Context and Motivation
The content addresses four distinct audiences at once: civil society actors, media professionals, municipal administrations, and local politicians. Each group needed to find its role, its strategies, and its concrete next steps without wading through material irrelevant to them. At the same time, the design had to confront a subject defined by fear, territorial claims, and normalization tactics—without resorting to sensationalism or, conversely, an alarmist visual language that would alienate the very readers it needed to mobilize.
Design Approach
The editorial design approach centered on clarity as a counter-strategy. If extreme right-wing real estate thrives on ambiguity, normalization, and intimidation, the design had to do the opposite: structure, expose, and empower.
– Audience-Led Structure: The brochure’s architecture mirrors its table of contents—moving from analysis (“What are extreme right-wing properties?”) to strategy (“Going on the offensive”) to audience-specific action plans for media, civil society, administration, and politics, closing with a practical analysis checklist and first steps.
– Visual Language Against the “Siege” Aesthetic: Rather than mimicking the imagery of the far-right scene, the design developed a sober, self-confident, and contemporary visual language—strong typographic hierarchy, generous whitespace, and a restrained color system that signals democratic seriousness without coldness. The result is a publication that feels institutionally credible and civically warm at once.
– Design as Democratic Infrastructure: Checklists, numbered action steps, and scannable layouts transform political research into practical tools. The design treats readers not as an audience but as actors—people who need to make decisions under pressure.
Impact & Relevance
Belagerungszustände delivers what its subtitle promises: a practical handbook on extreme right-wing real estate that equips democratic actors with concrete counter-strategies. The design turns dense political analysis — covering far-right property acquisition, “trojan horse” functions of pubs and venues, strategies of spreading fear and filling social gaps, and proven cases from Halle to Hachenburg to Mainz — into an accessible, navigable resource.
By giving media professionals clear reporting standards, civil society six concrete fields of action, administrations a catalog of legal and regulatory measures, and local politicians a playbook for confident public positioning, the brochure functions as transferable infrastructure for democratic resistance.
