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138-522: Defunct Defunct Neue Rechte (English: New Right ) is the designation for a right-wing political movement in Germany . It was founded as an opposition to the New Left generation of the 1960s. Its intellectually oriented proponents distance themselves from Old Right Nazi traditions and emphasize similarities between the far-right and the conservative spectrum. A common denominator of
276-708: A 'national rebirth' according to palingenetic concepts. They parallel the French Nouvelle Droite as a political movement, somewhat similar in their general political stance including the Anti-American sentiment advocated by Alain de Benoist. However, the Nouvelle Droite 's neo-pagan leanings are the opposite to the Christian foundation of many Neue Rechte members, though the movement also comprises occult groups. Although
414-470: A German "special path" in relation to Western civilization. Their relationship to National Socialism is controversial; most of them were not active National Socialists, some distanced themselves from them and some were persecuted after 1933, while others affirmed and supported the Nazi state. Historians such as Kurt Sontheimer emphasize the ideological and practical similarities, which favoured and helped prepare
552-437: A certain tolerance for Neue Rechte positions can be found: e.g. fraternities and displaced persons. Other fields of agitation are neo-paganism and occultism . The Dark culture was also courted in the 1990s. The main starting point for this was Neofolk , a style of music in which some artists operate with fascist aesthetics. In addition to musical reviews, the fanzine Sigill (later Zinnober ) also published essays on
690-464: A decentralised economy based on economic freedom and holds property rights , free markets , and free trade to be the most important kinds of freedom. Political theorist Russell Kirk believed that freedom and property rights were interlinked. In France, nationalism was originally a left-wing and republican ideology. After the period of boulangisme and the Dreyfus affair , nationalism became
828-565: A few right-wing movements—notably the French Nouvelle Droite , CasaPound , and American paleoconservatism —are often in opposition to capitalist ethics and the effects they have on society. These forces see capitalism and industrialism as infringing upon or causing the decay of social traditions or hierarchies that are essential for social order. In modern times, "right-wing" is sometimes used to describe laissez-faire capitalism . In Europe, capitalists formed alliances with
966-639: A mirror-image of the historical materialism developed by Karl Marx . Spengler also wrote about the decline of the West as an ineluctable phenomenon, but his intention was to provide modern readers with a "new socialism" that would enable them to realize the meaninglessness of life, contrasting with Marx's idea of the coming of paradise on earth. Above all, the Conservative Revolution drew influences from vitalism (Lebensphilosophie) and irrationalism , not from materialism . Spengler argued that
1104-607: A modern decadent spirit. Jung perceived this return as a gradual and lengthy transformation, similar to the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, rather than a sudden revolutionary eruption like the French Revolution . Other Conservative Revolutionaries rather drew influence from their life at the front line ( Kriegserlebnis , "war experience") during the First World War . Far from
1242-418: A paradox, sometimes as a "semantic absurdity", for many modern historians, and some of them have suggested "neo-conservative" as a more easily justifiable label for the movement. Sociologist Stefan Breuer wrote that he would have preferred the substitute "new nationalism" to name a charismatic and holistic cultural movement that differed from the "old nationalism" of the previous century, whose essential role
1380-473: A remedy to the political situation: a "Third Reich" that would unite all classes under an authoritarian rule based on a combination of the nationalism of the right and the socialism of the left. Rejecting both the nation-state narrowed to one unified people and the imperialistic structure based on different ethnic groups, the goal of Jungkonservativen was to fulfil the Volksmission ("mission of
1518-487: A return to the spirit of the Middle Ages with a new Holy Roman Empire federating central Europe. The theme of a return to medieval values and aesthetics among "young conservatives" was inherited from a Romantic fascination for that period, which they believed to be simpler and more integrated than the modern world. Oswald Spengler praised medieval chivalry as the philosophical and moral attitude to adopt against
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#17327726431861656-648: A second wing openly uses terms like "revolution" or "socialism" in political disputes, based on the model of Ernst Niekisch and Strasserist concepts. They have made attempts to build up a Querfront strategy with originally 'left' anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist circles. Representatives of the German New Right often refer to certain thinkers of the Weimar Republic . Since a dissertation by Armin Mohler in 1949, these have been summarized in
1794-411: A serious attempt to draw a political analysis of that period, young Mann's writings have been influential on many Conservative Revolutionaries. Mann was accused by the right of watering down his undemocratic views in 1922 after he removed some paragraphs from the republication of Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen ("Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man"), originally released in 1918. In a speech delivered
1932-662: A solid world of values in the face of continuous historical setbacks. In the face of modernity as an era of insecurity, opposing the securities of the past is no longer enough; instead it is necessary to redesign new safety by adopting and taking on the same risky conditions with which it is defined. Edgar Jung indeed dismissed the idea that true conservatives wanted to "stop the wheel of history". The chivalric way of life they were seeking to achieve was, according to Oswald Spengler , not governed by any moral code, but rather by "a noble, self-evident morality, based on that natural sense of tact which comes from good breeding". This morality
2070-404: A sovereign authority. He defined sovereignty as the possibility , or the power, to decide on the triggering of a "state of emergency", in other words a state of exception regarding the law: "There is some person or institution, in a given polity, capable of bringing about a total suspension of the law and then to use extra-legal force to normalize the situation, then that person or institution
2208-487: A strengthened 'national identity'. Therefore, they tend to historical revisionism and to battle against what they call a German 'cult of guilt' with regard to The Holocaust . According to Roger Griffin , the Neue Rechte share the deep cultural pessimism of their precursors in the interwar period. Referring to a völkisch nationalism, the movement seeks refuge not in the restoration of traditional values, but in
2346-720: A strong national military force, the right to individual gun ownership, cutting taxes, reducing government spending, and balancing the budget. In Indonesia, Islamic populism has a significant impact on right-wing politics. This largely due to the historical context which Islamic organizations had during the 1960s in destroying the Indonesian Communist Party. Whilst the party is adopting democratic processes with neo-liberal market economies, socially pluralist positions aren't necessarily adopted. The Islamic populism in Indonesia has boosted its influence in 1998 after
