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Stop playing the Hitler card

Comparing the AfD to the Nazis gives them more attention than they deserve.

  • Konstantin Richter
  • Politico

BERLIN — A surprising thing or two happened last week after Alternative for Germany’s leader Alexander Gauland wrote an op-ed for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

BERLIN, GERMANY - SEPTEMBER 12: Alexander Gauland, Leader of the Right wing AfD Party arrives at a session of the Bundestag following the parliamentary summer recess on September 12, 2018 in Berlin, Germany. Relations within the governing German coalition have once again become strained, this time due to comments made by German Interior Minister and Bavarian Christian Social Union leader Horst Seehofer following the recent murder of a German by refugees and the ensuing marches by right-wing supporters in the city of Chemnitz. (Photo by Michele Tantussi/Getty Images)

An anonymous tweeter found that Gauland’s piece had some likeness to a speech given by Adolf Hitler in 1933.

The Berlin daily newspaper Tagesspiegel then asked a couple of historians to compare the two speeches. Their verdict?

The wording differed, but Gauland and Hitler had explored the same basic idea — a…

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