Gender and family rhetoric on the German far right

Abstract

Historically, the family and, more generally, gender policies have been a central issue in both nationalist and far-right rhetoric. This holds particularly for Germany, where the so-called male-breadwinner model and the rhetoric of Kinder, Kirche and Küche have a long tradition. At the same time, Germany’s national socialist past gives rhetoric around family as a continuation of the nation a particular negative association. In this article, we will review the family policies and views on gender roles, as well as the views on Muslims, of politicians from two German far-right parties and their youth organizations, as well as one German anti-immigrant social movement organization. Our data material consists of press releases, party programmes and social media posts. Our article adds to the growing literature on the importance of gender in nationalist and far-right policies in general, and in far-right argumentation against Islam in particular. Our specific contribution is a detailed focus on similarities and differences in various organizations of the German far right, as well as an analysis that draws on concepts such as femonationalism and similar perspectives, such as Rogers Brubaker’s notion of civilizationism.