Joschka Fischer in Der Spiegel, interview conducted by Ann-Katrin Müller and Ralf Neukirch:

"DER SPIEGEL: You view the AfD as a party in the same tradition as the Nazi party?

Fischer: Absolutely! I grew up in the 1950s. Everyone from my generation can still recall these German family gatherings. There was the Nazi grandfather and the uncle who was a member of the SS, and they would let fly with their maxims - and those maxims are suddenly making a comeback. Is Mr. (Björn) Höcke a right-wing populist or a Nazi? I'm tired of the waffling.

DER SPIEGEL: You are referring to Björn Höcke, who has demanded that Germany emancipate itself from its World War II guilt. But he is also on the far-right wing of the AfD.

Fischer: There are a lot of active AfD members and people in party leadership positions who speak like Nazis and think like Nazis. Gauland (Eds. Note: AfD parliamentary floor leader Alexander Gauland) wants to "take back our country and our people." Umm, hello? Haven't we heard that before? I had hoped and thought that our society had advanced beyond that. But we have to realize: They're back.

DER SPIEGEL: Are the 12.6 percent of the electorate who voted for the AfD also Nazis?

Fischer: You have to make a distinction. But we shouldn't forget that after 1945, we were told: We were hijacked, the Nazi bigwigs were guilty of everything Germany did to others and to itself. When I listen to Mr. Gauland or Mr. Höcke today, I always think of the image of the devastation in Cologne after the war, with the cathedral jutting out of the rubble. Today, you just cannot say anymore: I didn't know, I was frustrated. We know how this movie ends.

DER SPIEGEL: Going back to those maxims that you know from your family gatherings: Are they suddenly back again or were they always there and we just didn't want to hear them?

Fischer: I can't answer that question. It's impossible to explain some people's convictions. The things that are said, like that Germany is an occupied country: That's preposterous. It took me aback. I had honestly thought that we had come further."

Read the interview here.

I sympathize with Mr. Fischer, but I'm not sure if we know how this movie ends. History likes to surprise us. But one thing seems to be sure: it's not going to be a happy ending.

The mobilization of anger for political reasons was in Germany, and also elsewhere in Europe, after 1945 a task that was fulfilled by the leftists.
After 2001 we see the serious rise of the right who is mobilizing angry citizens again.

We don't know yet what's their endgame, but even without a Fourth Reich it can be bad enough.