Germany’s AFD

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: The episode first dissects the AFD’s breakthrough in Saxony-Anhalt as a symptom of deeper political and cultural crisis: a far-right party combining xenophobia, anti-liberal identity politics, fiscal austerity, and a quest to "restore" German culture rather than offer material redistribution. The second half examines Eric Hobsbawm’s life and Marxist historiography, arguing that his enduring communism and focus on crisis, class, nationalism, and totality were shaped by displacement, war, and a conviction that only a global movement could answer capitalism’s historical trajectory.

Main Topics: AFD’s electoral surge in Saxony-Anhalt (Priority: 5/5): The hosts frame the AFD’s strong showing as an earthquake in postwar German politics, stressing that a far-right party may be on the verge of governing a German state for the first time since WWII. AFD ideology: culture war over material policy (Priority: 5/5): Adam Tooze argues the party’s program is less about concrete redistribution than about identity, nationalism, deportation, anti-climate politics, and restoring a German cultural order. Economic grievance versus emotional politics (Priority: 5/5): The discussion weighs whether AFD support is driven by poverty and inequality or by resentment, security fears, and anti-immigrant sentiment; Tooze argues the voting data do not support a simple materialist explanation. Progressive politics, stigma, and authenticity (Priority: 4/5): The hosts compare the AFD’s willingness to embrace ostracization with progressive figures and movements that gain credibility by taking controversial positions and seeming outside the system. Hobsbawm’s biography and Marxist framework (Priority: 5/5): The second segment traces Hobsbawm’s transnational life—from Egypt and Vienna to Berlin, London, and Birkbeck—and shows how crisis, displacement, and communism shaped his historical method. History, nationalism, and the invention of tradition (Priority: 4/5): Hobsbawm’s work on nationalism is presented as a powerful explanation of how modern states manufacture continuity and tradition in periods of rapid change. Future, crisis, and political imagination (Priority: 5/5): Across both segments, the episode returns to a shared question: who can credibly offer a future when mainstream politics feels managerial, exhausted, or complicit?

Key Arguments: The AFD’s rise is historically exceptional in Germany because it brings a far-right party close to state power in a postwar constitutional order built to resist such movements. The party’s appeal is not best explained by material redistribution promises; its program is austere, anti-spending, and far to the right of mainstream conservative parties. Support for the AFD correlates with low income and self-identified financial stress, but voters cite foreigners, criminality, and national security rather than welfare as reasons for support. The AFD’s strategy is to restore culture before policy: it seeks to normalize a nationalist worldview through schools, public broadcasting cuts, deportations, and symbolic acts like flag display. Progressive politics may have become too managerial and system-preserving to generate the emotional charge needed to mobilize voters in moments of crisis. Hobsbawm’s Marxism was shaped by his experience of displacement, World War I’s aftermath, and a belief that crisis is a recurring engine of historical transformation. Hobsbawm is Marxist in his emphasis on base/superstructure, totality, and production, but his historical writing often reads more Leninist than orthodox Marxist because it centers violence, empire, and state power. His commitment to communism was not only ideological but existential: the party gave him identity, belonging, and a global framework that matched his transnational life. Hobsbawm’s work on nationalism shows that traditions and national identities are constructed in response to modern pressures, not timeless inheritances. The hosts suggest that politics today is increasingly about who can narrate the future with conviction, not merely who can administer the present.

Data Points: AFD vote share: 43.8% - Share of the vote the AFD received in the Saxony-Anhalt regional election discussed at the start of the episode. Population of Saxony-Anhalt: About 2 million - Used to contextualize the state’s size while emphasizing the national significance of the result. Hobsbawm’s lifespan: 1917–2012 - Presented in the biographical segment introducing his life and long career. Age at death: 95 years old - Noted as part of Hobsbawm’s biography. Number of books published: Estimated 30 - Used to illustrate Hobsbawm’s extraordinary productivity as a historian.

Pivotal Quotes: "It is a constitutional challenge to the identity and the politics of the post-war German state and its sense of itself." — Cameron Abadi: Describing why the AFD’s Saxony-Anhalt result matters beyond a single regional election. "We have to fix the culture first." — Adam Tooze: Summarizing the AFD’s own logic that cultural transformation precedes any serious policy agenda. "You didn't have the option. You see, either there was going to be a future or there wasn't going to be a future." — Adam Tooze quoting Eric Hobsbawm: Explaining Hobsbawm’s rationale for remaining committed to communism in the face of 20th-century catastrophe.

Implications: The episode suggests that contemporary politics is increasingly won through identity, culture, and future narratives rather than straightforward policy offers. It also shows why historians like Hobsbawm still matter: they help explain how crisis, nationalism, and legitimacy are manufactured.