Deutschland und der angebliche Klimalockdown

The report details the transition from the term 'climate dictatorship' to 'climate lockdown' in German social media, identifying key political triggers and the role of platforms like Telegram in fusing climate skepticism with broader conspiracy theories such as the Great Reset.

• Between January 2020 and November 2021, there was a observable shift in right-wing discourse from using the term 'climate dictatorship' (Klimadiktatur) to 'climate lockdown' (Klimalockdown). The latter is considered to have higher mobilization potential because it evokes recent negative experiences from the pandemic.
• The 'climate lockdown' narrative gained significant traction following two specific events in 2021: a Federal Constitutional Court ruling in April that found the Climate Protection Act insufficient, and a subsequent statement by Saxon Minister President Michael Kretschmer in May stating that no one wanted a 'climate lockdown'. Both events were instrumentalized by AfD politicians and conspiracy theorists to claim that restrictions on fundamental rights were imminent.
• On Telegram, the 'climate lockdown' narrative was frequently merged with the 'Great Reset' conspiracy theory, which posits that a global elite initiated the pandemic to reshape society. In this context, climate lockdowns were depicted as a 'filler' to maintain restrictions once COVID-19 infection rates declined.
• The narrative was propagated by a variety of actors, including AfD politicians (such as Jörg Meuthen and Alexander Gauland), right-wing influencers, and state-funded media like RT Deutsch. Additionally, some commercial entities used the fear of climate lockdowns to market precious metals as a form of crisis protection.
• The report concludes that the use of pandemic-related vocabulary as a political weapon is part of a broader effort by right-wing and extremist actors to undermine trust in democratic institutions, driven by a fundamental distrust of government rather than specific policy details.

APA

Matlach, P., Schwieter, C., Janulewicz, Ł., & Heyden, N. (2021). Deutschland und der angebliche Klimalockdown. Institute for Strategic Dialogue. https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Deutschland-und-der-angebliche-Klimalockdown.pdf

Chicago

Matlach, Paula, Christian Schwieter, Łukasz Janulewicz, and Nicolás Heyden. Deutschland und der angebliche Klimalockdown. Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2021. https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Deutschland-und-der-angebliche-Klimalockdown.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Matlach |first1=Paula |last2=Schwieter |first2=Christian |last3=Janulewicz |first3=Łukasz |last4=Heyden |first4=Nicolás |title=Deutschland und der angebliche Klimalockdown |publisher=Institute for Strategic Dialogue |date=2021 |url=https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Deutschland-und-der-angebliche-Klimalockdown.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{matlach2021deutschland, author = {Matlach, Paula and Schwieter, Christian and Janulewicz, Łukasz and Heyden, Nicolás}, title = {{Deutschland und der angebliche Klimalockdown}}, institution = {Institute for Strategic Dialogue}, year = {2021}, url = {https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Deutschland-und-der-angebliche-Klimalockdown.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }