By Thomas Rogers. A map of Germany in hangs on the wall above him. Schroeder is 30 years old, about six feet tall, with the boxy musculature of an MMA fighter, his blond hair shaved except for a jaunty strip along the top of his head. When he laughs, his upper right lip rises up, making him look both threatening and insecure. Inane rhetoric notwithstanding, Schroeder comes across first and foremost as a dedicated self-promoter, and he clearly enjoys putting on a show: For the next two hours, he sits at the computer and chats with his remote co-host about the latest Nazi news β recently banned groups, European elections β and riffs on pop culture.
He peppers his statements with self-deprecating asides and eye-rolls, and he occasionally interrupts the chatter to play Rechstrock , neo-Nazi rock songs. Schroeder sometimes conducts seminars showing neo-Nazis how they can dress less threateningly and argues that anybody from hip-hop fans to hipsters in skinny jeans should be able to join the scene without changing the way they look, an idea that, for many older members, is an affront to their anti-mainstream values.
Over the past year, partly because of leaders like Schroeder and partly because of the unstoppable globalization of youth culture, the hipsterification of the German neo-Nazi scene has begun to gain steam. Experts have noted that the German neo-Nazi presence on Tumblr and other social networking sites has become sleeker and more sophisticated. Neo-Nazi clothing has become more stylish and difficult to recognize. These are strange times to be a neo-Nazi in Germany. Regardless of the verdict, the party is close to running out of money and Nazi opponents have become successful at shutting down its public appearances in April, a high-profile Berlin NPD march was successfully blockaded by several thousand protesters.
At the same time, Germany and German culture have become more porous and international than ever: A federal survey found that nearly 20 percent of Germans have an immigrant background, and another new study found that immigrants and Germans are becoming increasingly similar. For people like Andy Knape, the rise of the German hipster presents both an opportunity and a dilemma. When he speaks he tends to curl up in his chair.
The term hipster has, of course, always been notoriously slippery. Back in his book What Was the Hipster? Here, the hipster is simultaneously a uniform, a cooler-than-thou w eltanschauung and signpost of globalized American youth culture and consumerism. Dee Ex, for example, has over 7, likes on Facebook and posts photos of herself in a revealing outfit on her blog. In September, for example, three suspected neo-Nazis brutally beat a year-old in Saxony, allegedly because the boy was half Taiwanese.
