Is National Socialism returning to the German Army?

On December 7, 2022, the world’s media published the news that the German police had broken up a conspiracy that, under the name of The day X (Day X), intended to destroy the German democratic system. Civilians belonging to the far-right organization Citizens of the Reich, members of the Armed Forces, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and former police officers participated in it.

Although this news caused a great impact throughout the world, it was not the first conspiracy that under the symbolic name of The day X was discovered in Germany during the 21st century, nor was it the first involutionary operation in which the military participated.

Since the last decade of the 20th century, German politicians have witnessed with alarmism the revival of the extreme right and more specifically of National Socialist ideology within the Armed Forces. This dynamic was favored by three processes: the sentimental link with the Wehrmacht (Hitler Armed Forces) of numerous officers and soldiers, the low prestige of the officers within German society and the disappearance of compulsory military service, which made the armies sheltering ultra-rightists.

However, for this dynamic to become a real danger, three more factors had to be added:

The first, represented by the polyhedral changes produced since the end of the 20th century (globalization, the Great Recession of 2008, massive immigration, the rise of identity and gender movements, etc.).

The renaissance of the civil extreme right

These transformations, added to some latent characteristics in certain sectors of the German population (nationalism, racism, xenophobia or anti-Semitism), led to the rebirth of the civil extreme right, embodied in organizations such as Citizens of the Reich and above all AfD. This party, the third in the parliamentary arc, was characterized from its founding by the existence of a sector of National Socialist ideology in its ranks and by its excellent relations with the police and the military.

The importance of this process lies in the fact that the existence of civil sectors actively opposed to the democratic system is a condition sine qua non so that the military can unleash a coup operation, since they need the “legitimization” of a faction of the population to be able to intervene in the political process.

Murders and muggings

The second, the existence of violent groups of National Socialist ideology, whose first manifestation was the clandestine National Socialists, responsible for 10 murders and 14 bank robberies between 2000 and 2007. This factor was extremely important in planning the operation. The day because the mission of these organizations was the elimination of political enemies.

The third, the digital revolution, which not only made it possible to spread the extremist message to more sectors of the population, but also to link the different groups of this ideology scattered throughout the country.

This sum of dynamics came together to launch the first conspiracy The day X in 2017. In this conspiracy, led by the military, members of the police from different federal states participated, probably agents of the Military Counter-Intelligence Service and civilians and paramilitaries of National Socialist ideology, including members of the AfD who were in contact with leaders of the National Socialist wing. of this party as Björn Höcke, Markus Frohnmaier and Jan Nolte.

The military and police involved came mostly from the Special Forces Command (KSK) – the military unit with the most extreme right-wing members throughout the 21st century – and from the Special Police Forces, which constitute the elite of both institutions.

A false flag attack

This operation would begin after a false flag attack carried out by an Army lieutenant, Franco A., who, posing as a Syrian refugee, would assassinate an important German politician. This crime would cause a strong impact on the German population that would be used by the conspirators to start an operation that would have two vectors: the destruction of the democratic system and, in parallel, the implementation of the final solution (Final Solution), that is, the elimination of the “enemies of Germany”.

Although this conspiracy was dismantled, the investigators of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office were impressed by the information – coming mostly from police files – that the conspirators handled about the left-wing politicians and social leaders who had to be “neutralized” and by the involvement in the of the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania civil service and police.

After the dismantling of the first operation The day X, the German political elite made the decision to increase the surveillance of the military units, in order to avoid by all means that a similar operation could ever be unleashed. As a result of these investigations, on July 2, 2020, the 2nd Company of the KSK was dissolved due to the majority presence of extremists in its ranks.

Another measure that began to be discussed in 2021 was the possible reintroduction of compulsory military service, with the aim of ending the notable presence of far-right volunteers.

But the big question we must ask ourselves is: Is there any possibility that a coup could succeed in Germany? The answer to this question is no, but it needs to be qualified. The arrests of December 2022 show that the danger of an extremist uprising in Germany remains latent as long as there are military, police and civilians willing to participate in an operation of these characteristics and, above all, the problems that feed this dynamic persist.

However, its chances of success would be nil, since the vast majority of the military and police would actively oppose it. However, its consequences could be very serious, not only because of the lives that would surely be lost, but above all because it would greatly weaken the social consensus and irreversibly polarize the German population, breaking peace in the public space in the long term.

Roberto Muñoz Bolaños, Professor of Social Sciences, Camilo Jose Cela University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.