2484-745: A temporary alliance with German communists and the Soviet Union in order to annihilate the capitalist West. In his PhD thesis supervised by Karl Jaspers , Armin Mohler distinguished five currents inside the nebula of the Conservative Revolution: the Jungkonservativen ("young conservatives"), the Nationalrevolutionäre ("national revolutionaries"), the Völkischen (from the "folkish movement"),
2622-417: A trait of the right-wing. Right-wing nationalists sought to define and defend a "true" national identity from elements which they believed were corrupting that identity. Some were supremacists , who in accordance with scientific racism and social Darwinism applied the concept of " survival of the fittest " to nations and races . Right-wing nationalism was influenced by Romantic nationalism in which
2760-598: Is a form of rule that rises above the Volkstum and can leave it untouched. But it shall not want to be total, and shall recognize autonomies ( Autonomien ) and sovereignties ( Eigenständigkeiten ). Although Moeller van der Bruck killed himself in despair in May 1925, his ideas continued to influence his contemporaries. Among them was Edgar Jung, who advocated the creation of a corporatist organic state , free from class struggle and parliamentary democracy, which would make way for
2898-1002: Is a matter of ongoing debate among German political scientists. They draw parallels to the success of European parties such as the Italian Alleanza Nazionale and the Lega Nord , the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), the French Front National , the Swiss People's Party (SVP) or the Belgian Vlaams Belang as well as to the US Tea Party movement . The programmatic statements of 'New Right' parties span from neoliberal to far-right elements and thereby have become compatible to conservative and liberal circles. Historically,
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#17327726431863036-539: Is decisive here, but their role as cues. They had an impact on the music scene and esotericism. The historian Walter Laqueur is of the opinion that the Neue Rechte ultimately failed to develop a coherent counter-position to Western-American liberalism . The Neue Rechte movement has not achieved an integrated opposite position to Western liberalism: while a main neoconservative tendency strongly refers to pre-war traditions and even affect centre-right parties,
3174-521: Is described as a Bejahung ("affirmation") by Dupeux: Conservative Revolutionaries said "yes" to their time as long as they could find the ways to facilitate the resurgence of anti-liberal and what they saw as "eternal values" within modern societies. Dupeux conceded at the same time that the Conservative Revolution was rather a counter-cultural movement than an actual philosophical proposition, relying more on non-rationalistic "feeling, images and myths" than on scientific analysis and concepts. He also admitted
3312-454: Is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law , economics , authority , property , religion , biology , or tradition . Hierarchy and inequality may be seen as natural results of traditional social differences or competition in market economies . Right-wing politics are considered
3450-565: Is the sovereign in that polity." According to him, every government should include within its constitution that dictatorial possibility to allow, when necessary, for faster and more effective decisions than going through parliamentary discussion and compromise. Referring to Adolf Hitler , he later used in 1934 the following formulation to justify the legitimacy of the Night of the Long Knives : Der Führer schützt das Recht ("The leader defends
3588-481: Is to say the "political reality of that Conservative Revolution". In 1921, Carl Schmitt published his essay Die Diktatur ("The Dictatorship"), in which he studied the foundations of the recently established Weimar Republic . Comparing what he saw as the effective and ineffective elements of the new constitution, he highlighted the office of the Reichspräsident as a valuable position, essentially due to
3726-521: Is unjust, limits personal freedom, and leads to social uniformity and mediocrity. In the view of philosopher Jason Stanley in How Fascism Works , the "politics of hierarchy" is one of the hallmarks of fascism , which refers to a "glorious past" in which members of the rightfully dominant group sat atop the hierarchy, and attempt to recreate this state of being. According to The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought ,
3864-470: The Kulturpessimismus concern of the "young conservatives", Ernst Jünger and the other "national revolutionaries" advocated total acceptance of modern technique and endorsed the use of any modern phenomena that could help them overcome modernity—such as propaganda or mass organizations —and eventually achieve a new political order. The latter would have been based on life itself rather than
4002-524: The Neue Rechte . The reason for the aversion is "merely the presence of Islam in the greater European area". The "real conditions in Teheran , Riyadh , Istanbul or Kabul " play no role for the representatives of the New Right - unlike in universalist thinking. According to Griffin, the preferred target groups of the New Right's "culture war" are segments of society in which young people who have
4140-622: The Neue Rechte are Nation und Europa (discontinued in 2009) and its Zuerst! successor. The Studienzentrum Weikersheim founded by the CDU politician Hans Filbinger considers itself a Christian-conservative think tank . The Bibliothek des Konservatismus (BdK) is another connecting element in the network of the far-right in central Europe. Opened in 2012 and located in Fasanenstraße in Berlin-Charlottenburg
4278-476: The Neue Rechte challenges the principles of the Enlightenment , such as pluralism and social equality underlying the doctrine of human rights . Racist elements are superseded by the concept of ethnopluralism , combining both neoconservative and far-right approaches. Ideologists disparage the ideals of the 1968 protests and feminism , they refuse to accept a multicultural society and seek for
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4416-493: The Neue Rechte is a skeptical or negative stance towards the basic tenets of the German constitution , often in the sense of an ethnic ( völkisch ) nationalism. When the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) was founded in 1964, its younger members began to call themselves Junge Rechte ; this was in order to differ from Nazi models and to counter the German student movement . Contrary to their hopes,
4554-421: The Neue Rechte is linked to the positions of right-wing ideologues in the Weimar Republic , later summarized under the heading ' Conservative Revolution ' by writers like Armin Mohler . These forces included such people as Arthur Moeller van den Bruck ( Das Dritte Reich ), Carl Schmitt , Edgar Julius Jung , Ernst Jünger , Oswald Spengler ( The Decline of the West ) and Ernst von Salomon . During
4692-466: The Neue Rechte is the weekly newspaper Junge Freiheit founded in 1986. However, its chief editor Dieter Stein, a former member of The Republicans, denounces the term and instead advocates a more traditionally Christian, yet decidedly nationalist and democratic conservatism. Yet the term is frequently used as a self-description by the bi-monthly magazine Sezession , which is closely linked to Junge Freiheit . Other periodicals affiliated with
4830-620: The Jugendbewegung ("youth movement") in 1896 are cited as conducive to the emergence of the Conservative Revolution in the following decades. Moeller van den Bruck was the dominant figure of the movement until his suicide on 30 May 1925. His ideas were initially spread through the Juniklub he had founded on 28 June 1919, on the day of the signing of Treaty of Versailles . Conservative Revolutionaries frequently referred to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche as their mentor and as
