ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the various factors that contribute to the rise of right-wing youth violence. It examines the motivations and socioeconomic background as well as the personality traits and Weltanschauung of the youths involved. The chapter describes the role of public discourse that portrays asylees and analyses refugees as threats to German society. It discusses the economic and social turmoil caused by unification and by the great influx of refugees and asylum seekers to Germany. Although the majority come from poorer working class families or unemployed eastern German families, many also come from middle and upper-middle-class backgrounds, including professional, two-parent families from western Germany. Foreigners and people considered “un-German,” such as gays, Jews, and the homeless, provide clear and definite “enemies” against which the group can define itself. Particularly for the youth of eastern Germany, the economic and social disorientation caused by unification has been overwhelming.
