In Germany, the refugee crisis of 2015 mobilized millions of German citizens to volunteer for refugees. Overnight, a broad movement, different from previous forms of solidarity activism, emerged. Its focus on humanitarian help, integration measures and its lack of ideological coherence suggest that is not a social movement in the conventional sense. The paper argues, however, that this new volunteerism for refugees is a political movement of a different kind, as an analysis of survey data, semi-narrative interviews and group discussions with volunteers reveals. For the majority of volunteers, helping refugees is a symbolic form of political articulation, particularly against mobilization efforts from right wing extremists on the local level.