4968-1045: The Bible . The term family values has been used by right-wing parties—such as the Republican Party in the United States, the Family First Party in Australia, the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom, and the Bharatiya Janata Party in India—to signify support for traditional families and opposition to the changes the modern world has made in how families live. Supporters of "family values" may oppose abortion , euthanasia , and birth control . Outside
5106-646: The British Conservative Party , which responded supporting capitalism. The people of English-speaking countries did not apply the terms right and left to their politics until the 20th century. The term right-wing was originally applied to traditional conservatives , monarchists , and reactionaries; a revision of this which occurred sometime between the 1920s and 1950s considers the far-right to denote fascism , Nazism , and racial supremacy . Rightist regimes were common in Europe in
5244-699: The Bündischen ("leaguists") and the Landvolksbewegung ("rural people's movement"). According to Mohler, the last two groups were less theory- and more action-oriented, the Landvolks movement offering concrete resistance in the form of demonstrations and tax boycotts. French historian Louis Dupeux saw five lines of divisions that can be drawn inside the Conservative Revolutionaries: the small farmers were different from
5382-591: The Cold War , postcolonial governments in Asia , Africa , and Latin America turned to the United States for political and economic support. Communists were also enemies of capitalism, portraying Wall Street as the oppressor of the masses. The United States made anti-communism the top priority of its foreign policy, and many American conservatives sought to combat what they saw as communist influence at home. This led to
5520-592: The French Revolution . Some prelates of the Church of England –established by Henry VIII and headed by the current sovereign—are given seats in the House of Lords (as Lords Spiritual ), but they are considered politically neutral rather than specifically right- or left-wing. American right-wing media outlets oppose sex outside marriage and same-sex marriage , and they sometimes reject scientific positions on evolution and other matters where science tends to disagree with
5658-991: The Interwar period , 1919–1938. Among Kuomintang (KMT)'s conservatives during the Republic of China , Dai Jitao Thought supporters formed the Western Hills Group in the 1920s . Chiang Kai-shek initially claimed himself as a 'centrist' in the KMT left-right conflict, but became an anti-communist right-wing after Shanghai massacre . Chiangism (or 'Chiang Kai-shek Thought') was related to Confucianism , state capitalism , paternalistic conservatism , and Chinese nationalism (which included fascistic elements). The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) describes itself as Marxist , and has not officially abandoned leftist ideology, Marxism–Leninism , or socialism with Chinese characteristics . Christer Pursiainen has characterized
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5796-528: The Second Estate , generally sat to the right. In the successive legislative assemblies , monarchists who supported the Old Regime were commonly referred to as rightists because they sat on the right side. A major figure on the right was Joseph de Maistre , who argued for an authoritarian form of conservatism . Throughout France in the 19th century , the main line dividing the left and right
5934-572: The Teutonic Order , educational organizations such as the emerging universities and learned societies , the chartered towns and cities , and most notably the guild system which dominated the economics of population centers in Europe . In post-revolutionary France, the Right fought against the rising power of those who had grown rich through commerce, and sought to preserve the rights of
6072-533: The Volk ") through the edification of a new Reich, i.e. "the organization of all the peoples in a supra-state, dominated by a superior principle, under the supreme responsibility of only one people" in the words of Armin Mohler. As summarized by Edgar Jung in 1933: The concept of the nation-state is the transfer of individualistic doctrines from the individuals to the individual state. [...] The super-state (the Reich)
6210-588: The Weimar Republic and Austria, in the years 1918–1933 (between World War I and the Nazi seizure of power ). Conservative revolutionaries were involved in a cultural counter-revolution and showed a wide range of diverging positions concerning the nature of the institutions Germany had to instate, labelled by historian Roger Woods the "conservative dilemma". Nonetheless, they were generally opposed to traditional Wilhelmine Christian conservatism , egalitarianism , liberalism and parliamentarian democracy as well as
6348-613: The decline of the Western Roman Empire corporatism became limited to religious orders and to the idea of Christian brotherhood, especially in the context of economic transactions. From the High Middle Ages onwards corporatist organizations became increasingly common in Europe, including such groups as religious orders, monasteries , fraternities , military orders such as the Knights Templar and
6486-675: The interwar period , they openly rejected Marxism as well as liberalism and the parliamentary system in favour of an authoritarian regime and a German Sonderweg . Their views towards rising Nazism remained ambivalent, nevertheless they contributed to the fierce political infighting that preceded the Nazi seizure of power in 1933. Several members of the Neue Rechte also refer to theorists like Georges Sorel , Vilfredo Pareto , Robert Michels , Julius Evola , and José Antonio Primo de Rivera seen as fascist pioneers. Some even base themselves on Marxist philosophers like Antonio Gramsci and his ideas of cultural hegemony . Textually,
6624-409: The middle class , in which they felt crushed at the centre of an economic struggle between the ruling capitalists and the potentially dangerous masses. Although they dismissed communism as mere idealism, many of them showed their dependence on some Marxist terminology in their writings. For instance, Jung emphasized the "historical inevitability" of conservatism taking over from the liberal era, in
6762-503: The "Conservative Revolution" has been widely criticized by scholars, but the validity of a redefined concept of "neo-conservative" or "new nationalist" movement active during the Weimar period (1918–1933), whose lifetime is sometimes extended to the years 1890s–1910s, and which differed in particular from the "old nationalism" of the 19th century, is now generally accepted in scholarship. The name "Conservative Revolution" has appeared as
6900-472: The "Conservative Revolution", but also to a Marxist intellectual, Antonio Gramsci . His ideas on the achievement of cultural hegemony are used instrumentally as power techniques - without further consideration of his Marxist ideas and ideals. The reference to Gramsci was presented by Alain de Benoist in a fundamental article in the GRECE magazine Elements in 1977 titled "Pour un "gramscisme de droite"", which
7038-558: The "insecurities of the modern world". Historian Louis Dupeux , a specialist of the Conservative Revolution, saw the movement as an intellectual project with its own consistent logic, namely the striving for an Intellektueller Macht ("intellectual power"), if necessary via the use of modern technique and concepts, which would allow them to promote and gain wider support to conservative and revolutionary ideas directed against liberalism, egalitarianism, and traditional conservatism. This change of attitude, compared to 19th-century conservatism,
