5. Germany

The Germany chapter first presents an overview of the trade union landscape dominated by the DGB and the system of dual labor representation based on works councils. This is followed by a discussion of the Alternative for Germany’s messaging strategy on labor issues, centered on immigration, and its organizing strategy of trying to establish workers’ platforms within the party. An overview is then presented of far-right workplace groups, most notably Zentrum Automobil and its links to the AfD and various far-right networks. The company case study of Daimler Stuttgart-Untertürkheim examines far-right challenges at the workplace level, taking as its starting point the history of ZA presence in the factory, followed by an analysis of DGB union actors’ assessment of the extent of far-right traction in the workplace and the union’s workplace-level publicity-centered response strategy against it.