ABSTRACT
In this chapter I analyse the trajectory of the German radical left from 1989 to 2015. This can be characterised as an electoral success story, as the radical left managed to grow to medium-sized levels in a country where communism had been wiped out by Nazism and the Cold War (in the West) and largely discredited by the authoritarian rule and poor economic performance of the SED regime (in the East). On the other hand, it failed to become a fully credible alternative to the established parties, and its efforts to stop and reverse neoliberal policies led at best to indirect and palliative improvements.
