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How to Laugh Away the Far-Right: Lessons from Germany

“The tactics employed by the Apfelfront activists, like the fun-fighters before them, attempt to undermine their targets with ridicule.”
Germany
far right
social movements
humour
counter-mobilisation

Michael C. Zeller, “How to Laugh Away the Far-Right: Lessons from Germany,” in The Radical Right During Crisis, ed. Eviane Leidig (Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag, 2021).

Author
Affiliation

Michael C. Zeller

Central European University

Published

September 2021

Abstract

Counter-mobilisation against far-right activism takes many forms, adopts many practices— but humour is one of the most persistent tactics. Time and again far-right movement organisations carry out actions laden with pretensions of gravity and solemnity: Nazis mourning Rudolf Hess on the anniversary of his suicide; Ku Klux Klan members protesting against the removal of Confederate flags from U.S. state houses; Hindu extremists ‘protecting people from immorality’ by assaulting men and women gathered together in a pub; black-clad ‘soldiers of Odin’ patrolling streets in Finland, are just a few examples. To undermine these activities, anti-fascist activists have repeatedly turned to ‘tactical frivolity’ or calculated silliness to disrupt the attempts of far-right groups to perform dignified actions. Humour can serve several purposes. In order to illustrate these, this article examines the emergence of humour as a tactic in activism in Germany and the example of the Front Deutscher Äpfel, a case which demonstrates the utility of satire among counter-mobilising activists and, specifically, against far-right groups.

Citation

@incollection{Zeller2021how,
    Address = {Stuttgart},
    Author = {Michael C. Zeller},
    Booktitle = {The Radical Right During Crisis},
    Editor = {Eviane Leidig},
    Publisher = {ibidem-Verlag},
    Title = {How to Laugh Away the Far-Right: Lessons from Germany},
    Year = {2021}}