"It is not surprising that a party which argues for a self-conscious nation-state in a Europe of Fatherlands is seen as reactionary."

"That only shows how one-sided the discussion in Germany has been for years," said Frauke Petry, a leader of Alternative for Germany quoted in a NYT article titled "Germany’s Embrace of Migrants Spawns Rise of Far-Right Leader."

As for the Nazi past, she said, “the uniqueness, the singularity of German guilt has stood much too often in the forefront, and distorted the view that there are also enough positive aspects to our history.”

In a shabby hall on the outskirts of Mannheim, a city of 300,000 about 60 miles south of Frankfurt, Ms. Petry got a sympathetic hearing from some 250 listeners.

“Germany is crazy,” said Katja Kornmacher, 46, who said she works in a publishing house and holds two university degrees. “We have the feeling that we can’t say anything” against the leftist view in Germany. “It starts in school, where we are told what is correct. And those who follow this line land better in life... The line is: ‘Right is bad, left is good.’ And then the leftists are outside shouting against this democratic event.”