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#17327726431867176-450: The "left-wing-people of the right" ( Linke Leute von rechts ). They defended an ultra-nationalist form of socialism that took its roots in both Völkisch extremism and nihilistic Kulturpessimismus , rejecting any Western influence on German society: liberalism and democracy , capitalism and Marxism , the bourgeoisie and the proletariat , Christianity and humanism . Niekisch and National Bolsheviks were even ready to build
7314-595: The 'New Right' that it refers to the Italian communist Antonio Gramsci and strives to achieve 'cultural hegemony' in order to overturn political conditions on this basis“. Well-known scholars and influential figures of the Neue Rechte beside Henning Eichberg and Armin Mohler include Gerd-Klaus Kaltenbrunner [ de ] , Hans-Dietrich Sander [ de ] , Robert Hepp [ de ] , Caspar von Schrenck-Notzing , Karlheinz Weissmann and Götz Kubitschek . The medium commonly associated with
7452-552: The 1900s to the 1920s, the Konservative Revolution ("Conservative Revolution") became an established concept in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933) through the writings of essayists like Arthur Moeller van den Bruck , Hugo von Hofmannsthal , Hermann Rauschning , Edgar Jung and Oswald Spengler . The creation of the Alldeutscher Verband ("Pan-German League") by Alfred Hugenberg in 1891 and
7590-435: The 1920s to the early 1930s, which has led scholars to describe it as a form of "German pre-fascism" or "non-Nazi fascism". Although they share common roots in 19th-century anti-Enlightenment ideologies, the disparate movement cannot be easily confused with Nazism. Conservative Revolutionaries were not necessarily racialist as the movement cannot be reduced to its Völkisch component. Although they participated in preparing
7728-533: The 21st century, neo-nationalism came to prominence after the Cold War in the Western world . It is typically associated with cultural conservatism, populism , anti-globalization , and nativism and is opposed to immigration . The ideology takes historical association in determining membership in a nation, rather than racial concepts . Right-wing politics typically justifies a hierarchical society based on natural law or tradition . Traditionalism
7866-507: The BJP, populism is a core part of the party's ideology. The main populist idea is that the ordinary, "good" individuals are continuously under attack from the "bad" political forces, media, etc. Since Narendra Modi became the leader of the BJP, it has increasingly been associated as a populist radical right party (PRR), however, traditionally the party was viewed as a Hindu nationalist party. Philosopher and diplomat Joseph de Maistre argued for
8004-583: The CCP as a right-wing political party, pointing to an ideological change within the party under Jiang Zemin 's leadership during the 1990s. The political term right-wing was first used during the French Revolution , when liberal deputies of the Third Estate generally sat to the left of the presiding officer's chair, a custom that began in the Estates General of 1789. The nobility, members of
8142-586: The Conservative Revolution included: Despite a broad range of political positions that historian Roger Woods has labelled the "conservative dilemma", the German Conservative Revolution can be defined by its disapproval of: Conservative Revolutionaries argued that their nationalism was fundamentally different from the precedent forms of German nationalism or conservatism. They condemned the reactionary outlook of traditional Wilhelmine conservatives and their failure to fully understand
8280-438: The Conservative Revolution: the "völkischen", the "national socialists", the "revolutionary nationalists" as such, the "vital-activists" ( aktivistisch-vitalen ), and, a minority in the movement, the "biological naturalists". Building on the previous studies conducted by Mohler and Dupeux, French political scientist Stéphane François summarized the three main currents within the Conservative Revolution, this broad division being
8418-508: The European Neue Rechte refrains from political violence, according to Roger Griffin it "clearly embodies a form of palingenetic ultranationalism and has earned the label 'fascist'". Aware that no more mass political movements can be formed after 1945, the Neue Rechte , according to Griffin, is deliberately moving "into a state of apoliteia beyond party politics, stoically awaiting a new historical conjuncture in which
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#17327726431868556-690: The German peace movement . In around 1980, a new tendency arose to approach the ideas of the French Nouvelle Droite and its founder Alain de Benoist . The adherents stressed the perspective of a pan-European 'cultural struggle'; their concepts were embodied by the foundation of the Thule-Seminar as the German branch of the French Groupement de recherche et d'études pour la civilisation européenne (GRECE). In
8694-414: The German society to the rule of the Nazi Party with their antidemocratic and organicist theories, and did not really oppose their rise to power, Conservative Revolutionary writings did not have a decisive influence on Nazism , and the movement was brought to heel like the rest of the society when Adolf Hitler seized power in 1933, culminating in the assassination of prominent thinker Edgar Jung by
8832-444: The NPD failed to enter the Bundestag parliament in the 1969 federal elections , whereafter they initiated a far-right renewal movement. In 1972, Henning Eichberg drafted the policy declaration of the Aktion Neue Rechte offshoot, conveying ideas of an 'anti-imperialistic liberation nationalism', which included the expulsion of the Allied 'occupying forces' to pave the way for German unification and national rebirth. From 1974,
8970-433: The Nazis during the Night of the Long Knives in the following year. Many of them eventually rejected the antisemitic or the totalitarian nature of the Nazi regime, with the notable exception of Carl Schmitt and some others. From the 1960–1970s onwards, the Conservative Revolution has largely influenced the European New Right , in particular the French Nouvelle Droite and the German Neue Rechte , and through them
9108-525: The Right during their conflicts with workers after 1848. In France, the Right's support of capitalism can be traced to the late nineteenth century. The so-called neoliberal Right, popularised by US President Ronald Reagan and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher , combines support for free markets , privatisation , and deregulation with traditional right-wing support for social conformity. Right-wing libertarianism (sometimes known as libertarian conservatism or conservative libertarianism ) supports
9246-433: The Right has gone through five distinct historical stages: The political terms Left and Right were first used in the 18th century, during the French Revolution , referencing the seating arrangement of the French parliament . Those who sat to the right of the chair of the presiding officer ( le président ) were generally supportive of the institutions of the monarchist Old Regime . The original "Right" in France
9384-404: The West during World War I was stronger than its spiritual resistance, it was primarily because the ethos ("character") of the German Volksgemeinschaft ("national community") cannot quickly express itself in words, and as a result is not able to counter effectively the solid rhetoric of the West. Since German culture was "of the soul, something which could not be grasped by the intellect",
