Capitalism in Decay

While West German media incited hostility against migrants, the FRG was stripping the GDR of its economic resources, dismantling industries, and destroying hundreds of thousands of livelihoods. At the same time, the so-called “reappraisal” of the GDR’s history was underway—a process in which neo-fascist actors played a direct role. Former Marxist professors were purged from universities, anti-fascist monuments were demolished, and figures from the Nazi era were rehabilitated, while the GDR’s long-standing anti-fascist culture was banished. Now, 35 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is crucial to examine how the destruction of these border fortifications paved the way for an unprecedented influx of neo-fascist groups into East Germany.

Even before the opening of the border, West German neo-fascists were smuggling music and propaganda into the GDR, embedding themselves within the skinhead and hooligan scenes. This trend intensified with time, aided in part by the Community of Like-Minded People of the New Front (Gesinnungsgemeinschaften der Neuen Front, GdNF), a network set up by neo-Nazi cadre Michael Kühnen. The organization gathered numerous fascists, including individuals who had previously served prison sentences in the GDR before being redeemed by the FRG—after which they quickly resumed spreading the poison of anti-communism and racism.

In the 1980s, Kühnen’s network developed into a larger umbrella organization with contacts not only in the GDR, but also in other countries. The GdNF had dozens of front structures and held close contacts with numerous parties, while its leadership structures were riddled with informants who invested their generous salaries from the German domestic intelligence agency (Verfassungsschutz) into far-right political work.

Kühnen himself held strong connections to intelligence services. While the Lower Saxony Verfassungsschutz claimed it had lost all files on such activities, a dossier from the GDR State Security uncovered these connections. GDR’s agencies had been investigating Kühnen since 1970 and documented that after his release from prison in 1982, he was picked up by a vehicle linked to Verfassungsschutz. The conclusion of GDR investigations was that Kühnen’s years in prison were likely used to recruit him as an informant or secure other forms of cooperation.

A few years later, Kühnen authored a strategic document, Workplan East (Arbeitsplan Ost), outlining a blueprint for the network’s expansion into the GDR. This plan guided various neo-fascist organizations and front groups, with the fall of the Berlin Wall serving as their signal to act. Kühnen himself claimed that he was able to cross into the GDR “with the help of local comrades,” setting the stage for an influx of far-right cadres into the region. In the months that followed, dozens of leading figures from Kühnen’s network, as well as members of the New Right, followed his example.