For some the prospect of a far-right government leading Germany is utterly frightening.
There are many reasons why people are worried about the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party — from its policy to send migrants back to where they came from to the fact Germany's own intelligence agency monitors thousands of its members because they're suspected to be "extremist".
The once distant likelihood of an AfD-led Germany is becoming closer to a reality as the party consistently appears second in the polling ahead of the upcoming national election, and it's getting support from an unlikely group of voters.
Among them is 26-year-old Dante Riedel, an ambitious, politically active young man who you might not ordinarily expect to be the future of the party.
But that's exactly how he sees himself.
He's an AfD campaign volunteer who has jumped on the growing wave of young Germans flipping historical voting trends on their head in Europe and fuelling a surge in support for the far right.
Mr Riedel offers many reasons for why he supports the party, chief among them Angela Merkel's decision to open the borders to Syrian refugees in 2015.
Since then more than 1 million refugees have arrived, placing enormous pressure on Germany's social security system, housing and healthcare.
"The main issue is a loss of trust in the state," he told 7.30.
"We will be facing crime, we will be facing terrorism, and we have to make that end."
He also cites the series of attacks in recent months by suspects who sought asylum in Germany as reason to send refugees back to their home country.
This month dozens were injured after a car driven by an Afghan asylum seeker ploughed into a crowd of protesters in Munich.
It followed a similar attack just days before Christmas in Magdeburg, in which a 50-year-old Saudi-born man, now a German citizen, killed six people and injured close to 300 more when he rammed his car into a market.
In August a mass stabbing, allegedly by a Syrian national, left three people dead, and last month an Afghan man killed two people, including a toddler, in a separate knife attack.
'We know how the algorithm works'
Weeks out from the election, Mr Riedel is focusing his attention on one of the AfD's strongholds, Gera, which is 100 kilometres from Leipzig.
Gera is in the eastern German state of Thuringia, which delivered the party the highest share of votes in the 2024 state election — a whopping 34 per cent.
It's the first time a far-right party has edged out the other major parties since World War II.
But what was perhaps even more surprising in that election was that 38 per cent of voters aged between 18 and 24 backed AfD, which dominated social media like no other party.
"We know how the algorithm works," Mr Riedel said.
"We know what youth feels. We know that they are tired of a woke lifestyle pressed upon them.
"The young men of Germany don't want to paint their nails, they want to work on their cars, they want to do martial arts, and this is a main reason why we're so successful.
"We have a lifestyle, and we live a lifestyle that is actually attractive to youths."
Mr Riedel spends most of his Saturday mornings learning the tricks of the trade from party heavyweight, Stephan Brandner.
"I'll say the triggering point was simply the border opening or not closing in 2015, which led to millions of people immigrating to Germany," Mr Brandner said.
He said public support has been growing in the face of government inaction on migration.
"We are in favour of deporting those who have no place here because they have entered illegally, because they are deportable, because they have committed crimes," he told 7.30.
Asked how he responds to criticism that his party is racist and xenophobic, Mr Brandner replied: "complete nonsense".
"It's just being spread by political opponents and by the secret services ... to discredit us and to distract from the fact that we have a very good political program, that we have been right in … almost all political predictions," he said.
Support from Elon Musk
Tearing down the Berlin Wall 35 years ago was meant to bring the country back together and eliminate the disparities felt by some in the formerly Soviet-controlled East Germany.
But those divisions are still playing out in politics, with citizens in the east increasingly voting for the AfD.
A fifth of the German population is now throwing support behind it according to polling and it's even got the backing of one of the world's most powerful men, Elon Musk, who has declared that the party is Germany's only hope for the future.
Mr Musk has repeatedly talked up the party on his social media channels, beamed into a recent campaign event to show his support and even hosted a 74-minute live chat with its co-leader, Alice Weidel.
"We should be optimistic and excited about a future for Germany. And that's really my message — to be optimistic, excited and preserve German culture and protect the German people," Mr Musk told a recent party launch.
The shift of young voters towards the far-right of politics is a trend happening right across Europe.
It's in stark contrast to the 2019 EU elections when the demographic overwhelmingly backed Green parties, which reflected how society generally classified them — as culturally liberal and worried about the planet.
But fast forward five years and they're now voting for parties which want to tear down wind farms, send migrants back to where they came from and crack down on the European Union.
"Young people tended to vote [for] left-wing parties or the Greens. They received usually a lot of support. And now we see a big change," University of Potsdam professor Nina Kolleck told 7.30.
She studies the social trends of young Germans, which she says have dramatically shifted since the pandemic.
"They don't see a lot of hope for their own future. And that's also how the right-wing movement gains support, because they offer very simple solutions for big problems in the lives of young people," Professor Kolleck said.
While she acknowledges the shift is happening across the continent, there is a specific undercurrent running through German society that's unique.
"After the Cold War, the problems in East Germany have not been solved by the politicians. So this is also one reason why young people do not trust or are losing trust in politicians and political institutions and also in democracy," she said.
Grannies Against the Right
While Germany's youth might be shifting towards the far right, the older generation, who grew up in the shadow of Nazi Germany fear the chance of history repeating itself.
Käthe Klepp, 84, is part of an activist group who call themselves Grannies Against the Right.
"This whole story started 100 years ago and we don't want it to continue, and that's why we are committed to opposing everything that is now spreading right-wing ideas in Germany, and is taking on more and more forms," Ms Klepp told 7.30.
Aged between 61 and 84 years, the women have defied death threats to spend their twilight years travelling across the country to spread their message.
"I think that injustice will grow in the country, there will be a lot of fear. We learned about what happened in 1933 from history books, from our parents, and we don't want history to repeat itself," fellow member Anette Bormann, 61, said.
The AfD is unlikely to get enough votes to govern in its own right and after World War II, Germany's mainstream parties pledged to never work with the far-right, establishing what they call a political "firewall" against its rise.
But the likely next German leader, Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democtatic Union (CDP), has been accused of breaking that long-held taboo.
His non-binding motion calling for more migrants to be turned back at the border passed with votes from the AfD. It then triggered mass protests on the streets before it failed e final hurdle.
The so-called firewall has come under pressure in recent weeks as debate over immigration has raged in German parliament, particularly in light of the recent random attacks on civilians.
It has led the sitting Social Democratic Party to accuse the opposition CDP of making a deal with the devil.
"Will we get an absolute majority? I think it's quite possible in the east in the next elections," Mr Brandner said.
"At the moment the CDU has walled itself in. They call it a firewall, I call it a prison wall."
For Ms Bormann, the current political environment makes her activism all the more important.
"I have three daughters, and I wish for my three daughters and my little grandson that they can live and grow up in peace and democracy, and above all for my daughters that women's equality is not turned back somewhere," she said.
"When they have children they don't have to go back home to the stove, but that they will have the same opportunities as men in the world of work and in life in general, that this can develop further."
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