The Volksgemeinschaft ("Folk Community") was a utopian ideal embraced by the Nazis in the Third Reich as a racially unified and organized nation devoid of class conflict - a mystical unity, a form of racial soul uniting all Germans. The idea of the Volksgemeinschaft also justified the one-party state as all that was needed in a society with a united will, where the Leader (Führer) - Hitler - implemented the will of the Volk more directly than in a democracy. Of course Jews, foreigners - i.e. non-Aryans - were excluded from the Volksgemeinschaft.
The dream of the Volksgemeinschaft never completely died in Germany. More recently it has been revived in the rhetoric of the neo-fascist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party. The AfD began as a small right-wing populist protest movement - analogous to the Tea Party movement in the US. But now the AfD polls as the second strongest party in Germany - surpassing the Social Democrat SPD and the Green Party. In eastern states such as Thuringia, Saxony, and Saxony-Anhalt the AfD is the leading party - recently winning a number of state and local elections.
Recently the researchers a the Else Frenkel -Brunswik Institute in Leipzig conducted a wide-ranging survey of political attitudes among citizens in the eastern Germany states. What the researchers discovered is widespread dissatisfaction with democracy and longing for an authoritarian state - similar to the one many of the older respondents experience under the communist dictatorship of the GDR:
Jeder zweite wünscht sich eine ‘starke Partei‘, die die ‚Volksgemeinschaft‘ insgesamt verkörpert. Statt pluralistischer Interessensvielfalt wird eine völkische Gemeinschaft gewünscht“,
(Half (of the respondents) long for a 'strong party' that would in large measure embody the Volksgemeinschaft . Instead of a pluralistic range of interests there is a desire fo a (ethnically pure) folk community.)
What seems to unite the citizens of these states is a universal hatred of foreigners - something of a paradox since there are far fewer foreigners and refugees living in eastern Germany than in the west. There was widespread agreement that "foreigners" are coming to take advantage of social services that should be reserved for "pure" Germans.
Antisemitism is also widespread, with nearly hall of all polled believing that Jews have too much power even today: Auch heute noch ist der Einfluss der Juden zu groß - again, with only a minuscule number of Jewish people living in the eastern states.
Much of this xenophobia, antisemitism and fascist mindset in the east seems to be driven by a widespread resentment against the west - a feeling of inferiority, particularly among the men, in comparison to their western counterparts. This, even though Germany has invested billions of Euros in the eastern states, improving the infrastructure and subsidizing generous social services. The standard of living in the east has improved enormously since the collapse of the GDR in 1990. Still, the east lags far behind the western state in economic development. And racism only exacerbates the situation, since only an influx of young migrants and refugees can begin to reverse the downward spiral. The dream of the Volksgemeinschaft in the east has created an economic Teufelskreis ('vicious cycle'):
"Die neuen Bundesländer schneiden da traditionell schlecht ab. Die Spuren der vergangenen Krisen und der Rechtsdrall haben das Potenzial, eine Art Teufelskreis auszulösen. Bis 2050 dürfte die Bevölkerung in Ostdeutschland um weitere zehn Prozent schrumpfen, so die Vorausberechnung des Statistischen Bundesamts , während die westdeutschen Flächenländer weiter leicht wachsen (plus zwei Prozent).
»In fortgeschrittenen Volkswirtschaften kommt Wachstum vor allen Dingen durch Innovation, und das funktioniert besser in toleranten Gesellschaften«, sagt Ökonom Holtemöller. In Ostdeutschland gebe es dabei insgesamt mehr Hindernisse als im Westen.
Rassismus und Ablehnung von Ausländern sind für die neuen Bundesländer sensible, weil schmerzhafte Themen."
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