#rp26 speaker Carolin Amlinger and Oliver Nachtwey

Our democracy is in danger – more than ever since the end of the Second World War. While some fear the return of the ‘baseball bat years’ (a term coined to describe the more violent years in 1990s Germany), others celebrate the increasing normalisation of hostile attitudes in society. Where does this desire for destruction come from? What can we do to combat increasingly totalitarian tendencies? And is there still any hope left?

Just over two years ago, Carolin Amlinger and Oliver Nachtwey addressed the question of how libertarianism and authoritarianism could form a union in their bestseller ‘Offended Freedom. The Rise of Libertarian Authoritarianism’ (unlike liberals, libertarians are usually opposed to the state). This reality has now caught up with us. Consequently, the two have written a new book about the voters and supporters of Trump, Musk and the AfD, which they will present at re:publica 26.

In their book ‘Zerstörungslust’ (Destructive Desires), they explore the conditions that spark destructive tendencies in the enemies of open societies. One explanation is that the former promise of upward social mobility offered by democratic societies is increasingly being called into question. Crises and personal setbacks as well as competitive thinking, which leads to less empathy and solidarity, can also promote right-wing extremist and authoritarian ideas. The two researchers formulate the thesis that libertarian authoritarians and their followers are ‘concerned with destroying the world as a last, desperate attempt to save themselves from being crushed by it.’

However, Oliver Nachtwey and Carolin Amlinger do not leave us in the lurch  with this insight. In their #rp26 session, they also want to offer hope, because political change under the banner of ‘post-liberal anti-fascism’ is still possible! 

Carolin Amlinger is a literary sociologist and research assistant at the Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies at the University of Basel. She earned her doctorate with her thesis ‘Schreiben. Eine Soziologie literarischer Arbeit’ (Writing: A Sociology of Literary Work) at the Technical University of Darmstadt and the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main. In 2022, her dissertation was awarded the Dissertation Prize of the Friends of the Technical University of Darmstadt and the Dissertation Prize of the DGS (German Society for Sociology) Section for Work and Industrial Sociology.

Oliver Nachtwey, an economist and social scientist, is Professor of Social Structure Analysis at the University of Basel. He conducts research on changes in modern work as well as on processes of social modernisation and individualisation. Oliver focuses on the development of social conflicts, digitalisation, protests and the new authoritarianism. He received several awards for his 2016 book “Die Abstiegsgesellschaft. Über das Aufbegehren in der regressiven Moderne” (The Downwardly Mobile Society: On Rebellion in Regressive Modernity).

Carolin and Oliver’s joint book ‘Gekränkte Freiheit. Aspekte des libertären Autoritarismus’ (Offended Freedom: The Rise of Libertarian Authoritarianism) (2022) was shortlisted for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize in the non-fiction category. In 2025, Oliver Nachtwey and Carolin Amlinger received the Geschwister Scholl Prize for their most recent joint book ‘Zerstörungslust. Elemente des demokratischen Faschismus’ (Destructive Desires: Elements of Democratic Fascism).