The neo-Nazi movement has collided with the hipster subculture in Germany to form a group of youths wearing beards, trendy tote bags, and bandanas stitched with Nazi slogans. Media has dubbed the fiery mix of Nazi-hipsters “nipsters.”
The new recruits of the far-right movement have taken to YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram, and other social media, as the ‘hipsterfication’ of the neo-Nazi movement has gained more support among youths in Germany. However, they don't own the term “nipster” on the web – there they have to share the name with Asian hipsters, fans of masculine breasts, and less prominent groups that identify with it.
However, the term in its revised meaning was offered in a fresh report by Rolling Stone magazine, which interviewed Patrick Schroeder from northeastern Bavaria, one of the faces of the Nazi hipster movement who hopes to give it a friendlier social and political face.
Schroeder conducts seminars showing neo-Nazis how they can dress less threateningly, saying that people from other subcultures, including hip-hop, should be able to join the Nazi movement.
"If the definition of the nipster is someone who can live in the mainstream," Schroeder explained to Rolling Stone, "then I see it as the future of the movement."
The ‘Nazi fashionistas’ want to be in style by wearing trendy Converses, skinny jeans, tote bags, and brightly colored glasses together with beards.
“There were a lot of jokes about the Nazi hipsters. They had a bag saying ‘Please don’t shove, I’ve got a yogurt in my bag” journalist John Riceburg told RT.
They also filmed a Harlem shake video with people in black balaclavas and Anonymous masks dancing on junked cars with signs reading “Have more sex with Nazis, unprotected.”
There is even a vegan Nazi cooking show where two chatty men wearing balaclavas show how to make various vegan dishes.
Riceburg explained that the Nazis have always tried to copy youth subcultures, giving the examples of skinheads who were originally “a kind of proletarian youth subculture” and eco-Nazis, or hippy-Nazis.
“They are trying to mainstream the Nazi and fascist ideas as being something which is acceptable,” Weyman Bennett, secretary of Unite Against Fascism, told RT. “We saw this in the 70s – the part of early punks wearing swastikas.”
From the early 70s to the 90s, the fascism movement has tried to “plug into the youth culture,” he added.
The Nazi movement has been gaining political support in Europe, Bennett said, pointing to the alarming trend and adding that for the first time since WWII, a Nazi organization has been elected to the EU parliament – referring to the French far-right party Front National headed by Marine Le Pen.