6. The Militant Media of Neo-Nazi Environmentalism

This chapter examines how neo-Nazi websites and print media wed the slogans, symbols, visuals, and narratives of the radical patriot to those of the homeland-loving environmentalist, and how this combination results in a coherent set of complementary media messages. The case history is the media of the National-Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), focusing on the years 2010–2013. The chapter analyzes the NPD’s web presence and the magazine Umwelt & Aktiv, including images, tone, themes, and calls to environmentalist action, and the dimensions of gender and youth in the messaging. These media deploy the key concept of Heimat, which comprises territory, culture, and people, and which the neo-Nazis wish to defend against perceived enemies, such as immigrants and internationalists. The frames of fear (of threats to the Heimat) and nostalgia (for what must be protected) are combined in a narrative of “irreparability,” effectively linking the visuals and narratives of militant xenophobia to biocentric environmentalism. The standard anti-globalization, pro-environment messaging, which is also used by ecocritics on the left, is given a special, frightening slant: the need to protect German (and European) biomass.

Contributors

Madeleine Hurd

(author)

Associate Professor of Modern History at Södertörn University

Madeleine Hurd (madeleine.hurd@sh.se) is Associate Professor of Modern History at Södertörn University, Stockholm. Her research has focused on emotions and gender in medialized rituals of spatial belonging in inter-war Germany and in German far-right environmentalism. Recent publications include 'Nature, the Volk, and the Heimat: The Narratives and Practices of the Far Right Ecologist' (co-authored with Steffen Werther), published in Baltic Worlds in 2013; 'Contested Masculinities in Inter-War Flensburg', in Bordering the Baltic: Scandinavian Boundary-drawing Processes, 1900–2000 (2010), which she also edited; and 'Reporting on Civic Rituals: Texts, Performers and Audience', in Ritual and Media: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, edited by Brosius and Polit (2010).

Steffen Werther

(author)

Senior Lecturer and Researcher of Historical and Contemporary Studies at Södertörn University

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6804-7732

Steffen Werther (steffen.werther@sh.se) is Senior Lecturer and Researcher of Historical and Contemporary Studies at Södertörn University in Stockholm. He is interested in German and Scandinavian history, from the nineteenth century to the present day, with a focus on nationalism, racial theory and National Socialist ideology. His doctoral thesis examined the implementation of the SS's Greater Germanic idea in Denmark. His latest publications include: 'Nordic-Germanic Dreams and National Realities: A Case Study of the Danish Region of Sønderjylland, 1933–1945', in Racial Science in Hitler's New Europe, edited by Anton Weiss-Wendt and Rory Yeomans (2013); and 'Go East, Old Man: Space, Ritual and the Politics of Memory among Europe's Waffen-SS Veterans' (co-authored with Madeline Hurd), published in Culture Unbound in 2014.