Thomas Klikauer and Nadine Campbell for BuzzFlash: Yes, Germany Has Its Share of Tin Foil Hat COVID Denialists and Anti-Vaxxers. The US Is Not Alone in Nutters.
December 18, 2020
Two German COVID denialists at protest with tin hats in the shape of Bismarck-era military helmets (Matthias Berg)
By Thomas Klikauer and Nadine Campbell
Ever since the coronavirus pandemic took hold, Germany has seen several high-profile rallies against the government's measures to contain the virus. These rallies are known either as thinking-against-the-grain rallies (Querdenker) or as hygiene rallies. As some Germans took to the streets, we saw a rising prevalence of the so-called tin foil hat – a symbol of conspiracy theorists.
Yet, a recent study found that many rally attendees vote for Germany's environmental Green party and the semi-socialist The Left (Die Linke). Simultaneously and highly contradictory, these rallies are also the extreme opposite of the political spectrum, the AfD, Germany's semi-fascistic and some say Neo-Nazi party as well as the authoritarian Reichsbürger with their antisemitic views.
In a just completed and non-representative study, researchers at Basel University took a closer look at the tin-foil hat people asking 1,150 people to fill in a survey. Researchers surveyed people who frequent relevant chat groups in which more than 100,000 members were registered. Not surprisingly, the survey found that many older Germans are members of these chat groups. Yet, it also found that quite a few people have academic degrees. The average age was 47 years.
Additionally, 31% had higher levels of education (Abitur). Even more surprising was the fact that 34% had a polytechnic or university degree. The number of small business owners was found to be higher compared to Germany's population.
Astonishingly, a whopping 21% voted for Germany's environmental Green Party in the 2017 federal election while 17% voted for the semi-socialist The Left party and 14% voted for the AfD. Worse, 30% said they would vote AfD in the next election scheduled for 21st September 2021.
Beyond that, the study found that many supporters showed a noticeable alienation towards established political institutions, towards Germany's media, and traditional political parties such as the social-democratic SPD and Angela Merkel's conservative CDU. Paradoxically, the anti-coronavirus movement is a movement that comes from the progressive side of politics but is moving rapidly towards the right-wing fringe. To many, the right-left mix is highly contradictory but not entirely new to German's history.
Also, not uncommon for Germany is the prevalence of antisemitic attitudes. Antisemitism is regularly mixed with conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, traces of authoritarianism and xenophobia can be found. Yet, a direct belittling of the Holocaust is somewhat less prevalent. Concurrently, religion and church affiliations play virtually no role among current right-wing, populist, and anti-establishment crusaders.
As expected, there was a distinct rejection of Enlightenment, science as well as factual evidence. 41% trust their gut feelings more than science. Aligned to that is the fact that researchers found that many deny the facts of the coronavirus pandemic. They also downplay the impact of the global pandemic that killed about 20,000 Germans with about 500 deaths per day, at the beginning of December.
Overall, there is a tendency to romanticism – a conservative movement that was popular about 200 years ago. In line with that is l'idée fixe to trust feelings more than established institutions (research facilities, universities, etc.) and scientific experts. This is mixed with an attitude that prefers so-called alternative cures over established medicine. In a nutshell, this is the profile of Germany's tin-foil hat wearing anti-establishment people that have been rallying against government restrictions in Germany.
However, most recently, courts in the southern city of Mannheim and the northern port city of Bremen have supported the states. These courts rejected applications to hold more anti-coronavirus measures rallies and hygiene rallies. At these protest rallies, right-wing symbols like Germany's imperial flag and even Neo-Nazi symbols have been seen. In the case of the planned rally in Bremen, Germany's supreme court supported the government against the tin-foil hat people.
Many read the supreme court decision as a guideline for what is to be expected over the coming holiday season. The state will disallow hygiene rallies as in many cases local social distancing measures and mask-wearing have not been followed by protesters forcing the police to end such rallies. Meanwhile in Mannheim, the local administrative court has also rejected an application to hold a hygiene rally because that such rallies have a tendency to violated local anti- coronavirus measures and therefore are a danger to public health. Germany is preparing itself, for "a harsh winter" as Merkel said recently, as the public health system is edging towards crisis.
The southern state of Bavaria is taking an even more stringent position against hygiene rallies. Its government has asked the powerful Verfassungsschutz, Germany's secret service, to investigate the movement. In November, Bavaria's premier, Markus Söder, had suggested such a move given the recent storming of Germany's parliament. Söder's request for the secret service intervention, which is supported by Bavaria's political establishment, is seen as legitimate as there are fears that these groups are planning the destruction of Germany's constitutional institutions and its democracy
In the case of the Stuttgart hygiene movement, its co-founder Michael Ballweg is a member of the right-wing Reichsbürger or sovereign citizens. This group does not acknowledge the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany and is seeking to return to the monarchist-imperial Reich. Reichsbürger represents a clear attack on Germany's democratic institutions. The Reichbürger even feature a self-appointed King of Germany. The politics of the Reichsbürger might be a mixture of clownery and madness, but it has a very serious consequence as they tend to be well-armed and ready to kill.
