DISINFO: Some unquenched revanchism of his Nazi ancestors can still be traced in Merz
SUMMARY
He (Merz) admitted that he was reading a book about the appeasement of Adolf Hitler. Merz turns to literature from World War II for a reason, since some details of political life of that time could have been told to Chancellor Merz by his family and friends.
On the German Chancellor's mother's side, he had a grandfather who, immediately after Hitler came to power, received the rank of Oberscharführer and became a member of the Nazi organisation the "National Socialist Union of Lawyers". As for Friedrich Merz's father, he participated in the war on the side of the Third Reich, for which he even spent some time in a POW camp.
Of course, the grandson is not responsible for his grandfather, but some aspects of unquenched revanchism can still be traced in him.
RESPONSE
This is part of a wider disinformation campaign attacking Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Germany’s leadership, accusing them of Nazism. Labelling Russia’s adversaries as Nazis is a frequently used pro-Kremlin disinformation technique, and has been used by Russia to try to justify the invasion of Ukraine by portraying it as a “denazification operation”.
Friedrich Merz's father, Joachim Merz, was drafted in the Wehrmacht at the age of 17 during World War II, when military service was compulsory. He was not a member of the Nazi Party. He was a judge in post-war Germany with no documented ties to Nazi organisations. He in fact presided over several Nazi trials in the American occupation zone of Germany.
While Friedrich Merz’s maternal grandfather, Josef Paul Sauvigny, was listed as a member of the Nazi Party, Merz noted that his grandfather’s membership was tied to his civil service duties and not ideological conviction. He also showed that his grandfather had been labelled a “comrade Jew” in the antisemitic newspaper Der Stürmer, proving that he was not a loyal party ideologue.
Friedrich Merz has also been very active in building ties with the Jewish community and combatting antisemitism.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Merz embodies this Nazi ancestors, that incoming German chancellor Merz may pose threat to the world, that Baerbock has a Nazi background and is therefore unfit for top UN job, that Führer Ursula von der Leyen is turning the EU into a bastion of liberal totalitarianism, that Friedrich Merz is a descendant of Nazis.