9522-403: The West, the Hindu nationalist movement has attracted privileged groups which fear encroachment on their dominant positions, as well as "plebeian" and impoverished groups which seek recognition around a majoritarian rhetoric of cultural pride, order, and national strength. In Israel, Meir Kahane advocated that Israel should be a theocratic state , where non- Jews have no voting rights, and
9660-434: The adoption of several domestic policies that are collectively known under the term McCarthyism . While both liberals and conservatives were anti-communist, the followers of Senator McCarthy were called right-wing and those on the right called liberals who favored free speech, even for communists, leftist . Early forms of corporatism would be developed in Classical Greece and used in Ancient Rome . Plato would develop
9798-423: The anti-fascist consensus that had assigned every right-wing extremist position since 1945 a socio-political place "hors statut", in other words: stigmatized it". As there are currently no historical conditions, such as a mass movement, for a desired turnaround, the most important tactical approach of the New Right is the claim to achieve "discourse sovereignty" in social debates and cultural hegemony. This principle
9936-540: The anti-modern and anti-rationalist tendencies of German Romanticism ; the vision of an organic and naturally-organized folk community cultivated by the Völkisch movement ; the Prussian tradition of militaristic and authoritarian nationalism; and their own experience of comradeship and irrational violence on the front lines of World War I . The Conservative Revolution held an ambiguous relationship with Nazism from
10074-453: The authoritarian state was the natural order desired by the German people. Politics, Mann argued, was inevitably a commitment to democracy and therefore alien to the German spirit: There is no such thing as a democratic or a conservative politician. Either you are a politician or you are not , and if you are, you are a democrat. While scholars have debated whether these formulations should be considered artistic and idealistic, or rather
10212-431: The backward-looking regret is replaced by a juvenile energy — and led to a wide-ranging political and cultural initiative. Political scientist Tamir Bar-On has defined the Conservative Revolution as a combination of "German ultra-nationalism, defence of the organic folk community, technological modernity, and socialist revisionism, which perceived the worker and soldier as models for a reborn authoritarian state superseding
10350-426: The church, the family, the state, and business. Right-wing populism is a combination of civic-nationalism , cultural-nationalism and sometimes ethno-nationalism , localism , along with anti-elitism , using populist rhetoric to provide a critique of existing political institutions. According to Margaret Canovan, a right-wing populist is "a charismatic leader, using the tactics of politicians' populism to go past
10488-555: The collective term " Conservative Revolution ", which many on the New Right have taken up and updated. Mohler's dissertation is still considered a standard work by supporters of the New Right. Representatives of this movement include thinkers who rejected human rights , liberalism , Marxism and parliamentary democracy between the world wars, such as Arthur Moeller van den , Ernst Jünger , Edgar Julius Jung , Ernst von Salomon and Carl Schmitt . Their opposing positions were inconsistent, but tended towards authoritarian state models and
10626-491: The community, the nation, the people—while "espousing their times" in the very same movement. Moeller van den Bruck tried to overcome the Kulturpessimismus dilemma by fighting decadency to build a new political order over it. In 1923, he published the influential book Das Dritte Reich ("The Third Reich") , in which he went further from theoretical analysis to introduce a practical revolutionary programme as
10764-474: The concept of revolution from November 1918 in order to attach it to August 1914. Conservative Revolutionaries indeed painted the November Revolution , which led to the foundation of the Weimar Republic , as a betrayal of the true revolution and, at best, hunger protests by the mob. The common agreement with socialists was the abolition of the excesses of capitalism. Jung claimed that, while
10902-522: The contemporary European Identitarian movement . Although conservative essayists of the Weimar Republic like Arthur Moeller van den Bruck , Hugo von Hofmannsthal or Edgar Jung had already described their political project as a Konservative Revolution ("Conservative Revolution"), the name saw a revival after the 1949 doctoral thesis of Neue Rechte philosopher Armin Mohler on the movement. Molher's post-war ideological reconstruction of
11040-497: The counterpart to left-wing politics , and the left–right political spectrum is the most common political spectrum . The right includes social conservatives and fiscal conservatives , as well as right-libertarians . "Right" and "right-wing" have been variously used as compliments and pejoratives describing neoliberal , conservative , and fascist economic and social ideas. The following positions are typically associated with right-wing politics. Early communists used
11178-441: The cultural pessimists and the "pseudo-moderns", who belonged for the most part to the middle class; while the proponent of an "organic" society diverged from those of an "organized" society. A third division split the supporters of deep and lengthy political and cultural transformations from those who endorsed a quick and erupting social revolution, as far as challenging economic freedom and private property. The fourth rift resided in
11316-418: The cultural spirit of the bourgeoisie and modernity . Plunged into what historian Fritz Stern has named a deep "cultural despair", uprooted as they felt within the rationalism and scientism of the modern world, theorists of the Conservative Revolution drew inspiration from various elements of the 19th century, including Friedrich Nietzsche 's contempt for Christian ethics , democracy and egalitarianism;
11454-596: The demise of the Suharto authoritarian regime. Islamic populism in Indonesia has similar properties with Islamic populist regimes like in the Middle East, Turkey and North Africa (MENA). The emphasis on social justice, pluralism, equality and progressive agendas could be potentially mobilized by Islamic cultural resources. In India, Bharatiya Janata Party supporters have more authoritarian, nativist, and populist ideas than other Indian citizens. Under Narendra Modi,
11592-473: The disquiet and longing of the German being! Völkischen were involved in a racialist and occultist movement dating back to the middle of the 19th century and had an influence on the Conservative Revolution. Their priority was the fight against Christianity and the return to a (reconstructed) Germanic pagan faith, or the "Germanization" of Christianity to purge it from foreign (Semitic) influence. Thomas Mann believed that if German military resistance to
11730-400: The economy should remain in private hands, the "greed of capital" should at the same time be controlled, and that a community based on shared interests had to be set up between workers and employers. Another source of aversion for capitalism was rooted in the profits made from the war and inflation, and a last concern can be found in the fact that most of Conservative Revolutionaries belonged to
11868-513: The egalitarian "decadence" of liberalism, socialism, and traditional conservatism." The Conservative Revolution is encompassed in a larger and older counter-movement to the French Revolution of 1789, influenced by the anti- modernity and anti- rationalism of early 19th-century romanticism , in the context of a German, especially Prussian , "tradition of militaristic, authoritarian nationalism which rejected liberalism, socialism, democracy and internationalism." Historian Fritz Stern described
