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Far-right anniversary politics and social media: the alternative for Germany’s contestation of the East German past on twitter
University of Erfurt, Germany.
Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9572-5922
University of Erfurt, Germany.
2022 (English)In: Memory Studies, ISSN 1750-6980, E-ISSN 1750-6999, Vol. 15, no 6, p. 1360-1377Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This article examines how the German radical-right populist party the Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland) and its politicians have engaged with the public memory of the East German past via Twitter and how this has impacted the use of social media as a tool of political commemoration in Germany. The article analyses the mnemonic wars over ‘anniversary tweets’ related to four events: the East German Uprising (1953); the construction (1961) and fall (1989) of the Berlin Wall; and German reunification (1990). The article surveys when and how Twitter became a platform for these events’ political commemoration and the role of the Alternative für Deutschland therein. It also outlines the mnemonic discourses that the Alternative für Deutschland has deployed on Twitter around these events’ anniversaries and explores the sorts of digital contestation and transnationalization evident at these times.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sage Publications, 2022. Vol. 15, no 6, p. 1360-1377
Keywords [en]
Alternative für Deutschland, digital commemoration, German Democratic Republic, political communication, public memory
National Category
Media and Communication Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-201617DOI: 10.1177/17506980221133518ISI: 000893918300012Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85143278946OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-201617DiVA, id: diva2:1718944
Projects
MemoriUM
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2019-03351Available from: 2022-12-14 Created: 2022-12-14 Last updated: 2026-02-24Bibliographically approved

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Merrill, Samuel

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