Just What Is a “Right-Wing Space?”: Revisiting a Debate About Architectural Theory and Far Right Populism

This article analyses the debate about the relationship between the rise of the far right and the built environment in Germany. Four distinct arguments are identified and evaluated: the development of a critique of architectural modernism by far-right intellectuals; the rehabilitation of Nazi architects and theorists; the creation of spaces for right-wing prefigurative politics; and, lastly, historical reconstructions as a factor in the rightward shift of political culture. The article claims that all these arguments have some validity, but that only the last points to a development with wider political impact. It also argues that there has been a shift from a critical understanding of reconstructions to an uncritical one, and that uncritical reconstructions can facilitate a rapprochement between centre-right parties and intellectuals and far-right figures.