dr. Dominik Rigoll is a historian at the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam, where he works on, among other things, the history of right-wing parties. He lives in Leipzig.