The editor-in-chief of the now banned right-wing extremist “Compact” magazine started out on a completely different political side. In the 2000s, Elsässer swung to the right.
When he was young, Jürgen Elsässer (67), who comes from Baden-Württemberg, was a member of the Communist League. What has remained from that time is his anti-Americanism. Apart from that, the editor-in-chief of the now banned “Compact” magazine has traveled a long way ideologically – from the far left to the far right.
Having started out as an author of left-wing publications and an anti-nuclear activist, he gradually moved to the right-wing camp in the early 2000s. “Our newspaper separated from him after a relatively short time when he began his trip into nationalism,” wrote the left-wing newspaper “nd”, formerly known as “Neues Deutschland”, last year.
Elsässer once took a critical look at right-wing extremist activities, which the Office for the Protection of the Constitution also counts his media company among. Long-time Green Party politician Jürgen Trittin wrote a foreword to Elsässer’s “Brown Book DVU”, published in 1998.
Well connected in the right-wing scene
What Elsässer himself says about his political career is difficult for many outsiders to understand. In 2010 he launched the monthly magazine “Compact”. At AfD party conferences and other events he is often seen with a grim expression. His talent for always finding the right tone that is well received by his listeners nevertheless earns him a certain following.
An example of the contacts that Elsässer has cultivated in recent years was an event in Leipzig in November 2017, at which Pegida leader Lutz Bachmann, the right-wing AfD member from Thuringia Björn Höcke and the head of the Identitarians in Austria, Martin Sellner, spoke, among others. Elsässer set the tone there. He said: “We want to open a new front in the resistance struggle for Germany, and that is the front in the factories (…) We combine patriotism and commitment to the workers and the weak in this country: national and social liberation of the German people!”
Today, Elsässer also maintains contact with former AfD politicians who have fallen out of favor with the party. One of them is André Poggenburg, the former AfD state chairman in Saxony-Anhalt.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
