Nazi Revival in Germany

Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from Der Spiegel, June 9, 2005, with the headline, “Nazism and Anti-Semitism Revived in Germany. German young people - faced with liberal parents who are tolerant about sex, drugs, and rock and roll - are increasingly rebelling by turning to right wing extremism. Neo-Nazi fashion, music, and ideology have become an ever important part of German youth culture. This defensive posture is referred to as Deutsch […], or ‘sticking up for everything German.’ It’s an ‘us-against-them’ attitude - ‘Us against the Russians, the Turks, the Albanians.’ Young Germans no longer know how to differentiate between foreign thugs and peaceful foreign-born German citizens, and they are convinced that their generation should no longer be held responsible for Hitler’s crimes. Quietly and persistently, a new youth culture has developed in both the Eastern and Western parts of Germany. It’s Germanic and xenophobic and potentially explosive. 

While the German government does its best to ban Neo-Nazi demonstrations at memorials for victims of the Nazis, right wing extremism is gaining new adherence in schools, concert venues, and at youth gatherings. 

‘The nationalist mood has become chronic and widespread in former East Germany,’ says Bern Wagner, an expert on extremism. Many parents and teachers are completely perplexed by their children’s xenophobic tendencies. These are fathers and mothers who came of age in the 1960s, who provided their children with a liberal upbringing, and whose greatest fear was that their kids might be taking drugs. They have been completely taken by surprise by the right wing sentiments of German young people. 

The Neo-Nazis have long since changed their tactics when it comes to young people, no longer relying solely on tired slogans to get their message across. Now they organize camping trips, soccer tournaments, hikes, and concerts, as well as running youth clubs. The federal government, whose chancellor has called for a ‘revolution of decent citizens,’ plans to spend 180 million euros by 2006 for programs to combat right wing extremist ideology. The main focus will be educational programs in schools. The result of many students’ lack of knowledge about Nazism can be devastating. According to youth expert Brigitte Kather, even upper-middle class students are becoming increasingly uninhibited when spreading anti-Semitic clichés.” 

Tom: This is frightening in the sense that these young people are turning back to something historically so obvious - I mean, the Holocaust and so on - and the anti-Semitic aspects of this may be the worst part of it, as bad as it is going to be for Germany and for their young people.

Dave: Well, anti-Semitism, of course, is getting worse and worse around the world, and there are some Jewish leaders who say it seems to be even worse than it was just before the Holocaust. 

Now, this generation says they are not responsible for what Hitler did, and in a sense you could say that. But now it sounds like they are repeating, or getting ready to repeat, what Hitler did. They’re desecrating Jewish cemeteries, they’re attacking synagogues…I mentioned some time ago, when Ruth and I were last in Vienna, they have to have a 24-hour, 7-day a week police protection - and I mean, these guys have real weapons - of the main synagogue in Vienna, otherwise it would be attacked. Now, in that particular case, it could be attacked either by Muslims or by Neo-Nazis. 

But, Tom, it seems that it’s more or less like what we were just talking about: there are those who are concerned, and they want to instill a moral attitude. They want to revamp their society…

Tom: Through educational programs.

Dave: Right. Germany…it’s kind of a moral rearmament, or reconstructionism - a revival of morals - and the amazing thing is the Neo-Nazis are at the forefront of this leadership. 

Now, the parents, they were rebels also. They were into drugs and…

Tom: The hippie generation.

Dave: Right, and they were rebelling against society, and they really want their children to follow in their footsteps. That’s left wing, you know - “Everything is okay; one thing is as good as another.” 

I was just talking with a man sitting next to me on the plane yesterday. I came home yesterday, believe it or not. Well, I told him I’ve heard this many times. He said, “I’m spiritual, but I’m not religious.” You’ve heard that over and over and over. 

I said, “Well, what that means is you want to be a space cadet out here somewhere. What do you mean by spiritual? Flying around, but you don’t want any rules to tie you down.” 

Well, that was what the parents were, but their kids, they’re adopting some rules. They’re adopting Neo-Nazism, and it’s an ugly but nationalist mood, and this article says it’s become chronic and widespread. And that’s a bit frightening, because these people can be violent. They’re like the Muslims. They’re like the Christians that we mentioned earlier: “Take it by force; we believe we are right, and we’re going to take over.” You don’t take over for Christ, but they are going to take over for nationalistic purposes. 

And part of it is - and you almost can’t blame them, Tom - they’re upset by the immigrants. You’ve got so many immigrants coming in. That’s a real problem for us. What are we going to do about all the people who come into America illegally? And they immediately have babies, who then are supported by the government. That’s a very serious problem, and now we have some of them talking about - “Well, California really belongs to Mexico, and we want to take it over.” 

You know, I don’t want to get into the politics of the thing, but this is human nature. We always want to impose our will on someone else, and our latest ideas, which happen to be a rerun generally. As Solomon said, “There’s nothing new under the sun.” 

And, Tom, there is no hope. There will never be a solution until - you know, what we need is a benevolent dictatorship. We need someone who has all power and all authority, who can make everyone else conform to His will, but who is absolutely benevolent, 100 percent honest and loving and kind, and - of course, you know who I’m speaking of. 

So there will never be peace on this earth until the Prince of peace rules, and there will never be peace in families and the human heart until Christ rules in the human heart and in our lives. And that’s the message of the church, is to submit to Christ, believe in him as your Savior, the One who died for your sins. And He says He is going to take you out of this world, because it’s heading for judgment. He will take you home to His Father’s house.