Nazis had good points, young Germans say

Allan Hall
in Berlin

ONE IN two young east Germans believe the Nazis had "good points" in a survey that shows the shadow of the swastika continuing to darken modern Germany.

While that is startling enough in itself, 15 per cent of young people in the former DDR believe the Nazi party in itself "was a good idea" and wouldn't mind seeing it back in power. The terrifying attitudes are revealed at the same time as the government admitted to a 40 per cent rise in hate crimes in Germany last year.

But while much is made of dispossessed and disillusioned youth in the former communist state, the allure of the murderous regime is also still glamorous to western youngsters.

In the same survey conducted by the Forsa Institute, 35 per cent agreed with their eastern neighbours in "good points" of the Nazis. Some 46 per cent of easterners aged 14 to 25 believe Germany, has too many foreigners, compared to 40 per cent of west Germans.

The survey makes depressing reading for a government that has tried desperately to combat the rising tide of neo-Nazi violence and support.

The interior minister, Otto Schilly, admitted that last year in Germany the number of xenophobic crimes rose by about 40 per cent.

According to Mr Schilly, 13,753 far-right, xenophobic and anti-Semitic crimes and acts were committed from January to November 2000. A year ago, the number was 9,456. Physical attacks against foreigners rose by about 30 per cent from 397 to 553.

Five people died in neo-Nazi violence last year. Attacks included a grenade assault on Russian immigrants in Düsseldorf and the firebombing of a synagogue there, the kicking to death of an African immigrant in East Germany and arson attacks on several asylum seeker refuges.

The centre of violence lies in eastern Germany, Mr Schilly said in an interview with Die Woche newspaper. Roughly half of the crimes were committed there, although the provinces of the former DDR have only 21 per cent of the population.

"Out of 100,000 inhabitants in the Neue Länder there are three times more violent far right crimes compared to 100,000 inhabitants in the West German regions," the SPD politician added.

Forsa surveyed 1,106 young people aged 14 to 25.

In a separate survey in eastern Germany - a still-blighted region that many feel was colonised by carpetbaggers after the fall of the Wall instead of being absorbed - one in six of the population wishes the communists were back in power.

"This is polarisation, this is danger," said Helmut Griese, a political scientist from Berlin. "Crises like these drive people away from the centre to the extremes of left and right.

"We all take democracy for granted in Germany but it is a fragile democracy, one that has been in existence for just 50 years. And the ghosts of the street battles between communist and Nazi are rattling their chains in the collective conscience all the time.

"That our youth still find the perpetrators of the biggest mass slaughter in history had 'good points' boggles the mind."

Related items on this website:

 Hitler index