“And where are the pictures?”: The book-hungry young people look at a book.
Foto: imago/United Archives
The pictures from the Frankfurt Book Fair 2017 went around the world. And not because of “Francfort en Français”, the most important cultural project that France had ever implemented in Germany to date. The greatest excitement was the protests and physical confrontations on October 14th, the trade fair’s busy Saturday, when pure chaos reigned in Hall 4.2 in the late afternoon. There were images of a helpless-looking book fair boss Jürgen Boos, an immense police presence and triumphant protagonists of the extreme right-wing “Identitarian Movement”.
The tumult did not come unexpectedly, after all, the Antaios publishing house around Götz Kubitschek, which has been classified as right-wing extremist since 2024, had organized a panel at which, in addition to “Identitarian” representatives, AfD man Björn Höcke and Antaios author Martin Semlitsch aka Martin Lichtmesz were to speak.
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Despite a few heckling, Höcke remained unmolested; However, when Semlitsch and Caroline Sommerfeld took the stage, the counter-protests became louder. Police and security services intervened in the event, and “Identitarian” leader Martin Sellner subsequently boasted about “taking over the book fair.”
In 2018 they wanted to do better, which is why the book fair reserved a small dead end for the extreme right-wing publishers (“a kind of ghetto,” said the right-wing “Tichys Insight”), which was supposed to isolate them from the rest of the reading hustle and bustle. A Höcke event, which was closed to the public, was silent, apart from Martin Sonneborn’s (The Party) appearance as Stauffenberg. A boycott of the fair by Black authors over safety concerns followed in 2021.
In 2024, demands to exclude extreme right-wing publishers will still be met with negative responses from the trade fair management: We have to endure it, otherwise “we might as well close the shop straight away,” Jürgen Boos had already told “Spiegel” in 2017. But local politicians, such as Mirrianne Mahn (ex-Green Party, now ÖkoLinX), see the trade fair’s house rule and speak of a difference between freedom of expression and incitement to hatred. Boos, who has already been advised to resign, does not deviate from his course.
Nevertheless, the “right-wing publishers” are an issue, even if Kubitschek’s Antaios publishing house will not be present this year. The Karolinger-Verlag in Frankfurt am Main, which operates an online shop from Schnellroda, is presenting itself for this purpose.
Ahriman Publishing is also a well-known guest. Based in Freiburg, he no longer received approval from the Vienna Book Fair 2020. Exhibitions are allowed in Frankfurt, despite the so-called “heretic letters” that the “Bund against Adaptation” distributes. Among other things, Martin Sellner’s “remigration” suggestions are discussed there and stickers are sold that promote “population reduction is the best environmental protection” (1.50 euros). Ahriman advertises itself as an “ideology-free source of knowledge”, although the content – anti-green, pro-Russian and pro-AfD – consequently condemns emancipatory movements, just as they evaluate authority – “In memoriam Saddam Hussein” – positively.
Ahriman advertised in “Junge Freiheit” back in the 1990s and was a permanent guest at the book show in Frankfurt until 2022. Two years ago, editor-in-chief Dieter Stein celebrated “30 years of participation in the trade fair”; However, the paper, which is considered the mouthpiece of the “New” Right, is not registered for 2024. However, the Silber Schnur publishing house does. He describes himself as one of the “pioneers of esoteric and spiritual literature”; He became known through the legal esoteric Anastasia book series by Vladimir Megre. Right-wing extremism expert Matthias Quent told RBB in 2019 that the Anastasia books conveyed “cultural racism and anti-Semitism” and used “ideological patterns” that “we also know from National Socialism.”
And otherwise? With the German Association for Christian Culture (DVCK), Christian fundamentalists will also spread their message, mainly speaking out against abortion, the adoption rights of same-sex couples and “blasphemy.” The DVCK gained media attention through its nationwide campaign against the youth magazine “Bravo”.
It is perhaps worth mentioning that Italy is this year’s guest country, which is why Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli has announced his presence at the opening on October 15th. He became involved in the right-wing extremist movement Meridiano Zero early on and published a book in 2007 that was “entirely dedicated to the Italian post-fascist right,” as the online magazine “Finestre sull’Arte” puts it. One can certainly look forward to the appearance of the loyalist of the post-fascist head of government Giorgia Meloni.
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