In many parts of eastern Germany, showing Nazi symbols is no longer seen as a provocation. Authorities are warning that more and more young people are becoming radicalized. DW explored the reasons in the city of Dessau.
Hi, German here (even born in Dessau, the city mentioned in the article).
Personally I doubt that the youth thinks their parents/grandparents had it easier. I mean my parents grew up in Eastern Germany and while some things were better a lot of other things were way worse. My grandparents are the generation which rebuild a destroyed nation.
One of the key problems in Eastern Germany is they got screwed over and over again (e.g. by the red army, then by the sovjiet regime and then by the German reunification). Each time they had to rebuild with less ressources than before. That means like 90% of industry in Eastern German was destroyed.
So growing up here the goal for many, including me, was to leave. There are not many good jobs there and Western Germany pays better for the same jobs. None of my friends stayed in Dessau. And that is a phenomenon going on since the reunification - Dessaus inhabitants are notably older on average. I still live in Eastern Germany, in a bigger city though - and I work remote for a company in “Western Germany” as it pays roughly 20.000 € more than equal positions locally.
So a lot of the people who stay, stay because they can’t leave. And thus social circles shrink and diversity gets erradicated - no LGBTQ* person or person of color will want to stay as there is nothing for them. So now you have a bunch of young pissed people with no voice against them. Perfect breeding ground for Nazi ideology. And then they get older and angrier and get kids themselves and “suddenly” you have a nazi youth.
And the politicians do not help. At. All. This is a problem 75+ years in the making but it still gets ignored. There is no perspective for a lot of small German towns.
The irony being a lot of Germans stick their head in sand and pretending homophobia and racism isn’t baked into German society because, “We’re not as bad as America.”
I’m a black American who’s lived in western Germany from 4ish years and the similarities between the two are GLARING.
Eastern Germany is exactly the same as Southern and Midwestern US. I look at places like Dresden and Dessau the EXACT same way I look at rural Mississippi and Alabama
Absolutely. Many people have never put thought into either and most do not intend to start now. To break that cycle longterm school curriculums would have to be improved to be more inclusive and for some reason we cannot have that either.
(Among other veritable measures, this is just the first that came to mind, as everything my school taught about homophobia/racism is that “No, it is bad” - no explanation, no highlighting why courage to stand up against it is important or highlighting lives of minorities which had an positive impact on the world [e.g. Turing]. History lessons in Germany focusses a lot on the damages done during WWII and yet barely anyone knows here that it wasnt just jews that were killed in concentration camps, and even less people know that the homosexuals were not freed after WWII came to an end. Even less people know about magnus Hirschfeld and his revolutionary work at that time. There is such a focus on the topic WWII and yet the schools fail to create a whole before/after picture of it - it honestly is a travesty.)
I really hate that “We are not as bad as X” mentality. That should not be the baseline. We have hundreds of countries worldwide, we can see what works for the people and what does not. We could look at every topic, be it equality, education, infrastructure, local governments or whatever and look for the ‘best’ country and then look what we can copy to make things better here. But no, that would be to easy and scientific and what about my profits/religion/bigotry.
Hi, German here (even born in Dessau, the city mentioned in the article).
Personally I doubt that the youth thinks their parents/grandparents had it easier. I mean my parents grew up in Eastern Germany and while some things were better a lot of other things were way worse. My grandparents are the generation which rebuild a destroyed nation.
One of the key problems in Eastern Germany is they got screwed over and over again (e.g. by the red army, then by the sovjiet regime and then by the German reunification). Each time they had to rebuild with less ressources than before. That means like 90% of industry in Eastern German was destroyed.
So growing up here the goal for many, including me, was to leave. There are not many good jobs there and Western Germany pays better for the same jobs. None of my friends stayed in Dessau. And that is a phenomenon going on since the reunification - Dessaus inhabitants are notably older on average. I still live in Eastern Germany, in a bigger city though - and I work remote for a company in “Western Germany” as it pays roughly 20.000 € more than equal positions locally.
So a lot of the people who stay, stay because they can’t leave. And thus social circles shrink and diversity gets erradicated - no LGBTQ* person or person of color will want to stay as there is nothing for them. So now you have a bunch of young pissed people with no voice against them. Perfect breeding ground for Nazi ideology. And then they get older and angrier and get kids themselves and “suddenly” you have a nazi youth.
And the politicians do not help. At. All. This is a problem 75+ years in the making but it still gets ignored. There is no perspective for a lot of small German towns.
The irony being a lot of Germans stick their head in sand and pretending homophobia and racism isn’t baked into German society because, “We’re not as bad as America.”
I’m a black American who’s lived in western Germany from 4ish years and the similarities between the two are GLARING.
Eastern Germany is exactly the same as Southern and Midwestern US. I look at places like Dresden and Dessau the EXACT same way I look at rural Mississippi and Alabama
Absolutely. Many people have never put thought into either and most do not intend to start now. To break that cycle longterm school curriculums would have to be improved to be more inclusive and for some reason we cannot have that either.
(Among other veritable measures, this is just the first that came to mind, as everything my school taught about homophobia/racism is that “No, it is bad” - no explanation, no highlighting why courage to stand up against it is important or highlighting lives of minorities which had an positive impact on the world [e.g. Turing]. History lessons in Germany focusses a lot on the damages done during WWII and yet barely anyone knows here that it wasnt just jews that were killed in concentration camps, and even less people know that the homosexuals were not freed after WWII came to an end. Even less people know about magnus Hirschfeld and his revolutionary work at that time. There is such a focus on the topic WWII and yet the schools fail to create a whole before/after picture of it - it honestly is a travesty.)
I really hate that “We are not as bad as X” mentality. That should not be the baseline. We have hundreds of countries worldwide, we can see what works for the people and what does not. We could look at every topic, be it equality, education, infrastructure, local governments or whatever and look for the ‘best’ country and then look what we can copy to make things better here. But no, that would be to easy and scientific and what about my profits/religion/bigotry.
Wow! Suspected I was off, hence the question. And here a local shows up to educate me! Much thanks!