Violence against refugees is been far more prevalent in Germany’s eastern states, with asylum seekers in the former east ten times more likely to be victims of hate crimes. New research has shed light on the phenomenon, in the process debunking much of the established wisdom on xenophobia in western countries.
Xenophobic attitudes are increasing in Germany. According to a study by the University of Leipzig, almost one in three Germans now holds prejudices or dislikes against people from other countries.
Following a series of vitriolic attacks against foreigners in the east German city, prominent German bands on Monday are aiming to fight against racism, xenophobia and violence through music.
Germany will hold memorial events on Tuesday for five ethnic Turkish victims of a neo-Nazi arson attack 25 years ago, at a time of resurgent xenophobia and simmering bilateral tensions ahead of Turkish
elections.
Eight members of a German far-right
group face verdicts on Wednesday after a year-long terrorism trial over a series of explosives attacks targeting refugees and anti-fascist activists.
The German government on Friday announced steps to choke off state campaign finance for the far-right NPD party, after a failed court bid to outlaw the xenophobic fringe group.
The architect of the Berlin Holocaust memorial has said that, if he tried to build the monument again today, it would not be possible due to rising xenophobia and anti-Semitism in Germany and the United States.
The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has recorded nearly 800 cases of crimes against refugee homes so far this year, German media reported on Wednesday.
UPDATE: After the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) beat Angela Merkel's CDU into third place in a state election on Sunday, the Chancellor has said that she takes some of the blame.
Imagine Hitler wakes up in today's Berlin, is mistaken for a hilarious impersonator of the Nazi leader and ends up a TV celebrity, widely cheered for voicing his demented worldview.
Facebook announced on Monday it is undertaking steps to counter racist postings by users in Germany after the Justice Ministry criticized its lackadaisical attitude to hate speech.
Crime figures released by the Interior Ministry on Wednesday showed sharp rises in xenophobic crimes in 2014, with anti-Semitism and attacks on refugee homes causing particular alarm.
German police arrested four people on Wednesday accused of belonging to a far-right "terror" organisation that acquired explosives for attacks on Muslims and refugee homes, the federal prosecutor's office said.
Chancellor Angela Merkel joined survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Berlin on Monday to open a series of events dedicated to the end of the Holocaust camp regime 70 years ago.
Despite efforts by counter demonstrators on Monday night, Pegida completed its 12th march around Dresden, attracting its largest crowd to date in the wake of last week's Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris.
A Turkish community leader in Germany warned on Sunday against proposals by mainstream politicians for "dialogue" with a far-right populist movement that has drawn thousands to anti-Islamic street protests.
UPDATE: "There are still limits in the political battle of ideas", Justice Minister Heiko Mass said on Tuesday after a march by anti-Islam group Pegida in Dresden on Monday night.
Overt xenophobia and fascism have lost a lot of ground in Germany in recent years. But a new survey of attitudes shows a creeping tendency in moderate society to sympathise with core ideas of the far right in private.
Germany saw a sharp rise in attacks on foreigners in 2013, as well as more violence by and between left- and right-wing radicals, a government report said on Wednesday.
A German far-right party has sparked outrage by sending mock one-way airline tickets to politicians with migrant roots, urging them to "go home" ahead of Sunday's election.
Young eastern Germans are as xenophobic as pre-war west Germans, according to a new study, which suggests that both groups had similar historical experiences - the collapse of an authoritarian regime.
Members of The Left party are boycotting the pope's speech to the German parliament during an official visit to Berlin later this month. For Der Tagesspiegel’s Malte Lehming, leftist attitudes toward Catholicism are no different from right-wing populist bigotry against Islam.
Hemmed in by an ascendant Green party and facing life without a natural political partner, could the woes of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives help boost right-wing populists in Germany?
