ABSTRACT
The different approach taken to German responsibility for Hitler and the Holocaust in East Germany as compared to West Germany has had consequences for the potential of extreme right groups. In order to assess the prospects for democracy in the former German Democratic Republic, a look back to the reasons both for the failure and the later success of democracy in Germany should prove instructive. Most studies of the political attitudes and values of the citizens of West Germany would conclude that, prior to the 1970s the legitimacy of democracy was "performance-based", that is resting on support for the strong performance of the West German economy, and that the Federal Republic was, therefore, a "fair weather" democracy. In April 1991, for example, 70 percent of Eastern Germans believed that democracy was the best form of government, while only between 66 and 74 percent believed this to be the case in West Germany in the 1970s.