12006-415: The emerging concepts of the modern world, such as technology, the city and the proletariat . Moeller van den Bruck defined the Conservative Revolution as the will to conserve a set of values seen as inseparable from a Volk ("people, ethnic group"). These eternal values were able to survive through the fluctuations of the ages because of innovations in their institutional and ideal forms. Distant from
12144-799: The far-right Lehava strictly opposes Jewish assimilation and the Christian presence in Israel. The Jewish Defence League (JDL) in the United States was classified as "a right wing terrorist group" by the FBI in 2001. Many Islamist groups have been called right-wing, including the Great Union Party , the Combatant Clergy Association /Association of Militant Clergy, and the Islamic Society of Engineers of Iran. Right-wing politics involves, in varying degrees,
12282-498: The front line, with its violence and irrationality, caused most of them to search a posteriori for a meaning to what they had to endure during the conflict. Ernst Jünger is the major figure of that branch of the Conservative Revolution which wanted to uphold military structures and values in peacetime society, and saw in the community of front line comradeship ( Frontgemeinschaft ) the true nature of German socialism. According to Armin Mohler and other sources, prominent members of
12420-636: The hereditary nobility. They were uncomfortable with capitalism, the Enlightenment, individualism, and industrialism, and fought to retain traditional social hierarchies and institutions. In Europe's history, there have been strong collectivist right-wing movements, such as in the social Catholic right , that have exhibited hostility to all forms of liberalism (including economic liberalism ) and have historically advocated for paternalist class harmony involving an organic-hierarchical society where workers are protected while class hierarchy remains. In
12558-502: The ideas of totalitarian and communitarian corporatist systems of natural based classes and social hierarchies that would be organized based on function, such that groups would cooperate to achieve social harmony by emphasizing collectives interests over individual interests. Corporatism as a political ideology advocates the organization of society by corporate groups —such as agricultural, labour, military, scientific, or guild associations—based on their common interests. After
12696-537: The indirect authority of the Pope over temporal matters. According to Maistre, only governments which were founded upon Christian constitutions—which were implicit in the customs and institutions of all European societies, especially the Catholic European monarchies—could avoid the disorder and bloodshed that followed the implementation of rationalist political programs, such as the chaos which occurred during
12834-489: The intellect, founded on organic, naturally structured and hierarchical communities, and led by a new aristocracy of merit and action. Historian Jeffrey Herf used the term " reactionary modernism " to describe that "great enthusiasm for modern technology with a rejection of the Enlightenment and the values and institutions of liberal democracy ". That time is only worth destroying. But to destroy it, you have to know it first. [...] You had to completely submit yourself to
12972-415: The internationalism of the communists. The 1920s and 1930s saw the decline of traditional right-wing politics. The mantle of conservative anti-communism was taken up by the rising fascist movements on the one hand and by American-inspired liberal conservatives on the other. When communist groups and political parties began appearing around the world, their opponents were usually colonial authorities and
13110-536: The late 1980s, proponents of a national revolutionary movement attempted to infiltrate right-wing populist parties like The Republicans , while other associated with the national liberal spectrum. The movement gained a new momentum in the course of German reunification . The rise of right-wing parties as The Republicans led by Franz Schönhuber , the Pro Movement , and the Alternative for Germany (AfD)
13248-452: The law"). Conservative Revolutionaries asserted that they were not guided by the "sterile resentment of the class struggle". Many of them invoked the community of front line comradeship ( Frontgemeinschaft ) of World War I as the model for the national community ( Volksgemeinschaft ) to follow in peaceful times, hoping in that project to transcend the established political categories of right and left. For that purpose, they tried to remove
13386-407: The laws, but unequal in all else; hierarchy is the order of nature, and privilege is the reward of honourable service". American conservative Russell Kirk also rejected egalitarianism as imposing sameness, stating: "Men are created different; and a government that ignores this law becomes an unjust government for it sacrifices nobility to mediocrity". Kirk took as one of the "canons" of conservatism
13524-591: The left- and the right-wing. In British politics, the terms right and left came into common use for the first time in the late 1930s during debates over the Spanish Civil War . In the United States, following the Second World War , social conservatives joined with right-wing elements of the Republican Party to gain support in traditionally Democratic voting populations like white southerners and Catholics . Ronald Reagan's election to
13662-466: The main focus of the library is conservative and far-right literature. It is the first library with this content in Germany and was founded by Caspar von Schrenck-Notzing and his foundation Förderstiftung Konservative Bildung und Forschung [ de ] (FKBF) . FKBF is running the library. There are 27.000 medias (2014) in the library. Right-wing politics Right-wing politics
13800-401: The main intellectual influence on their movement. Despite Nietzsche's philosophy being often misinterpreted, or wrongly appropriated by thinkers of the Conservative Revolution, they retained his contempt for Christian ethics, democracy, modernity and egalitarianism as the cornerstone of their ideology. Historian Roger Woods writes that Conservative Revolutionaries "constructed", in response to
13938-432: The materialist vision of Marx was based on nineteenth-century science, while the twentieth century would be the age of psychology . We no longer believe in the power of reason over life. We feel that it is life which dominates reason. Along with Karl Otto Paetel and Heinrich Laufenberg , Ernst Niekisch was one of the main advocates of National Bolshevism , a minor branch of the Conservative Revolution described as
14076-407: The most widely shared among analysts of the movement: "Young conservatives" were deeply influenced by 19th-century intellectual and aesthetic movements such as German romanticism and Kulturpessimismus ("cultural pessimism"). Contrary to traditional Wilhelmine conservatives, Jungkonservativen aimed at assisting the re-emergence of "persistent and fundamental structures"—authority, the state,
14214-543: The movement as disoriented intellectuals plunged into a profound "cultural despair": they felt alienated and uprooted within a world dominated by what they saw as "bourgeois rationalism and science". Their hatred of modernity, Stern follows, led them to the naive confidence that all these modern evils could be fought and resolved by a "Conservative Revolution". Although terms such as Konservative Kraft ("conservative power") and schöpferische Restauration ("creative restoration") began to spread across German-speaking Europe from
14352-472: The movement disintegrated into numerous splinter groups, some defending the traditional ideas of a German Volksgemeinschaft , some affiliating to the rising ecology movement . Eichberg and his followers continued to fight an 'over-foreignization' ( Überfremdung ) by the superpowers and advocated a Third Position in opposition to both capitalism and communism. They made attempts to build up ties to left-wing sectarian and ecological groups, as well as to
