A clear majority of East Germans can identify with democracy as an idea, but less than half are satisfied with their everyday experience of democracy. This was the result of a representative survey of 3,546 people from the eastern German states conducted by the Else-Frenkel-Brunswik Institute of the University of Leipzig, the results of which were presented today (June 28) at the Federal Press Conference in Berlin by the study’s directors Oliver Decker and Elmar Brähler.
The vast majority of respondents said they felt they had no political influence. The identification as East Germans is high, the balance of the turnaround is mixed: -One quarter feels like a loser of the turnaround, not even half would like to call themselves a winner. In retrospect, the satisfaction of those surveyed with their life in the GDR is high," said Decker, summarizing a key finding of the representative survey. The study, which also asks questions about the experience and evaluation of the Wende years, was carried out in cooperation with the Research Institute for Social Cohesion (Forschungsinstitut Gesellschaftlicher Zusammenhalt, FGZ) - an association of eleven university and research institutes that focuses on the contradictions of social cohesion in Germany.
The study also found a high level of approval for right-wing extremist statements in the eastern German states. Chauvinistic and xenophobic statements were rejected by only a minority of respondents, the project leaders emphasized. Elements of neo-NS ideology were not expressed openly to the same extent, but anti-Semitic and Social Darwinist statements also met with approval - a third of the population agreed with them completely or in part. The approval is pronounced in the states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. Here, the potential for extreme right-wing and neo-Nazi parties to find voters is particularly high. Every second person wants a -strong party- that embodies the -community of the people- as a whole. Instead of pluralistic diversity of interests, a völkische Gemeinschaft is desired-, Brähler explained. Decker adds: -Our research shows that currently many people in the eastern German states do not want more democratic participation and the safeguarding of basic democratic rights, but rather the apparent security of an authoritarian state.-.
According to the survey, satisfaction with democracy as it functions in everyday life is weak. Not even half of the population feels that they are part of it. This corresponds with the high level of political deprivation: Two-thirds consider it pointless to be politically active, and hardly anyone believes they have any influence on the government. This is matched by the fact that the conspiracy mentality is the most widespread element of the authoritarian syndrome, along with authoritarian aggression. -We thus observe a pronounced foreignness with democracy, it is not understood by many as something of its own-, adds the deputy director of EFBI, Dr. Johannes Kiess, who was involved in the study. These values have remained constant for about 20 years.
The longing for the GDR is pronounced, two-thirds share it. Three quarters felt themselves to be East Germans. However, many also felt German and a citizen of the Federal Republic, so several identities can exist in parallel. Only half count themselves among the winners of German unity, while a third count themselves among the losers. This retrospective view of the GDR is not least related to the desire for a one-party dictatorship, as illustrated by the high level of support for the demand for -a single strong party that embodies the Volksgemeinschaft. These results show that extreme right-wing parties with their ideological offerings have numerous points of contact with the broader population. Consequently, most AfD supporters have extreme right-wing attitudes.
about the study
Since 2002, the study directors have conducted population-representative studies on political attitudes in Germany with the -Leipzig Authoritarianism Studies-, known until 2018 as -Mitte Studien-. Throughout the period, the different political orientations in East and West Germany stood out. While at the beginning of the survey series, these still showed related characteristics for the new and old federal states, and in eastern Germany, for example, anti-Semitic statements were openly agreed with less often, a contrary development has emerged over the years. While there was a tendency toward a decrease in openly expressed right-wing extremist attitudes in western Germany, there were strong fluctuations in eastern Germany. Since the sample in the eastern German states is too small due to the smaller proportion of the total German population, political attitudes and their influencing factors cannot usually be calculated separately for individual eastern German states. As a result, there is a gap in research, and the differences in political culture within and between the eastern German states have not been adequately appreciated in attitude studies to date. The evaluation presented here is intended to help close this gap by documenting the prevalence of antidemocratic attitudes and resentments on a representative basis.
For this reason, the study leaders, together with scientists from the universities of Jena and Mainz, conducted a population-representative study in 2022 among the resident population of the five eastern German states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, and Thuringia. East Berlin is usually not counted as a federal state because it belongs to the federal state of Berlin. Nevertheless, the question remains as to what special features in political attitudes can be recorded in the area of the former capital of the GDR, which is why East Berlin was included in the study.
In recent years, a number of state research institutes have been established in eastern Germany: the Julius Emil Gumbel Research Center at the Moses Mendelsohn Center in Brandenburg, the Institute for Democracy and Civil Society in Thuringia, the Else Frenkel Brunswik Institute at the University of Leipzig for Saxony, and the Institute for Democratic Culture at the University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal for the state of Saxony-Anhalt. These institutions in the eastern German states cooperate in the network of research centers for democracy and right-wing extremism research. The empirical results are therefore analyzed by the respective institutes and the findings are evaluated from the perspective of the respective federal state.
Pia Siemer
