The surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945 marked the end of an epoch during which anti-Semitism escalated into genocide. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Nazi racist ideology was discredited morally and politically, and the Allied occupation forces prohibited its dissemination in public. However, there was no overnight transformation of individual anti-Semitic attitudes among the public at large. Most surveys conducted since 1946 have confirmed the persistence of massive anti-Semitism in Germany both in the democratic West and the communist East. Based on all empirical survey data available up to now, this volume offers a thorough comparative analysis of anti-Semitism in Germany, and in particular its resurgence with the rise of right-wing extremism since unification.

Anti-Semitism in Germany reflects a historically unique opportunity to compare the attitudes of two population groups that shared a common history up to 1945 and then lived under differing political conditions until 1989. The authors find distinct generational patterns in the survival and development of anti-Semitic attitudes. In the Federal Republic hostility towards Jews was more manifest among those who had been socialized to it under the Weimar Republic and Third Reich but less prevalent in subsequent generations. In contrast the authors show younger East Germans as more susceptible to anti-Semitism. The economic and cultural crises of reunification underwrote the strident anti-Zionism of the former communist regime. The authors also explore the anti-Semitic component of the recent wave of xenophobic violence and the disturbing rise of neo-Nazi political activity.

This volume is especially noteworthy in its examination of a "secondary" anti-Semitism closely tied to the issue of coming to terms with the Nazi past. The motives behind persisting anti-Semitism can no longer be attributed to ethnic conflict, but go to the core discrepancy between wanting to forget and being reminded. The authors consider this phenomenon within the framework of current German political culture. In its comprehensiveness and methodological sophistication, Anti-Semitism in Germany is a major contribution to the literature on modern anti-Semitism and ethnic prejudice. It will be read by historians, political scientists, sociologists, and Jewish studies specialists.

In den Jahren 1985 und 1986 wurde die Offentlichkeit durch eine Hau fung antisemitischer Vorfalle in der Bundesrepublik und in Osterreich aufgeschreckt. Besonders die heftige Auseinandersetzung um die Prasi dentschaftswahl in Osterreich machte in Polemiken und Leserbriefen sichtbar, dass antijudische Ressentiments vorhanden und mobilisierbar sind. Da die Grosse dieses Potentials unbekannt war, entsprechende Umfragen lagen mehr als ein Jahrzehnt zuruck, nahm die Anti-Defa mation League (ADL), New York, mit osterreichischen und deutschen Forschungseinrichtungen Kontakt auf, um Antworten auf diese Frage zu erhalten. Die ADL-Direktoren Abraham H. Foxman und Theodore Freedman traten 1986 mit der Bitte an Professor Dr. Herbert A. Strauss, den Lei ter des Zentrums fur Antisemitismusforschung der Technischen Uni versitat Berlin, heran, die wissenschaftliche Konzeption fur eine Re prasentativbefragung zum gegenwartigen Antisemitismus in der Bun desrepublik Deutschland auszuarbeiten. Ohne die Initiative und die Finanzierung der ADL, fur die wir hiermit danken, ware es dem Zen trum fur Antisemitismusforschung nicht moglich gewesen, ein derartig umfangreiches und teures Forschungsprojekt in Angriff zu nehmen. Das Recht, die Daten der Umfrage einer eigenen Auswertung zu unter ziehen, verschaffte dem Zentrum die empirische Basis, seine Forschun gen zum Antisemitismus erstmals auch auf die Gegenwart auszudeh nen."

Since unification, Germany has undergone profound changes, including the reawakening of xenophobic hate crime, anti-Semitic incidents, and racist violence. This book will present the most recent findings on German public opinion, private attitudes, official policies, and right wing political developments. It will examine the dimensions, sources of, and remedies to anti-Semitism and xenophobia.

Since unification, Germany has experienced profound changes, including the reawakening of xenophobic hate crime, antisemitic incidents, and racist violence. This book presents the most recent research conducted by a team of American and German experts in political science, sociology, mass communication, and history. They analyze the degrees of antisemitism, xenophobia, remembrance, and Holocaust knowledge in German public opinion; the groups and organizations that propagate such prejudice and hate; and the German, American, and Jewish perceptions of, and reactions to, these phenomena.