Germany’s Far Right Takes Its Fight to the Factory Floor

At shift’s end, employees streaming out of Audi’s plant in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt are met by a small group of men at the edge of the parking lot. As engines fire up and boots crunch on gravel, the men try to press leaflets into gloved hands. Only a few of the workers stop in the fading winter light, quickly folding the flyers into parka pockets before unlocking their cars. While the photos on the pamphlets are anodyne—cheerful workers on assembly lines—the text offers a dire warning of looming job cuts, accusing Germany’s traditional unions of selling out workers.

The men represent Zentrum, a fast-growing far-right union that’s challenging IG Metall, the 2 million-member movement that has dominated German labor relations since the 1950s. “Here’s an alternative—you should look into it,” Oliver Hilburger, Zentrum’s 56-year-old leader, says as he hands out leaflets.