Overall, the Reichsbürger are known to have a right-wing extremist ideology using today's hygiene rallies as a platform to push their dogma. These rallies are also a point where the ideology of the Reichsbürger mixes with the ideology of the hygiene rallies. The common denominator of both is a rejection of the government's anti-coronavirus measures.
A shared experience of right-wing Reichsbürger, progressive environmentalists like the Greens as well as the semi-socialist Left party supporters, is that of a government regulating the private lives of its citizens through bans on gatherings, mask-wearing requirements, lockdowns, etc. A second shared experience is that of the police who enforces local anti-coronavirus rules at these rallies whether you are a Reichsbürger, a Green or Left party supporter or just happen to wear a tin-foil hat. Common to middle-class progressive, as well as reactionaries, is a rejection of the police as an illegitimate enforcer of rules which are seen as unjustified.
Beyond that, the diversity of the people attending such hygiene rallies aids the impression that these rallies represent a wide range of people. It gives a false impression that everyone rejects the government's anti- coronavirus measures even though the very opposite is the case. Most Germans agree to the anti- coronavirus measures and follow the rules and regulations. Finally, it also aids the false impression that rally attendance is the silent majority even though it is a relatively small group of people. Most Germans do not wear tin-foil hats, and most Germans do not attend hygiene rallies.
These falsehoods are mirrored in social media's echo-chambers like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. where rally pictures and videos are shared and commented with annotations like, don't make it too easy for the government or don't let them put you into the right-wing corner, etc. These platforms tend to show the imperial flag of the Reichsbürger, new age people, bizarre esoterics, ageing hippies, but also relatively normal-looking Germans. Yet, the rallies create a target group that Germany's right-wing extremists can use to further their authoritarian agenda.
Some are already suggesting that the people congregating at these hygiene rallies have created a dangerous mix of protest and opposition that increasingly feels like the only legitimate opposition in Germany. This comes on the background of the fact that Germany has been governed by Merkel's grand coalition with no real opposition left in the parliament. Despite the fact that Germany's parliament has not one but three opposition parties – the environmental Greens, the neoliberal FDP, and the right-wing AfD – the hallucination of being the only real opposition is still widely accepted among those taking part in hygiene rallies.
Pretending to be Germany's only real opposition is, of course, an illusion that right-wing extremists exploit to the fullest. The aforementioned study has shown this to be the case. Originating as a simple protest against anti-coronavirus measures, these hygiene rallies have mutated into a valuable platform for Germany's right-wing extremists and adjacent Neo-Nazis. Yet, the study leads to the inevitable question of whether or not middle-class progressives like Green and Left party supporters want to be associated with Germany's right-wing fringe.
What the study has also made clear is that the majority of those asked about these hygiene rallies are alienated from Germany's political culture, democracy, and Germany's democratic institutions. Yet, most people attending these rallies also believe that too much credence is given to minorities. This is so far, a rather unsolved contradiction because hygiene rally attendance is a minority. At the same time, the study found that xenophobia and anti-Islamism are not established ideology within those attending such rallies.
Simultaneously, rally attendees also believe that their rallies and their opposition against a techno-bureaucratic world aid a rather romantic sense of humanity. At the same time, rally attendance views those not participating as sleeping sheep and need to be convinced that hyper-modern industrial capitalism has to be rejected. In the 1930s, super-Nazi Ernst Röhm represented this sort of radical right anti-capitalism ideology until he was killed by Hitler's SS during the Night of the Long Knives.
Not unlike the Nazis of the 1930s and 1940s, the survey also showed a somewhat hidden form of antisemitism. On the downside, the survey also found the existence of antisemitic stereotypes. Yet, a surprisingly high number (64%) believe one should not educate children to become what Adorno once called an authoritarian personality.
As one might have already suspected, tin-foil hat people and rally attendants also warn against forced vaccination as anti-vaxxers have always been part of the hygiene rally crowd. Simultaneously, their rejection of life-saving vaccinations extends to global warming, which is seen as yet another conspiracy. Much of this is framed through nebulous spirituality and romanticism, advocating trust for some sort of self-healing potencies that in turn represent a version of a subversive anti-knowledge set against the establishment.
Finally, most hygiene rally attendees have a petit-bourgeois background. This is neither a straightforward working-class nor an upper-class bourgeoisie movement. It is not a working-class movement. Instead, hygiene rally protesters are an unusual mixture of middle-class progressives (Greens and The Left) as well as Germany's hard-right (AfD, Reichsbürger, Neo-Nazis, etc.). At some point, those middle-class progressives have to face a stark choice: continue to be used by Germany's right-wing, become part of the radical right or leave these rallies altogether.
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