Feelings of ‚being left behind', which, according to the discourse, could be found especially in rural areas, are often used as an explanation for the success of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in the 2017 federal elections Bundestag elections. What is meant by ‚being left behind' is not scientifically defined. In this Thünen Working Paper I therefore examine systematically what meanings are discursively attached to the expression 'being left behind' in the context of the AfD election success of 2017 and rural regions and in which content connections it is embed-ded. For this, I use the methodology of Grounded Theory. The material corpus consists of 233 articles (online and print) of the popular-medial discourse. In addition to articles from national daily and weekly newspapers, I have also included articles from regional newspapers and, due to the online search, magazine articles as well as occasional television and audio contributions. The review of the print media was limited to the third and fourth quarters of 2017. In the above mentioned context situated, three different discursive forms of ‘being left behind’ – infrastruc-tural, economic and cultural – become evident. ‘Being left behind’ goes hand in hand with a conglomeration of feelings of fear, dissatisfaction, powerlessness, and with the criticism of the democratic system itself.