Long a leader of Germany’s left party Die Linke, Sahra Wagenknecht looks set on creating her own rival party. She accuses the Left of abandoning its historic base — but her appeal to conservative values divides the working class rather than uniting it.
Abortion was illegal in Weimar Germany — and poor women were most often punished for breaking the law. The fight for legalization was also a struggle for the justice reform and welfare measures that would truly empower working-class women.
October 3, 1990, saw the reunification of Germany. But more than 30 years later, inequalities are deeper than ever — and Easterners are angered at the promises that weren’t realized.
Today, Yanis Varoufakis was banned not just from visiting Germany but from participating in video conferences about politics hosted in Germany. Here’s the plea for humanity and justice in Palestine that got him banned.
Migrant workers have served as the foundation for Germany’s rapid economic growth in the postwar years, but the benefits of that growth have not been evenly distributed. Today, precarious workers are pushing back against Germany’s exclusionary economic system.
Credit Suisse is currently under investigation by the US Senate for obstructing investigations into its servicing of Nazi-linked clients. But the bank is far from alone: many German firms have never given up the monetary fruits of Nazi collaboration.
After the Berlin Wall's fall, the introduction of the West German currency was widely presented as the East’s path to prosperity. But the result was a fire sale of East German industry to Western businesses — a massive destruction of jobs and public property whose harmful effects are still felt 30 years after reunification.
Yanis Varoufakis was scheduled to deliver a video message to a Palestine conference in Berlin on Friday — but police shut down the event. Varoufakis tells Jacobin how the Germans silenced him and why they’ve now banned him from entering the country.
The November Revolution of 1918 replaced Germany’s monarchist regime with a parliamentary system. But its Social Democratic leaders made a pact with the old ruling class to repress the left-wing radicals who wanted to go further, crippling the new Weimar Republic from the start.
Israel’s far-right government has made its oppression of the Palestinians more blatant than ever. German politicians still won’t budge in their uncritical support for Israel, but public opinion in Germany is shifting in the opposite direction.
In Germany, a toxic national debate on Muslims and immigration has fueled the rise of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland. Polling second place ahead of February’s federal elections, mainstream parties are increasingly playing into its rhetoric.
One hundred years ago today, radical sailors, soldiers, and workers in Germany rose up to put an end to the carnage of World War I. And the revolutionary upheaval had only just begun.
As Germany’s natalist far right rises, a growing progressive movement is challenging the country’s Nazi-era abortion laws.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz has just committed €100 billion to defense spending. The move is widely touted as a strong response to Russian aggression — but is more about showing Germany’s fealty to US global foreign policy objectives.
In Germany, tabloid Bild is leading a campaign to name and shame pro-Palestine activists. H. P. Loveshaft, a Jewish drag king and protester who faced a wave of abuse after a Bild hit piece, tells Jacobin how his identity has been weaponized against him.
Die Linke MP Fabio de Masi on Germany’s coalition negotiations, the revolt in the SPD, and what it all means for the country’s left.
A century after Rudolf Steiner, Germany is still in thrall to a spiritualist message that emphasizes the healing power of nature.
Arthur Rosenberg was a leading figure in Germany’s Communist movement and a brilliant Marxist historian. Rosenberg’s penetrating analysis of far-right movements, produced in exile after the Nazis seized power, is as relevant as ever today.
Today, the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz became leader of Germany’s new government. But with fiscal hawk Christian Lindner in charge of the finance ministry, there’s little hope of Germany — or Europe — breaking free of neoliberal dogmas.