Sprechen Sie rechts?: Rhetorik und Sprachgebrauch des Nationalsozialismus in politischen Reden des AfD-Politikers Björn Höcke
2020 (German)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Student thesisAlternative title
: Nazi rhetoric and language in political speeches by AfD politician Björn Höcke (English)
Abstract [en]
Right-wing populism is reaching a renaissance throughout Europe and European parliaments. The German right-wing populist party AfD – Alternative für Deutschland – is today part of the German government, even though there are allegations that language, which reminds of passed Nazi times, is used in public speeches. Björn Höcke, member of the AfD and the leader at the Landtag of Thuringia, has made many headlines because of his rhetoric, when addressing voters in public speeches and parallels to Nazi rhetoric have been made. The aim of this study is to investigate which rhetorical means of Nazi origin are used by Björn Höcke in public speeches, and which of those he uses most frequently. Four different speeches of Björn Höcke are chosen to be analysed through the lens of rhetorical figures of speech, such as metaphor, hyperbole and repetition, which were commonly used in Nazi rhetoric. The result of this study shows, that Björn Höckes in fact more or less uses all of the rhetorical figures of speech mentioned. Metaphors are used frequently, even though not as intensely as in Nazi rhetoric. Most striking is Höckes usage of repetition, where words such as “people”, but also national affiliation are ceaselessly repeated. Even more striking is the continuously use of hyperboles in terms of superlative, especially the use of numerical superlative, to convince the listeners. Furthermore, Björn Höckes custom of using words of Nazi origin, such as “people”, “total”, “millennial empire” seem intentional. The conclusion can be made that Nazi rhetoric are part of Björn Höcke rhetorical repertoire.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2020.
Keywords [en]
Rhetoric, national socialism, right-wing populism, public speech, figures of speech, metaphor, hyperbole, superlative, numerical superlative, repetition
National Category
Specific Languages
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:du-32197OAI: oai:DiVA.org:du-32197DiVA, id: diva2:1412516
2020-03-062020-03-062025-10-09