re: #483 wrenchwench

From your link:

When I was there in 1993, some of the eastern Germans (newly reconnected with the west) claimed to be more anti-Nazi than the western Germans because of the Soviet presence for so long. The ones I was talking to (part of a lefty commune group) were probably self-deluded, rather than trying to propagandize me.

This is a tricky thing. Remember that before the Wall fell, there was full employment, people had the basics, and in every small town there was a community center run by the party or the local Free Democratic Youth (the East German Pioneers) that offered something to do on a weekend, a film or a disco or something.

Then the wall fell, mother and father lost their jobs, he and took to drinking, mother has to get up at 5am to catch a bus to work at the nearest supermarket 20 miles away, and the youth center closed.

And who came into fill the social vacuum? The Neo-Nazis: they organized family fests and youth activities and won a lot of people over to their cause.

And while West Germany has been interacting and living mostly peacefully with various immigrant groups since the 60’s, the only immigrants the East Germans knew were the Vietnamese guest workers and the African exchange students, with whom there was almost no social interaction.