Jürgen Elsässer (born 20 January 1957 in

Pforzheim Pforzheim () is a city of over 125,000 inhabitants in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, in the southwest of Germany. It is known for its jewelry and watch-making industry, and as such has gained the nickname "Goldstadt" ("Golden City") ...

) is a German

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

and

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

activist of the

new right New Right is a term for various right-wing political groups or policies in different countries during different periods. One prominent usage was to describe the emergence of certain Eastern European parties after the collapse of the Soviet Uni ...

Life

Jürgen Elsässer was born in 1957, the son of a

watchmaker A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory-made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their part ...

and a secretary. His two sisters and he were "typically left-wing late 68s", said Elsässer about his youth. His father was a conservative CDU-voter. Elsässer became a teacher. Even if he was in communist groups, he swore on the Liberal democratic basic order of the German state to become a

Beamter The German civil servants called ' (men, singular ', more commonly ') or ' (women, singular ') have a privileged legal status compared to other German public employees (called '), who are generally subject to the same laws and regulations as emp ...

as teacher''.'' He worked as a teacher in a

vocational school A vocational school is a type of educational institution, which, depending on the country, may refer to either secondary or post-secondary education designed to provide vocational education or technical skills required to complete the task ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

, Germany for 14 years before beginning his career as journalist for left-wing magazines in 1994. Elsässer published his first works in the newspaper '' Arbeiterkampf'' (''Workers' Struggle''), a magazine which was tied to the '' Kommunistischer Bund'' (communist league), an organisation of which he was a member for years. In 1990 he was a sharp critic of the German reunification, because he was afraid of the possible dawn of a ''Viertes Reich'' (

Fourth Reich The Fourth Reich (german: Viertes Reich) is a hypothetical Nazi Reich that is the successor to Adolf Hitler's Third Reich (1933–1945). The term has also been used to refer to the possible resurgence of Nazi ideas, as well as pejoratively of pol ...

). Elsässer was one of the political creators of the Anti-Germans movement. In 1994, he was editor of the leftist ''

Junge Welt ''Junge Welt'' (English: ''Young World'', stylized in its logo as ''junge Welt'') is a German daily newspaper, published in Berlin. The jW describes itself as a left-wing and Marxist newspaper. German authorities categorize it as a far-left medi ...

'' (''Young world''). He was also co-editor of the largest left-wing monthly magazine ''

konkret ''konkret'' has been the name of two German magazines. ''konkret'' was originally the name of a magazine established by Klaus Rainer Röhl in 1957, that was an influential magazine on the German political left in the 1960s. The magazine was d ...

'' until he was dismissed. Elsässer switched to the right. In 2010, he founded ''

Compact Compact as used in politics may refer broadly to a pact or treaty; in more specific cases it may refer to: * Interstate compact * Blood compact, an ancient ritual of the Philippines * Compact government, a type of colonial rule utilized in British ...

'' magazine, of which he was also the editor. In 2011, Elsässer expressed his admiration for Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević. During the

2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine From the end of February 2014, demonstrations by pro-Russian and anti-government groups took place in major cities across the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity, which resulted in the succes ...

, Elsässer was an outspoken supporter of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

n president

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

and received much criticism from the German media for his position. Elsässer's current political position is commonly considered as

right-wing populist Right-wing populism, also called national populism and right-wing nationalism, is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics and populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric employs anti- elitist sentiments, opposition to the Establ ...

and he is a sharp critic of the migration policy of the German chancellor

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...

Reception

Melanie Amann Melanie Amann (born 1978) is a journalist and lawyer. She is co-editor-in-chief of leading Germany weekly ''Der Spiegel'' and heads the publication's Berlin office. Melanie Amann was born in Bonn and raised in Siegburg. She studied law at the Un ...

of '' Der Spiegel'' wrote about Elsässer, his appearance is "a mixture of evangelical preacher and teleshopping moderator" and this would "work independently of his message." Similar to this Dietmar Koschmieder, editor in chief of ''junge Welt'' said 2018 in Der Spiegel: "If you ask me, lsässerhas no convictions at all... He is an expert in emotionalization who adapts his message to the respective target and audience." The rapper Danger Dan called Jürgen Elsässer an “anti-Semite” in his song " Das ist alles von der Kunstfreiheit gedeckt" ("This is all covered by artistic freedom", referring to article 5 of German Basic Law) in 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elsasser, Jurgen 1957 births Living people German journalists German male journalists Anti-immigration politics in Germany People from Pforzheim German activists German male writers New Right (Europe) Junge Welt editors