Julia Ebner's "Von Fitness zu Faschismus" Examines How Male Fitness Culture Fuels Extremism

Julia Ebner's new book "Von Fitness zu Faschismus" traces how body cult and misogyny intertwine with far-right ideology, drawing on undercover reporting inside extremist fitness and combat-sport circles. In late 2018 Ebner attended one of the largest far-right martial arts events, "Kampf der Nibelungen," held in the Saxon town of Ostritz, where the international neo-Nazi scene gathered around the stated aim of building a white brotherhood to defend European civilization. In the book she recalls scanning the crowd — old and young, fit and unfit — and sensing that attendees genuinely believed white men faced a civilizational final battle. Such events now exist across Europe, and Ebner, an extremism expert who teaches in London, has covertly attended several of them. The Freitag article by Thomas Hummitzsch frames the project as an analysis of radicalization through physical culture, showing how hatred of women and right-wing extremist ideologies advance together. Further details appear in the current print issue of the Freitag.