14490-478: The necessity to distinguish several leanings, sometimes with contradictory views, within its diverse ideological spectrum. [Conservative Revolutionaries] are, admittedly, as reactionary in politics as their pre-war predecessors, but they stand out by their optimism — or at least by their voluntarism — in front of the modern world. They do not really fear the masses , nor the technique anymore. Yet this change of Haltung ("attitude") had significant consequences —
14628-505: The nineteenth century, the Right had shifted to support the newly rich in some European countries (particularly Britain) and instead of favouring the nobility over industrialists, favoured capitalists over the working class. Other right-wing movements—such as Carlism in Spain and nationalist movements in France, Germany, and Russia—remained hostile to capitalism and industrialism. Nevertheless,
14766-486: The politicians and intellectual elite and appeal to the reactionary sentiments of the populace, often buttressing his claim to speak for the people by the use of referendums". In Europe, right-wing populism often takes the form of distrust of the European Union , and of politicians in general, combined with anti-immigrant rhetoric and a call for a return to traditional, national values. Daniel Stockemer states,
14904-532: The postponed revolution can be resumed". The militant anti-Americanism of Alain de Benoist , for example, explicitly justifies attacks ("retaliatory measures") on the USA. According to Griffin, the Ordine Nuovo , which is responsible for several terrorist attacks, draws its main inspiration from the works of Julius Evola. According to Volker Weiß , there is hardly any fundamental hostility towards Islam within
15042-612: The power granted to the president by the Article 48 to declare an Ausnahmezustand (" state of emergency "), which Schmitt implicitly praised as dictatorial. If the constitution of a state is democratic, then every exceptional negation of democratic principles, every exercise of state power independent of the approval of the majority, can be called dictatorship. Schmitt further advanced in Politische Theologie (1922) that there cannot be any functioning legal order without
15180-425: The presidency in 1980 cemented the alliance between the religious right in the United States and social conservatives. Conservative Revolution Defunct Defunct The Conservative Revolution ( German : Konservative Revolution ), also known as the German neoconservative movement , or new nationalism , was a German national-conservative and ultraconservative movement prominent during
15318-414: The principle that "civilized society requires orders and classes". Italian scholar Norberto Bobbio argued that the right-wing is inegalitarian compared to the left-wing, as he argued that equality is a relative, not absolute, concept. Right libertarians reject collective or state-imposed equality as undermining reward for personal merit, initiative, and enterprise. In their view, such imposed equality
15456-592: The pure reactionary who, in Moeller van den Bruck's eyes, does not create (and from the pure revolutionary who does nothing but destroys everything), the Conservative Revolutionary sought to give a form to phenomena in an eternal space, a shape that could guarantee their survival among the few things that cannot be lost: Conserving is not receiving to hand down, but rather innovating the forms, institutional or ideal, which agree to remain rooted in
15594-579: The question of the Drang nach Osten ("drive to the East") and the attitude to adopt towards Bolshevik Russia , escorted by a debate on the place of Germany between a so-called "senile" West and "young and barbaric" Orient ; the last division being a deep opposition between the Völkischen and the pre-fascist thinkers. In 1995, historian Rolf Peter Sieferle described what he labelled five "complexes" in
15732-565: The radical right is, "Targeting immigrants as a threat to employment, security and cultural cohesion." In the United States, the Tea Party movement stated that the core beliefs for membership were the primacy of individual liberties as defined by the Constitution of the United States, preference for a small federal government, and respect for the rule of law. Some policy positions included opposition to illegal immigration and support for
15870-492: The rejection of some egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics , claiming either that social or economic inequality is natural and inevitable or that it is beneficial to society. Right-wing ideologies and movements support social order . The original French right-wing was called "the party of order" and held that France needed a strong political leader to keep order. Conservative British scholar R. J. White, who rejects egalitarianism, wrote: "Men are equal before God and
16008-532: The rise of the NSDAP . The New Right also refers to pioneers and theorists of fascism such as Julius Evola , Robert Michels , Vilfredo Pareto , José Antonio Primo de Rivera und Georges Sorel . The weekly newspaper Junge Freiheit, which historians and political scientists classify as an organ of the New Right, has dedicated a series of articles to these and similar thinkers and regularly reviews books about them. The New Right not only refers to representatives of
16146-489: The same year (" On the German Republic " [ Von deutscher Republik ]), Mann publicly became a staunch defender of the Weimar Republic and attacked many of the figures associated with the Conservative Revolution such as Oswald Spengler, whom he depicted as intellectually dishonest and irresponsibly immoral. In 1933, he described National Socialism as the politische Wirklichkeit jener konservativen Revolution , that
16284-483: The social discussion, ultimately creating acceptance for it and dominating public opinion in the long term. Once this goal has been achieved, society is "ripe" for an overthrow of the status quo through an increasing number of electoral shares and parliamentary seats until government responsibility is assumed. This strategy also appears interesting to the New Right: "It is generally regarded as an essential new element of
16422-438: The state derives its political legitimacy from the organic unity of those who it governs. This generally includes the language, race, culture, religion, and customs of the nation, all of which were "born" within its culture. Linked with right-wing nationalism is cultural conservatism , which supports the preservation of the heritage of a nation or culture and often sees deviations from cultural norms as an existential threat. In
16560-635: The states of India. Multiple political parties however identify with terms and beliefs which are, by political consensus, right or left wing. Certain political parties such as the Bharatiya Janata Party , identify with conservative and nationalist elements. Some, such as the Indian National Congress , take a liberal stance. The Communist Party of India , Communist Party of India (Marxist) , and others, identify with left-wing socialist and communist concepts. Other political parties take differing stands, and hence cannot be clearly grouped as
16698-423: The strong into mandatory, rather than optional, service to the weak. On a geopolitical scale, theorists of the movement adopted a vision of the world ( Weltanschauung ) where nations would abandon moral standards in their relationship to each others, only guided by their natural self-interest. Let thousands, nay millions, die; what meaning have these rivers of blood in comparison with a state, into which flow all
