ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the German news magazine Focus hit the nail on the head with its 2009 title page, "The Centre a German Fetish". It argues that the danger lies mainly in the filling function of capitalism's promise of consumption. Should the filling fall out, should the promises not be realised one day, the latent authoritarian foundations of society lead to an authoritarian backlash against those who are weaker, or "the others". The phenomenon, which can be termed "secondary authoritarianism", can be empirically observed in anti-democratic or, as in the case of the Leipzig Mitte studies, in right-wing extremist attitudes. Ever since the general election in 1998, if not earlier, election campaigns in Germany have been run with one clear objective: to appeal to the "new centre", as the victorious Social Democratic Party (SPD) described itself at the time. In economic crises, social relegation is no longer a matter of individual fates; for many, it becomes the only direction possible.
