The Anastasia movement, which originated in Russia, is spreading in Germany.
The sect appears harmless, but follows a dangerous ideology.
Munich/Grabow - In Germany, more and more people sympathize with a right-wing esoteric sect originating in Russia.
The so-called Anastasia movement is growing in popularity - not only in Germany and German-speaking countries, but worldwide.
Actually, the followers are close to nature and ecological, but in the background there is a dangerous ideology.
The Anastasia Movement draws on a ten-volume novel series by Ukrainian-born Russian entrepreneur and writer Vladimir Megre.
At the center of the books is the fictional character Anastasia.
A young, beautiful woman with golden blonde hair.
Anastasia movement, which originated in Russia, is popular
In the works, Megre addresses a journey through the Russian taiga and the encounter with the hermit who lives alone in the forest and only owns what nature gives her.
Anastasia is also omniscient and possesses supernatural powers, talents that modern man has lost.
Their message is that every human being can attain a perfect life if only heed their teachings.
According to the Austrian Fund for the Documentation of Religiously Motivated Political Extremism, Anastasia calls for “establishing family homes and living in harmony with nature in order to escape from the modern world, also known as 'technocratic'”.
There are dark forces that deny people a fulfilling life.
More than 20 Anastasia settlements in Germany
Anastasia's call seems to be well received: people establish family estates in remote places and live as self-sufficient people.
According to the Moscow Deutsche Zeitung,
there were
more than 20 offshoots in Germany in 2022.
The largest project is in Ostprignitz-Ruppin in Brandenburg and is called "Goldenes Grabow".
The movement, which emerged in central Russia in 1997, also enjoys a following in Austria.
Since 2012, followers have primarily settled in Burgenland.
In 2011, there are said to have been 7,000 family estates in Russia, wrote Matthias Pöhlmann, the regional church representative for sectarian and ideological issues in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, in the
Herder Correspondence
magazine .
Right-wing extremism expert warns of racism and anti-Semitism in the Anastasia movement
Even if the Anastasians are close to nature and esoteric, their ideology also contains dangerous approaches.
In Austria, the movement is under surveillance by state security.
Megre's books conveyed "cultural racism and anti-Semitism," which was added casually, "for example, to explain what's going wrong in the modern world," right-wing extremism expert Matthias Quent told rbb
in
spring 2019.
Quent explained that ideological patterns explain that modern democracy is going downhill and that people have to flee to family estates.
"Through the back door it is argued who is responsible for this alleged destruction and what the right, supposedly natural life - namely an order of inequality between 'races' - should look like."
Anastasia movement mainly active on Telegram
According to Pöhlmann, who has studied Megre's books in detail, the works also encourage anti-democratic resentment.
For example, democracies and Western culture are denounced as decadent and corrupt.
"The Anastasia books serve an enthusiasm for Russia that is already noticeable in the New Right, which celebrates Vladimir Putin as a strong ruler," he writes.
The Anastasia sect is particularly active on social media on Telegram.
For example in the person of Norman Kosin, who left Sylt with his family and moved to a remote property in the south of Burgenland.
He uses "Anastasia channels", which have around 250,000 subscribers, to denounce alleged media lies and to recruit more members for the movement.
Anastasia Movement: Followers still want to bring “hundreds of families to the “place of love”.
Kosin hopes to bring "hundreds of families" to his "place of love," he told AFP news agency.
The former travel manager said the restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic have strengthened his beliefs.
School closures have "destroyed" children, he said, while their "souls are so innocent".
Kosin compared her situation with that of the Ukraine war.
He even took two of his children out of school.
But anti-Semitic views?
He brushed aside this accusation in a meaningful way.
"Because of two or three chapters, everyone who reads the books is put in the category of National Socialists," said Kosin.
(mt)