The Situation

In recent years the political discourse in Germany has been intensely affected by a growing awareness – in the media, the political elites and in some segments of the general public – of increasingly conspicuous neo-Nazi activity and rhetoric, especially racism, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism, and correspondingly motivated violence in young people in particular in the East of the country. The news media have reported demonstrative hostility toward foreigners, and, most spectacularly, brutal violence against those visibly different – mainly dark-skinned, but also homeless or even handicapped persons. As of September 15, 2000, the count numbered at least 93, probably 114, killed by mostly young right-wing thugs (aged 15–23) since the “transition” (Wende) in 1990. The number of 93 killed was acknowledged in September 2000 by the police, after two liberal newspapers (Tagesspiegel in Berlin and Frankfurter Rundschau) had contested the official record which had featured “a mere” 26 dead. The shift of attention, the timing and pattern of the phenomenon, the numbers, the distribution, and, most of all, the causes and explanations of the observed renascence of Nazi stereotypes and Nazi symbols are all objects of heated debates.

Nazi youth cultures are not a uniquely German phenomenon. Far-right-wing nationalist parties and racist groups are part of the political spectrum in various countries in Europe. They are voted into both national and local parliaments in France, Italy, and Austria; they play a recognizable role in Great Britain and Belgium.