Manès Weisskircher

Dr. Manès Weisskircher leads the BMBF-funded research group REXKLIMA (Right-Wing Extremism versus Climate Protection?) at the Institute of Political Science, TU Dresden. He is affiliated with the Center for Research on Extremism (C-REX) at the University of Oslo and the Center for Civil Society Research, Berlin Social Science Center (WZB). He serves as associate editor of the Politische Vierteljahresschrift (German Political Science Quarterly) and sits on the scientific advisory board of the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue.

• Education: Studied in Vienna, London, and Florence; received doctorate from the European University Institute (2019).
• Teaching Experience: Taught at universities in Bonn, Bucharest, Düsseldorf, Dresden, and Vienna, as well as the Social Sciences College of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation.

His research spans political parties, social movements, democracy, and far-right actors, with a focus on climate policy intersections. Publications appear in journals like European Journal of Political Research and Party Politics. He co-authored the book Gains and Losses: How Protestors Win and Lose (Oxford University Press) and edited volumes on far-right politics in Germany.

Recent work analyzes the AfD’s electoral strategies during the 2025 German federal election, far-right climate obstructionism, and affective politics in ecological settler movements. His BMBF-funded group investigates the paradoxical relationship between far-right ideologies and environmental action.

• Scientific Networks: Contributed to special issues on political polarization and civil society, including New Contentious Politics (German Politics, co-edited with Swen Hutter).