Anti-semitism in the late 1990s

Werner Bergmann

Rainer Erb

pp. 163-186

in: Richard Alba, Peter Schmidt, Martina Wasmer (eds), Germans or foreigners?, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003

Abstract

Since 1986 surveys on anti-Semitism have been conducted in rapid succession, inspired by a series of public conflicts over the attitudes of Germans toward Jews and their Nazi past (see an overview by Bergmann and Erb, 1997). The reunification of Germany, the electoral success of extreme Rightwing parties, and the wave of violence directed against foreigners in 1991–93 have occasioned further studies (Wittenberg et al., 1991; Jodice, 1991; Emnid-Institut, 1992; Golub, 1994; Freytag and Sturzbecher, 1997; Weil, 1997, cf. Bergmann and Erb, 1997). Investigations of xenophobia and of the electorate of extreme Right-wing parties have included anti-Jewish attitudes in their scope (Förster et al., 1993; Falter, 1994). In their essential features, the studies of the 1980s and early 1990s drew a coherent picture of the distribution of attitudes among the west German population. The primary influences on attitudes toward Jews were such factors as age, level of education, and political orientation: anti-Semitism was found mostly among people who belonged to the so-called National Socialist generation, who had a lower level of schooling, and who labeled themselves politically to the Right.