MIKOWA Working Paper No. 6
Obermüller, C., Radvan, H., & Schiffner, J. (2023). „Es wäre gut, wenn Putin hier mal auskehren könnte“ - Analysen zu Mobilisierungen (extrem) rechter Akteure in Cottbus in Reaktion auf den russischen Angriffskrieg gegen die Ukraine 2022, MIKOWA Working Papers, MIKOWA – Forschungsplattform Migration, Konflikt und sozialer Wandel; No. 6.
The city of Cottbus has been challenged by extreme right-wing and conspiracy ideological mobilization for several years. Cottbus was also the scene of regular demonstrations during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the beginning of the Russian war of aggression with Ukraine, the focus of the so-called ‘Monday Walkers’ has gradually shifted away from the pandemic and towards the war. The research presented here focuses on the protest events organized in Cottbus in response to the Russian war of aggression in the period between February 28 - October 24, 2022. It examines selected speeches using a Grounded Theory approach and aims to classify their content and modes of presentation with regard to the potential dangers, and to think further in terms of applied research regarding prevention and civil society counteraction. The research reveals that, as in other eastern German cities, the events in Cottbus are dominated by extreme right-wing actors and groups supported by actors from a middle-class milieu belonging to the so-called ‘mainstream’ of society. It becomes clear as well that actors from the COVID-19 protest milieu have become more radicalized. In the events that were analyzed, conspiracy theories and, in particular, ideological contents associated with the Reichsbürger movement dominated and were intertwined with pro-Russian positions and the ideology of a ‘Eurasian’ reordering of the European-Asian region. The rejection of ‘the West’ forms a recurring metanarrative.
