(Mirrors.)

According to a former student, Höcke, as a teacher, repeatedly praised the work of Psychology of the Masses by Gustave le Bon, and often spoke about charisma, told stories of his grandfather’s meeting with Adolf [Schicklgruber], and described [Schicklgruber’s] ‘incredibly blue eyes’ as a central element of the Führer cult. He was fascinated by Nordic mythology and regularly wore a Mjölnir pendant around his neck.

Two years later, he called the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin a ‘monument of shame’, invoked the idea of a ‘reversal of history’, demanding that Germany stop its culture of remembrance and ‘reclaim its identity’. In speeches, he refers to a 1,000-year Germany, a phrase that reminds [one] of [the] concept of the 1,000-year Reich, and uses [Fascist] concepts like Lebensraum.

His 2018 book includes passages eerily similar to the works of SS figures:

I am convinced that the Germans’ longing for a historical figure who will one day heal the wounds in the nation, overcome the divisions and put things in order, is deeply rooted in our souls.

In 2019, media reports began revealing that Höcke attended secret far-right meetings where he discussed plans for ‘remigration’, a euphemism for ethnic cleansing used by right-wing extremists. In a 2021 speech, he got fined €13,000 for using a forbidden Sturmabteilung slogan: Alles für Deutschland (‘everything for Germany’). Just last year, he was banned again for chanting the first part, encouraging the audience to reply with the rest.

While the National Party leadership maintains a façade of respectability, Höcke is a direct link between AfD politics and hardcore neo[fascist] ideology, and this is very important to understand: fascism is not something that wins or loses during one election. It is the result of a systemic shift over a long period of time.