Alt/Futures

Far-right narratives on the future of East Germany

Abstract

This article discusses the role that narratives of the future play for right-wing movements and the position of East Germany in the election campaign strategies of the AfD. Following the conception of right-wing narratives of national history as alt/histories, this paper develops the concept of alt/futures in order to direct the analytical gaze to the futures designed by right-wing movements that are based on the imagined and distorting alt/histories and aim at the (re)constitution of a 'better' nation in hopeful expectation. Hope is at the affective centre of East German alt/futures and functions as a central political resource for right-wing movements in this region, as the article shows based on ethnographic material collected during the AfD election campaign in East German federal states in 2019. Using the example of AfD narratives about East Germany, it becomes clear how hope for the future can function as a resource in local contexts and where hope meets its limits.