16836-618: The technique, by shaping it at last. [...] The apparatus itself deserved no admiration — that was the dangerous thing to do — it just had to be used. Jünger supported the emergence of a young intellectual elite that would spring out from the trenches of WWI, ready to oppose bourgeois capitalism and to embody a new nationalist revolutionary spirit. In the 1920s, he wrote more than 130 articles in various nationalist magazines, mostly in Die Standarte or, less frequently, in Widerstand ,
16974-467: The term right-wing came to be applied to colonialism . After World War II , communism became a global phenomenon and anti-communism became an integral part of the domestic and foreign policies of the United States and its NATO allies. Conservatism in the post-war era abandoned its monarchist and aristocratic roots, focusing instead on patriotism, religious values, and nationalism. Throughout
17112-431: The term "right-wing" in reference to conservatives, placing the conservatives on the right, the liberals in the centre and the communists on the left. Both the conservatives and the liberals were strongly anti-communist , although conservatives' anti-communism is much stronger than liberals'. The history of the use of the term right-wing about anti-communism is a complicated one. Early Marxist movements were at odds with
17250-491: The three most powerful monarchies in continental Europe before World War I . Many monarchists (except constitutional monarchists ) viewed inequality in wealth and political power as resulting from a divine natural order. The struggle between monarchists and communists was often described as a struggle between the Right and the Left. By World War I , in most European monarchies the divine right of kings had become discredited and
17388-652: The traditional monarchies that ruled over much of the European continent at the time. Many European monarchies outlawed the public expression of communist views and the Communist Manifesto , which began "[a] spectre [that] is haunting Europe", and stated that monarchs feared for their thrones. Advocacy of communism was illegal in the Russian Empire , the German Empire , and Austria-Hungary ,
17526-430: The war and the unstable Weimar period , a Nietzsche "who advocated a self-justifying activism, unbridled self-assertion, war over peace, and the elevation of instinct over reason." Many of the intellectuals involved in the movement were born in the last decades of the nineteenth century and experienced WWI as a formative event ( Kriegserlebnis , "war experience") for the foundation of their political beliefs. The life on
17664-422: The wealth redistribution measures characteristic of social democracy . The dominance of the political right of inter-war Hungary , after the collapse of a short-lived Communist regime, was described by historian István Deák : Although freedom fighters are favoured, the right-wing tendency to elect or appoint politicians and government officials based on aristocratic and religious ties is common to almost all
17802-421: The work of Armin Mohler , Ernst Jünger , Julius Evola and others. Some Neue Rechte groups refer to pre-Christian or non-Christian European traditions. Neo-paganism is "one of their founding figures, and they practice the corresponding cults with devotion", writes Friedrich Paul Heller. The Thule-Seminar , for example, sees a "European rebirth". According to Heller, it is not the number of members that
17940-458: Was advocated by a group of United States university professors (labelled the "New Conservatives" by the popular press) who rejected the concepts of individualism , liberalism , modernity , and social progress , seeking instead to promote what they identified as cultural and educational renewal and a revived interest in concepts perceived by traditionalists as truths that endure from age to age alongside basic institutions of western society such as
18078-702: Was between supporters of the republic and those of the monarchy, who were often secularist and Catholic respectively. On the right, the Legitimists and Ultra-royalists held counter-revolutionary views, while the Orléanists hoped to create a constitutional monarchy under their preferred branch of the royal family, which briefly became a reality after the 1830 July Revolution . The centre-right Gaullists in post-World War II France advocated considerable social spending on education and infrastructure development as well as extensive economic regulation, but limited
18216-519: Was finally adopted as part of a new-right strategy at a GRECE conference in Paris in November 1981. This reference was intended to bring about self-sanctioning and was aimed at the appropriation of recognition by recognized intellectuals in order to bring about social acceptance. However, this reference was also a symbolic attribute, according to historian Wolfgang Kowalsky, "which made it possible to break
18354-542: Was first described by the Marxist theorist of the Italian Communist Party , Antonio Gramsci . He analyzed that social hegemony also functions in this way in the existing system: If one wants to achieve such hegemony, one must strive to infiltrate the elite discourse through journalistic activities, participate in clubs, associations and cultural institutions and on this basis bring ideological content into
18492-475: Was formed in reaction to the "Left" and comprised those supporting hierarchy, tradition, and clericalism . The expression la droite ("the right") increased in use after the restoration of the monarchy in 1815 , when it was applied to the ultra-royalists . From the 1830s to the 1880s, the Western world 's social class structure and economy shifted from nobility and aristocracy towards capitalism . This shift affected centre-right movements such as
18630-413: Was limited to the preservation of the German institutions and their influence in the world. Despite the apparent contradiction, however, the association of the terms "Conservative" and "Revolution" is justified in Moeller van den Bruck's writings by his definition of the movement as a will to preserve eternal values while favouring at the same time the redesign of ideal and institutional forms in response to
18768-542: Was not the product of a conscious reflection, but rather "something innate which one senses and which has its own organic logic." Conservative revolutionaries saw the values of morality as instinctive and eternal, and as such embodied in rural life. The latter became challenged, Spengler believed, by the rise of the artificial world of the city, where theories and observations were needed to understand life itself, either coming from liberal democrats or scientific socialists . What Conservative Revolutionaries were aiming to achieve
18906-702: Was replaced by liberal and nationalist movements. Most European monarchs became figureheads, or they yielded some power to elected governments. The most conservative European monarchy, the Russian Empire, was replaced by the communist Soviet Union . The Russian Revolution inspired a series of other communist revolutions across Europe in the years 1917–1923 . Many of these, such as the German Revolution , were defeated by nationalist and monarchist military units. During this period, nationalism began to be considered right-wing, especially when it opposed
19044-546: Was the restoration, within the modern world, of what they saw as natural laws and values: We call Conservative Revolution the restoration of all those elementary laws and values, without which man loses his connection with Nature and with God and cannot establish a true order. Influenced by Nietzsche, most of them were opposed to the Christian ethics of solidarity and equality. Although many Conservative Revolutionaries described themselves as Protestant or Catholics , they saw Christian ethical premise as structurally indenturing
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