Right-Wing Extremism among German Youth
German magazine Der Spiegel is reporting that neo-Nazism is experiencing a surge in popularity among German youth. Here is some of what the article says:
Quietly and persistently, a new youth culture has developed in both the eastern and western parts of Germany. It's Germanic and xenophobic and potentially explosive.
While the German government does its best to ban neo-Nazi demonstrations at memorials for victims of the Nazis, right-wing extremism is gaining new adherents in schools, concert venues and at youth gatherings. The "nationalist mood" has become "chronic and wide-spread" in former East Germany, says Bernd Wagner, an expert on extremism. But young people in these areas are unlikely to encounter many foreigners there. According to a current study by the Bavarian State Office for Political Education, their right-wing extremism is a protest -- even a revolt -- against the West's more liberal, middle-class values.
Interestingly enough, even though the article estimates that these views are shared by some 25% of German youth, it still gets characterized as "fringe," at least in the response by what they call "the parent generation":
One of the most damaging aspects of neo-Nazi activity in the countryside is the silence of the parent generation. Local officials and the police still refer to neo-Nazi efforts as a fringe activity, and they refuse to acknowledge the potential for conflict with violent foreign gangs in Germany's smaller cities.
One wonder what level of involvement in neo-Nazi activity counts as the tipping point from "fringe" into "mainstream issue." Certainly 25% and an article in Der Spiegel is something of a threshold.
Quietly and persistently, a new youth culture has developed in both the eastern and western parts of Germany. It's Germanic and xenophobic and potentially explosive.
While the German government does its best to ban neo-Nazi demonstrations at memorials for victims of the Nazis, right-wing extremism is gaining new adherents in schools, concert venues and at youth gatherings. The "nationalist mood" has become "chronic and wide-spread" in former East Germany, says Bernd Wagner, an expert on extremism. But young people in these areas are unlikely to encounter many foreigners there. According to a current study by the Bavarian State Office for Political Education, their right-wing extremism is a protest -- even a revolt -- against the West's more liberal, middle-class values.
Interestingly enough, even though the article estimates that these views are shared by some 25% of German youth, it still gets characterized as "fringe," at least in the response by what they call "the parent generation":
One of the most damaging aspects of neo-Nazi activity in the countryside is the silence of the parent generation. Local officials and the police still refer to neo-Nazi efforts as a fringe activity, and they refuse to acknowledge the potential for conflict with violent foreign gangs in Germany's smaller cities.
One wonder what level of involvement in neo-Nazi activity counts as the tipping point from "fringe" into "mainstream issue." Certainly 25% and an article in Der Spiegel is something of a threshold.
posted by Jessie Daniels at
1:34 PM
