The Hate Review

Key indicators in 2025: Contamination 2.78 / 4  ·  Impact 2.33 / 4

Anti-gender activity in Germany has evolved over the last decades from marginal religious opposition — centred on the Catholic Church’s institutional resistance to the 2001 civil partnership law — into a multi-layered ecosystem. The 2013–2014 sex education controversy in Baden-Württemberg forged the durable Frühsexualisierung narrative and gave rise to the movement Demo für Alle. The 2017 marriage equality debate marked the first national peak of street mobilisation. The 2022–2024 campaign against the Selbstbestimmungsgesetz introduced a so-called “gender critical” current with direct transnational links to British and US anti-trans networks. Since 2023, a younger neo-Nazi movement has added organised street violence against Pride events, particularly in eastern Germany. The formation of the Merz government in 2025 has accelerated the migration of anti-gender rhetoric into mainstream conservative discourse, marking the most significant shift of the period.