Winds of (Dangerous) Change: 30 Years to the Fall of the Berlin Wall, 81 Years to Kristallnacht

On November 9, 2019 Germany marked 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall and 81 years since Kristallnacht. Decades later, it seems that right wing extremism and anti-semitism are returning to mainstream political and social discourse. Latest election results in several former East German states, as well as the attack on a synagogue in Halle on Yom Kippur 2019, show a clear rise in racist, xenophobic and anti-semitic views in the German society, and growing support for the far right party Alternative for Germany. This is a dangerous political development, in which German Jews (as well as other minorities) are under attack, yet again excluded from their own society. INSS research associate Adi Kantor and Dr. Henning Lahmann, senior researcher at the Digital Society Institute at the ESMT Berlin, discuss what has changed in German society in recent years, why does the AfD receive so much sympathy from voters, what is the effect of social media on the spread of anti-semitism and right wing extremism, and how can German law tackle these phenomena?