Ausstellung - Wahlkampf radikal

In Focus" series in the Baden-Württemberg Lounge

Calls for upheaval, agitators in the state parliament: The exhibition shows how extreme forces and narratives strongly influenced election campaigns in Baden-Württemberg - and were successful: The left-wing extremist KPD entered the state parliament in 1952. In 1968, the right-wing extremist NPD entered the Stuttgart parliament. The right-wing populist "Republicans" succeeded twice, in 1992 and 1996. The exhibition shows how these parties campaigned in Baden-Württemberg and what moderate political and social forces did to counter this.
The KPD called for the fall of the "Adenauer regime" with election campaign newspapers and leaflets. The NPD used Nazi layouts on posters and openly denied German guilt for the Second World War. The so-called "Republicans" spread racist prejudices and had one answer to practically every problem: limiting immigration and deportations.
What were the strategies against extremism? Committed protest sometimes drifted into radicalism itself. The established parties sometimes countered with clear demarcation and arguments, sometimes they adopted extremist themes. The harshest legal measure, the party ban, ended the existence of the KPD.
Students at the Hochschule der Medien have also developed a social media installation for the exhibition. It explains how today's parties on TikTok and the like try to win over younger people with the shortest of clips.