Following the AfD’s electoral success in Saxony-Anhalt, Michael Dreyer, a political scientist from Jena and Chairman of the Weimar Republic Association, has challenged the idea that the AfD can be historically compared to the Nazi Party (NSDAP). Similarly, he has argued that parallels drawn between current politics and the collapse of the Weimar Republic are misleading.
Speaking to the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” (noz), Dreyer asserted that the NSDAP “stood for absolute evil, and any comparison with it is mistaken.” Instead, he views the AfD’s success as an “adaptation to European normality,” noting that right-wing populist parties are present in nearly every country.
Dreyer, who is a co-founder of the House of the Weimar Republic in Weimar, also disputes the notion that modern political crises mimic the Weimar period. He stated to the “noz” that “the Federal Republic in 2026 is completely different; our elites are unequivocally democrats.” He further emphasized that the Basic Law and the Federal Republic are far more resilient than the Weimar Republic and its constitutional framework.
Furthermore, the expert pushed back against the broad accusation that the AfD is an anti-democratic party. According to his comments to the “noz”, the AfD is “even very democratic internally, after all, the party base has much more input than in other parties.” Dreyer added that the core issue with the AfD is its inclination to prioritize the “majority principle against minority protection.” Therefore, he concludes, its deficiencies lie in the area of liberalism, not in democracy itself.
