Volk, Volksgemeinschaft, AfD

We are the people. The others are not. Historian Michael Wildt discusses the ambiguities and depths of the political concept of the people. "We are the people!" This is a powerful and demanding statement, especially in a democracy where the people rule. "All state authority emanates from the people," states the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany. But: Who is the people? The eligible citizens? The demonstrators against the dictatorship in Leipzig in October 1989? The orange masses on the Maidan in Kyiv, who successfully demanded a new presidential election in 2013/14? Throughout the long history of the people, there has always been a debate about who belongs to it and who does not. For example, women in most countries only gained the right to vote in the 20th century. And what happens, as Sebastian Haffner asked in 1933, when the people no longer want democracy?.