ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the protection of democracy from the perspective of the authors’ practical work as civil society actors. This practice is framed by academic studies and insights. The following study focuses on how the German state attempted to build a democratic civil society through funding programmes for youth social work after reunification in 1990. In the first section, the focus is on the programmes to integrate young right-wing extremists. The approach of “accepting social work” was used in an attempt to combat the growing right-wing extremism in East Germany in the 1990s. The conclusions drawn from its failure lay the foundation for the approaches of today’s funding programmes to strengthen democracy against right-wing extremism. The authors discuss the developments of democracy promotion, their different focuses, justifications, and the respective conclusions drawn from the history of democracy protection in Germany since 1990. As there have been many different projects, the authors focus exclusively on the civil society work that has emerged from the federal programmes against right-wing extremism in Germany. This ensures an in-depth detailed description, analysis, and discussion of this part of civil society work aimed at strengthening democracy. It becomes clear that civil society work in Germany moves in a constant field of tension between state influence by political majorities, the danger of dependence on state institutions, and a striving for the greatest possible independence of non-governmental organisations.
