From: harmic@Physik.TU-Muenchen.DE (Michaela Harlander)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.europe.misc
Subject: Re: German hate crime resurgence and GDR education since WWII
Date: 5 Oct 92 11:34:16 GMT
Organization: Leibniz-Rechenzentrum, Muenchen (Germany)

dfield@zeus.calpoly.edu (Dan Field (InfoSpunj)) writes:

>     The recent resurgence of neonazi demonstrations and violence
>in Germany is very disturbing.  It makes me wonder just how different
>the two Germanies were raised after World War II.
>     I am well aware that a lot has been done in West Germany in bringing
>awareness about that era, but could someone who knows share what the
>East Germans have been exposed to over the past several generations 
>in this regard?  Do you think that reunification has contributed to the
>current violence, and is it a growing phenomenon, or perhaps something a 
>relatively constant stock of extreemists is perpetuating?

East Germany did not hold itself responsible for the Third Reich.
(I mean historical responsibility, just as West Germany hold itself
historically responsible.)
This meant e.g. that they refused to pay reparations (? right word?)
to victims of the nazi regime (which have to be paid right now by the
unified Germany). Neonazism was no topic in East Germany. Actually,
there was no neonazism visible. 

In West Germany a right-wing party existed before unification took place
and they had a decent number of followers. In West Germany this was taken
very seriously, but you could find the same phenomenon in many European
countries like France or Italy.

Unification hit this party very hard. They lost many of their followers.
Only when discussion started about the German law for granting asylum
they rose again. For those of you who don't know: the recent violence
is aimed against people seeking asylum in Germany. Germany has a very
generous law concerning asylum allowing every person to fight a law
suit against any decision made. This means that there are very many
people who apply for asylum while knowing they would never get it 
(coming from countries where there is no political oppression). They
stay in Germany until a final decision is made which can be a very long 
time. 

Now the situation in former East Germany is partly very bad for the people
since a lot of the economics broke down. And politicians have failed to
warn people about it. They always said: you will soon be living as wealthy
as West German people. Especially young people who are unemployed and don't
have an idea about what to do in the future tend to say: just push these
foreigners outside Germany and there will be enough employment and/or
enough money for us. Of course this is very shortsighted since people
looking for asylum don't increase unemployment since they are not allowed
to work. 

Politicians didn't react in a sensible way. Those young people could
not feel that their needs have been respected. This and the lack of
education against nazism may make part of the reasons for recent violence
in former East Germany. It is interesting to note that a former secretary
of an official East German youth organisation (I do not remember exactly which
organisation, sorry) was arrested since he is accused
of right-wing terrorism.

	Michaela.

--
Michaela K. Harlander             harmic@physik.tu-muenchen.de
GeNUA Gesellschaft fuer Netzwerk- und UNIX- Administration mbH 
und Physik-Department TU Muenchen
Newsgroups: alt.politics.europe.misc