Shock mom and dad: become a neo-nazi

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.

Where did this “German” image come from? It’s hard to say who the first person was to show up to a party in a Lonsdale shirt, curse “the Russians” or download the latest CDs by Bremen’s Germanic renegade heavy metal band Kategorie C.

But Christian, Stefan and Andy don’t really care how it all started. They see just themselves as good kids, living in decent families in a small city west of Munich. They’re in their late teens, about to graduate from high school. And they say that there are too many foreigners “in our country.” They say that “they” should leave, and that then things would be sure to get better.

They believe that if foreigners left there would be more jobs and fewer unemployed Turks getting money from the government. There would be no Albanian drug dealers on the streets and no macho Islamic guys hitting on their girlfriends. They would also no longer run the risk of being beaten up by large groups of “Russians” on a Friday night in front of their favorite bar. They say it is always “the Russians” who attack first.

Christian, Stefan and Andy aren’t the fighting types. They repeat stupid xenophobic language, but aren’t just dim-witted thugs. They say that they would never vote for the NPD — or not yet at any rate. They say they’re afraid. Afraid of violent foreigners in their own home town. So afraid, in fact, that they wouldn’t even give us their real first names.

To avoid getting bloody noses, they’ve discovered a detour through back yards when they go out on a Friday night. Ever since the neighborhood near the train station became a ghetto for immigrants, drunk young Russian-born Germans (the descendants of ethnic Germans who have lived in Russia for generations but who returned to Germany in large numbers following the collapse of the Soviet Union) have been cruising the city’s downtown streets and alleys, looking for a fight. First, says Andy, they surround their victim, then start pushing him around, and finally descend on him with their fists. Since then the three teenagers, all tall and athletic, have been avoiding the gas station and the athletic club’s parking lot, places where the Russians hang out.

This defensive posture is referred as Deutschtümelei, 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.

Wouldn’t it be better to go to the police or speak with the parents? “They,” says Stefan, “don’t have a clue about what’s going on. And the police don’t even bother to show up anymore. They don’t care.”

One of the boys says that his mother, who he characterizes as “more to the left,” became very upset when he and a group of friends tied the German flag to their tent during a summer camping trip. “Hey guys,” she said, angrily, “you must be nuts, where do you think you are?” But what the boy’s mother didn’t seem to notice was that the surrounding tents were all flying flags — Dutch, British and Hungarian — and that no one seemed to care about that.

“We’re not allowed to be patriots. We’re not allowed to be proud of our country, but they are. Why? It’s really annoying,” they say.