HISTORY AND CURRENT PERCEPTIONS OF GERMANY
569
Gennans might share.
The potential to come to grips with the psychological problems
brought about by unification is low. In the West one can observe uncer–
tainties of political judgment and a shift to the political right. The polit–
ical left is devalued. There are many aspects of individual identity crises
which indicate that the negative identification with oneself as German
influences the manner in which societal problems should be coped with.
To expect that the Western economy was capable of integrating the
population of the fonner GDR socially and culturally is, at least in part,
erroneous. Western economics and Eastern values, such as justice, solidar–
ity, and morale, emphatically clashed in a confrontation whose dynamics
remain unresolved.
There is much difference between the National Socialist period
which all Gennans shared and the period during which East Germany
constituted, within the Communist bloc, a political system on the basis
of socialist values and a centralist state with a social structure of relatively
low complexity. These two periods become one period when, as a con–
sequence of economic preferences, the differences are leveled. Thus, the
rest is open to irrational influences. In this sense, the Eastern part of
Gennany has to carry alone the burden of a past which both share.
Indications of crisis in the West, especially fear of disadvantages and
impoverishment, and indications of crisis in the East, especially disap–
pointment with devalued ideals, constitute a common basis. This basis
generates non-rational patterns of reaction which have become a subject
for international attention. But attempts to find the roots of right ex–
tremism in the East while declaring its manifestations in the West to be a
sort of contagion have been proven wrong.
Right-wing extremism is characterized by attitudes, activities and vio–
lence towards the weak and defenseless sectors of the population. The
beliefS of right extremists are symbolized in National Socialist phrases and
emblems. Their ability to provoke demonstrations is based on identifica–
tion with a period of history that was denied and de-realized - in the
East as much as in the West. Anti-Semitism and the marginalization of
ethnic groups and non-Gennans represent latent fascist roots. The prone–
ness to National Socialist attitudes was repressed in both societies. But
they did not lose their explosiveness. I expect that right extremism will
remain our steady companion and will produce its own fellow travelers,
as long as Germans are not able to explore their relationship to their
guilt. However, unless we build a political identity as Germans, we
might not ever learn to cope with our past on rational grounds.
Annie Cohen-Solal: I
am going to speak about the view from France
