SPÄTFASCHISMUS – Orientierungsversuch in reaktionären Zeiten

Drawing from the history of anti-fascist theories, Toscano deepens and expands our conception of fascism. Conversing with the Frankfurt School, Foucault and Theweleit, he illuminates the deeper structures of bourgeois subjectivity. Unsurprisingly, this is one of the places where racist fantasies and authoritarian desires flourish.


In dialogue with Angela Davis, W.E.B. Du Bois and Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Toscano reveals liberalism’s entanglement with fascist violence. Violence that not only returns to the center like a boomerang, as Aimé Césaire writes, but which constantly seeps into democratic structures, undermining any firewalls. The “fascist virus” (Karl Polanyi) proves to be polyphonic, syncretic and changeable. It precedes the fascisms of the 20th century and survives them to this day.


On the occasion of the publication of the German translation of Spätfaschismus (March 2025), they will discuss fascist conceptions of freedom, misogynist utopias, racist and colonial continuities, militarization, and masculinization with our guests. They want to know the implications of Toscano’s reflections for the current situation in Germany.


The uncontrolled rise of the AfD, the massive increase in armament and the deportation of activists in Berlin are just some of the recent events that not only need to be understood, but also responded to. How late is it for fascism in this country?



With: Lama El Khatib, Bafta Sarbo, Quinn Slobodian, Alberto Toscano

Hosts: Henrike Kohpeiß, Jonathan Rößler


(Language: English/ German)