Survey on Right-Wing Extremism

Far-Right Views Established Across German Society

Far-right views are not just the domain of skinheads and neo-Nazis but are firmly anchored throughout German society, regardless of social class or age, according to a study of attitudes towards foreigners, Jewish people and the Nazi period.

A new survey has found that right-extremist attitudes are firmly anchored in German society.

A study based on a survey of 5,000 people found that 9 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that a dictatorship can in certain circumstances be a preferable form of government, and 15.1 percent agreed with this: "We should have one leader to rule Germany with a strong hand for the good of everyone."

"The term 'right-wing extremism' is misleading because it describes the problem as a peripheral phenomenon. But right-wing extremism is a political problem at the center of society," says the report commissioned by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, a think-tank linked to the center-left Social Democrat party.

The survey, conducted in May and June, found that more than a quarter of respondents agreed with certain xenophobic statements. The rate in eastern Germany was even higher at about a third.

The report said the number was significant as xenophobia was a "gateway drug" leading to right-wing extremism.

A total of 11.6 percent agreed with the statement "If Hitler hadn't exterminated Jews he would be seen as a great statesman today."

The report follows alarm among Germany's mainstream parties at gains by the fair-right National Democratic Party in the eastern state of Mecklenburg West-Pomerania in September. The NPD is now represented in two regional assemblies in eastern Germany after being voted into the Saxony state parliament in 2004.

A total of 36.9 percent of respondents agreed with the statement: "Foreigners only come here to exploit our welfare state." Anti-Semitism seems more widespread in western Germany than the east, with 15.8 percent of westerners agreeing with the statement: "The Jews are more prone than other people to use nasty tricks to get what they want." Just under 6 percent of easterners agreed.

Right-wing extremism shouldn't be dismissed as a problem only affecting young people, said the authors of the report, Elmar Brähler and Oliver Decker of Leipzig University's Institute of Medical Psychology and Sociology.

Many pensioners and people in early retirement, and many unemployed people hold far-right views. But they added that "the group of people with far-right views is recruited from all levels of society."

The report said it was a "scandal" that far-right views were so prevalent. "Right-wing extremism is not an individual problem but one of society," the report said. "The fact that it has come to this touches the foundations of democratic society."

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