„Das wird man doch mal sagen dürfen.“ – Radikalisierung der Mehrheitsgesellschaft?

What role did language play in the rise of the Nazis? We take a look at history and at terms shaped by the Nazi dictatorship that have found their way back into politics and everyday life today.

“Ethnic replacement,” “lying press,” “traitor to the people”—terms from Nazi and far-right discourse are being used uncritically and publicly by today’s politicians with increasing frequency. Yet it was precisely this linguistic desensitization during the rise of National Socialism that served as the first step toward exclusion and persecution. That is why, in this seminar, we ask: What parallels and differences exist between nationalist structures in the Weimar Republic and today’s right-wing populist tendencies?

We will examine the central building blocks of the Nazi worldview and explore the similarities to contemporary forms of anti-democratic and racist thinking. We will discuss the extent to which individual components of Nazi ideology have become acceptable even to the so-called “political center” today.