Things Can’t Go on Like This for the German Left
After a catastrophic defeat in last Sunday’s general election, Germany’s socialist party Die Linke faces a choice: return to its working-class roots or face political irrelevance.
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The Boy Who Shot a Nazi
Eighty-three years ago today, the Nazis unleashed a vicious pogrom known as Kristallnacht, using as their pretext the assassination of a Nazi official in France. The assassin: a 17-year-old German-Polish Jewish boy named Herschel Grynszpan.
Hitler Wasn’t Inevitable
The anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials is cause to reflect on the forces that failed to halt Nazism's rise.
How the Alternative für Deutschland Radicalized the German Right
Ten years since its creation, the Alternative für Deutschland has established itself as a constant presence in Germany’s parliament. Now, it’s challenging the Christian Democrats — and seeking to tear down the historic barriers to the far right.
How the Daughters of a Nazi General Became Communist Spies
As Hitler rose to power, two daughters of Germany’s top general became spies for the Communist Party. A new biography tells the story of how hatred for fascism and its aristocratic collaborators led them to become class traitors.
Capitalism and Nazism
The next time someone tells you the Nazis were anti-capitalist, show them this.
The Jewish Socialist Who Tried to Kill Hitler
From spreading anti-fascist writings to acting as an undercover agent in Nazi Germany, Jewish socialist Hilda Monte became one of the most formidable operatives of the resistance. She even participated in an abortive plot to kill Hitler himself.
Pro-Market Third Way Policies Caused Electoral Disaster
Sociologist Stephanie L. Mudge examines how and why center-left parties across the world swallowed the neoliberal gospel — only to demolish their own social base.
How Germans Grappled With the Nazi Past
German understanding of the Nazi era is often seen as a model of how a country comes to terms with its past. But the limits of this experience also have much to teach us about building a public memory culture based on a thoroughgoing universalism.
Franz Mehring Was Marx’s First Biographer and a Marxist Pioneer in His Own Right
Franz Mehring joined the fledging socialist movement in Bismarck’s Germany and became one of its most brilliant propagandists. From his historical writings to his biography of Karl Marx, Mehring left behind a vital body of work for Marxists to draw upon.
In Defense of Die Linke
Die Linke’s Sahra Wagenknecht is wrong about refugees, borders, and police. But don’t give up on the party just yet.
Why Aufstehen Failed
After drawing a flurry of attention last fall, Sahra Wagenknecht’s Aufstehen movement has run out of steam. Yet its call for the German left to reconnect with working-class voters remains unanswered — and is the far right is taking advantage.
Strength in Division
Die Linke MEP Fabio De Masi on why Germany's fragmented electorate will return Angela Merkel to office this Sunday.
Labor and Management Have Nothing in Common
The UAW based its campaign to unionize Volkswagen around the German labor movement’s “social partnership” model. It was the wrong approach — and ended in disaster.
How the Stauffenberg Plot Became an Alibi for German Crimes
On July 20, 1944, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg led a failed bid to assassinate Adolf Hitler. In the postwar years, the coup attempt was used to claim that Germans had never accepted Nazism — and today even the far right calls the plotters its heroes.
Martin Heidegger’s Nazism Is Inextricable From His Philosophy
Despite the mass of evidence proving Martin Heidegger’s Nazi commitment, academics often dismiss concerns about his politics as nonphilosophical. Two new books make a compelling case for rejecting this line of argument.
Seymour Hersh: The US Destroyed the Nord Stream Pipeline
Last week, renowned investigative reporter Seymour Hersh published an article claiming that the US was responsible for the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline transporting natural gas to Germany from Russia. He spoke to Jacobin about the allegations.
August Bebel Took Up the Struggle Against Women’s Oppression
August Bebel was the most important leader of German socialism in the period before World War I. Bebel championed the cause of women’s liberation in his book Women and Socialism, one of the most important and influential socialist texts of its day.
The UK’s Economy Is Awful Because of Permanent Austerity
This week the UK was officially declared to be in a recession. The economy is suffering from a long-term refusal by the government to increase public investment — helping make Britain one of the worst economic performers among rich countries.